To Be Continued.......

"Mooooooooom. I'm borrrrrrrrrrrrrrred!"

Emmajane stomped into the kitchen where her mother was reading the Travel & Leisure section and painting her toenails in Pumpkin.

She gave her mother the most dreadful look she could muster, the one she'd seen so many times in that commercial about the cough syrup with the little boy in blue pajamas.

She waited, frozen, with that dreadful cough syrup look on her face.

"Mom?"

"Yes, yes, Emma. Did you know that Mommy and Daddy can get a flight to Tuscany for under $400? I wonder if that's the first class rate....."

Emmajane squinted her eyes, balled her fists, and took a deep breath. It was time for Plan B.

"MMOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYYYYY!"

"Fried pickles and jam, Emmajane! Look what you made me do! My toes are a mess and I spilled coffee all over my paper! What is it?"

"I SAID, " Emmajane started loudly, but grew softer as she noticed the pulsing vein in her mother's neck and the beet color that now shaded her face. "I'm bored."

"You're bored. With all of your toys and games and puzzles. You're bored."

"I've played with those already," she said, beginning to tear up.

"Well then, why don't you go outside and play? Go see if Ruston and Brady want to play."

Ruston and Brady were the neighbor boys down the street. They played tag together and Super Mario Brothers, and even dress-up, although she wasn't supposed to tell anyone about that. Ruston made her swear with her spit and blood. It hadn't really hurt when he pricked her finger with the safety pin. But he'd kept the EZ-Mart napkin she'd bled on and swore that he'd tell what they'd done if she spoke a word of the pink heels and eyeshadow. She wasn't sure how her mother felt about making swears with your own blood, and she decided she didn't want to find out anytime soon.

"Fine. I'll go."

"I'll call you for dinner."

Emmajane pouted as she slipped on her pink jellies and slammed the front door.

"Emmajane!" Her mother shouted as Emmajane ran down the gravel driveway. "Don't you slam this door again, or I'll whoop you!"

Emmajane ran until her mother was out of sight and then stopped to survey the neighborhood. She didn't want to play with Ruston and Brady today. They had hurt her feelings yesterday by playing with their wrestling man pillows while making her be the scorekeeper.

"I wanna be Hulk Grogan next!"

"It's Hulk Hogan, stupid!" Ruston laughed.

"Yeah, girls don't know anything about wrestling. Why don't you go play with your Barbies!" Brady had teased.

Well, Emmajane would just play in the woods by herself today. She didn't need those boys telling her what to do.

She scanned the houses on the street. Things looked pretty quiet. Mr. Taber was out trimming his hedges with his new electric trimmer that was the envy of the neighborhood. She heard her father talking about it last night at dinner.

"Thing'll cut twigs and branches in half the time!"

"Honestly, Bill. What's it, like, $24.95 at Sears? No, sir. That'll buy us new hats for our trip next month. You've got to protect your skin, Bill. You know what the doctor said about those spots on your face."

"Well, I'd be out in the sun a lot less, Francine, if you didn't insist on me hand chopping every single bushy twig in our yard!"

You know. Father had a point. Mr. Taber was already done trimming and was now enjoying a glass of pink lemonade on the porch. He waved.

"Hello, Emmajane!"

"Hi, Mr. Taber." I said as I walked quickly past his yard, careful to keep my voice low in case the boys were anywhere lurking.

The woods were ahead of me now, on my left. If those boys were anywhere, they'd be in Brady's fort, just before the woods. I stopped and listened. There was a lawnmower in the distance.....a cow....but no boys. I sprinted the rest of the way.

The smell of honeysuckle and pine needles greeted me at the edge of the woods.