The Wake-Up Call

The Wake-Up Call

Will Madison woke up way too early on the morning of his first spring break ever. He was finally in first grade and the year had been a long one so far.  No naps in first grade, but boy did he have homework, two nights a week.  He needed to sleep late just once on a weekday.  But sleeping late was not going to happen this morning.

He woke up to the sound of someone banging on the window of his room on the second floor.  It was a loud, sharp tap that sounded like someone was hammering right over his head.  He knew he should have picked the bed by the wall.  His three year old baby brother moved in last month and he had to have the wall next to the bed so he wouldn’t fall out.  Now, here was this monster thing trying to get in his room and his little brother was climbing under his covers.

“I scared, Will.”  Jack had wiggled down to Will’s toes by the time he finished that sentence. 

Will, brave and strong now that he was almost seven, volunteered to open the shades and see who was trying to get in.  Just as the shade lifted, he saw a huge black crow standing on the windowsill.  It stared right into Will’s eyes. 

“Aahhhhh.”  Will nearly peed in his pants.  He was glad he didn’t, but nobody would have blamed him.  That bird was creepy, how he scanned the room with his beady little black eyes.  He even turned his head to look all around the room.
Just then, that bird let out a squawk that pierced his eardrums like that weather siren that goes off the first Tuesday each month and then he just flew away. 

“You can come out now, Jack.  It’s gone.  It was just a crow.”

“I don’t like them, Will.  I still scared.” 

“C’mon Jack, we gotta get ready to go to Opa’s house.”  Will pulled the covers off Jack and tried to get him to get off the bed.  He would not budge. 

“No, I not going.  I in bad moon, Will.”  Jack had the sheet covering his head and was not going anywhere.

“Okay, Jack, but I’m going to Opa’s and I’m going to paint like Vincent Van Gogh ‘cause Opa said he’d teach me how.  You can stay here and be a grouch, but I’m going to get my clothes on.”  Will left Jack still pouting on the bed by the window.  “Hey Jack, if that crow comes back, he’ll be on that window right over your head.”

“Wait, don’t leave me.  I go Opa’s too.  I paint too.”  Jack scrambled to catch up with his big brother.  “What you paint, Will?”

“I’m going to paint sunflowers like that painting Vincent Van Gogh did.  Remember, when Gammye read that book about Van Gogh and we saw those pictures of windmills and that one with all the stars and trees on it.  What do you want to paint, Jack?”

“I not want to paint flowers. I paint trees at Opa’s.  I paint a boat too.”

Will grinned as he messed up his little brother’s hair.  “Okay, Jack, you can paint a tree and a boat.  C’mon, let’s wake up Mom and Dad." 

“Wake up!” Both boys yelled as they pounced on the king sized bed, wrangling themselves under the covers between their Mom and Dad. 

“Be still, boys.  It’s still dark outside.  Go back to sleep.”  Both parents had a knack for speaking at the same time."

“Daddy, a crow woke us up and was banging on the window, so I opened the shade  and it made this loud noise and I almost peed in my pants, but I didn’t.  Then Jack wouldn’t get off the bed ‘cause he was scared and we want to get our clothes on so we can go to Opa’s.”  Will finally had to stop talking just to breathe. 

“I gonna paint at Opa’s, Mommy.  Will’s gonna paint flowers.  I gonna paint a tree and a boat, Daddy. 

Just then, the alarm clock went off.  Jack shimmied all the way under the covers again, muttering, “too loud, too loud.” 

“C’mon Jack, let’s go watch T.V. so they can get their sleep. We don’t want them in a bad mood today.”

“I not in bad moon, Will.  I in good moon now.”

As they left the bedroom, Will thought he could hear his parents giggling from behind the door.  He was going to have the best spring break ever.  He just hoped Gammye and Opa didn’t have any crows at their house.


SWPoet
771 Words

Contest entry requiring the inclusion of six words: windmill, siren, grouch, crow, sunflower, and nobody.