W H A T T H E Y W A N T Y O U T O B E L I E V E
I got home and was surprised by all my friends, Mom holding a cake out to me beckoning me to blow out the candles.
“Happy birthday, Danny!” Mom cried, her blue eyes glowing. She still had her computer glasses on, and a pen resting on her ear.
She must have been working on something…
“Well, aren’t you going to make a wish?” My friend Andy nudged me.
I laughed. “Sure,” I took a step forward and in one breath, blew out the seventeen glittery white candles that formed around the cake in a circle. Everyone clapped and embarrassed me, and I dipped my finger in the gooey icing.
“Ooh, chocolate!” I exclaimed, causing more laughter.
That night, me and Andy sat outside in the grass, just as the stars were beginning to appear.
“You like the cake?” He asked me, licking his finger.
“You kidding? It was awesome.”
“What did you like more? The drone or the air-pilot manual?”
“I don’t know, I really liked the dictionary from Aunt Samantha.”
The two of us laughed and laid down on our backs.
“Nights like these—perfecto.”
I took a deep breath. “You’re right. There’s nothing more normal and perfect than right now,” I tried to sound alright, but my voice held hesitation that I couldn’t control.
Andy looked at me, his brown curls in the grass. “Daniel?”
“Hm?”
“Is something wrong?”
Wrong? What could I say to that?
“Wrong? What do you mean?”
“You seem…quiet. You’re never quiet.”
“Nuh uh. You’re the loud one.”
“Yeah right,” Andy shifted his one hand behind his head to the other one.
“Actually, there is something.”
“I knew it.” Andy stared at me. “Spill.”
I leaned on my side and twiddled with my fingers. “I think my parents are up to something.”
“What, like a vacation?”
“No, no—I mean I think we’re in danger. I think…I’m in danger?”
Andy looked at me like I grew a third eye. “How do you figure that? We have a great government system who actually takes care of us. How could anything dangerous be here? Threatening you…?”
I dwelled on his theory about the government. “You really believe that?”
“Believe what?”
“About the government…”
Andy shrugged. “Course. Don’t you?”
I opened my mouth but no words came. “I guess I never really thought about them,” I mumbled, plucking a stem of grass. My eyes rested on nothing, just the grass lit by the deck lights.
“Danny,” Andy tried to look me in the eye and finally I did so. “What’s going on?”
“I saw Mom and Dad in the basement. They were working on something in a secret room I never saw before. And there were these weird neon lights flashing and—”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. The basement? Not even your Christmas decorations go down there.” Andy hugged himself. “It’s creepy.”
I suddenly came to the conclusion of something. “That’s why we never went downstairs. They might’ve been doing this all along!”
“Doing what?” He snapped.
I looked up at him a little surprised.
“Sorry, it’s just—why would you think anything against them?”
I sighed. “Because my parents. I heard them say, something like, my life depends on it.”
Andy looked at me curiously. “You’re sure you heard that? And it was about you?”
“I’m almost positive. All this—” I motioned my hand around the yard, “this is what they want you to believe. But I don’t think it’s real. I think they’re working backstage.”
“Interesting theory.”
“Look, I know it sounds crazy. But I think I’m onto something. And I aim to find out what.”
“I’m in,” he shrugged.
I stared at him. “Wait, you believe me? And-and you’re in? For real?”
“What’s wrong with a little adventure every now and then?”
I grinned. “Not a thing.”
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