The cheerful strumming of guitars and banjos filled the basement as Tom T. Hall sang a playful warning to watch out for a sneaky snake who steals root beer.
Five-year-old Charlie stretched in his bed and yawned, clutching Winston, his bedraggled black stuffed pig. He gazed up at the glow-in-the-dark stars and planets on his ceiling, then directed his gaze to Mars.
"This is Spaceman Zenon wepowting. We have successfuwy wanded on a new pwanet, which we awe cwaiming in the name of Pwincess Zeeba of Maws. We awe now gonna scout the awea foh intewigent wife fohms, oveh!"
"10-4 Spaceman Zenon. You may pwoceed. Oveh!"
"Woger that! I'm exiting the ship. Oveh!"
Charlie tossed his bedspread with colorful dinosaurs aside and shivered a little in his Marvin the Martian underwear as he stepped on the dinosaur rug by his bed and took a deep breath.
"Thewe appeahs to be enough oxygen hewe, Winston! Whet's see what we find!"
Sheb Wooley's gleeful celebration of belly buttons was playing now, so Charlie joined in at the top of his lungs until the last "push in..." faded away, then turned the alarm off.
When the song was done, Charlie and Winston knelt on the dinosaur rug by his bed and thanked Heavenly Father for his "mommy and daddy and Amy and Benny and the twees and the biwds and the fwowuhs" and asked Him to "hewp him have a good day. "
Charlie looked over to the picture of Jesus with the little kids taped to the rough cement wall his mom had helped him paint bright blue.
"Pwease take cawe of Benny today, Jesus," Charlie pleaded softly as he walked up to Jesus and gave him a hug. Jesus hugged him back.
He picked up Winston and waded through the pile of clothes on the floor to his rubber snake.
"Mownin' Fwankie! I didn't know you was on the ship!"
"Yessss, ssssuh! Awayssssss weady, ssssuh."
"Good job Fwankie! I knew I could count on you!"
"Thanksssss!"
Charlie draped Frankie around his neck and glanced at the little pellet stove in the corner, excited and nervous to be in charge of it this winter. He hoped he'd remember to feed it and was excited to learn how to start the fire. He loved to watch flames dance.
He leaned over and smelled the bright red and yellow "hybiscut" flowers on his curtain, then looked up at the parrot, whose colors matched the flowers, perched in a tree.
"Aww cweah, Wowa?"
Lola gave a low whistle. "Aww cweah!"
Charlie opened the curtain, walking on the bright carpet squares that his parents had gathered from the lumber yard when he moved into his domain at three. They had offered to get him real carpet, but he liked the patchwork of squares better.
He pattered over to his bathroom and walked through the doorway. A wide grin spread on his face when he got to the toilet. The seat was up. He didn't have to put it down in his bathroom.
Charlie studied his undies and grinned at Marvin the Martian. This particular pair of underwear was his current favorite from the package he had gotten for Christmas from his grandmother. He always referred to her as "Undeweah Gwamma," because of her regular gift of a package of fun undies for Christmas and birthdays. His mom had to sneak this pair away from him so it could get washed semi-regularly.
Charlie dropped his underwear, then carefully placed a toilet paper boat in the bowl and readied his cannon.
"Weady, aim... Fiuh!"
He shot his stream at the boat, grinning as he managed to remain on target– the whole time!
Then he frowned. He still didn't sink the boat. He shrugged. Maybe next time?
With a quick pull of a lever, the boat was sucked into a whirlpool with a big "slurp!"
"Ha! Gotcha anyway!"
Charlie set Winston on the counter by his sink and flexed in the mirrored door of his medicine cabinet.
"I'm gettin' bigguh, Winston!"
He looked down at his chest and pointed to the shallow, pale scrapes against his tan skin.
"I got these ones cwimbin' up ta the tweehouse. And this one..." he pointed to the angry purple gash on his side, "was when I cwashed my bike on that awesome big jump!"
His finger traced the scrapes on his legs. "I don't wemembeh where I got these. Guess I'ww have ta get some more so I can teww you 'bout em!"
Charlie picked up a yellow and red rock from the colorful pile of rocks on the counter that were sitting in a puddle of mud.
"Yeah, this cweaned up nice, didn't it? Wayne said it's called jaspuh."
After he set the jasper down, Charlie pulled his undies up, then picked up Winston and continued on his way through his domain.
He paused by his table that he'd talked his parents into getting him at "Trash to Treasures," the thrift store in town. He loved that store, with all of its fun little trinkets. He still wasn't sure about Mary, the owner. Rich, his dad, didn't seem comfortable around her either. She was a funny old lady who wore crazy dresses and a wide-brimmed hat with a barn owl perched on it. Charlie enjoyed the spicy gingersnaps she handed out, but the way she looked at him and the strange questions she asked made him a little uneasy. Curtis at church said she was a witch. This always confused Charlie, because she went to their church too. She even sang in the choir. He was pretty sure that witches didn't go to church and sing in choirs.
Charlie and Winston glanced at their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles puzzle and added a few pieces to Donatello. Charlie was pretty sure he wanted to be a hero and protect good people from bad guys when he grew up.
He gazed at the crystals forming in little plastic cups. Some were from the kit he got for Christmas. Some were forming in cups filled with calcite and bubbly vinegar. Wayne had told him how to do that.
"Do you think they gwew a wittuw since yestewday, Winston?"
Winston leaned in close to Charlie's ear, and Charlie nodded.
"Yeah, I'm not sure eitheh. I wish they'd huwwy! Why's it take so wong foh some things to gwow?"
He wandered over to the pile of Jenga blocks on a copy of Sky and Earth (A Child's First Library of Learning).
"Whet's see how wong it takes this time, Winston!"
The blocks clattered to the ground as he lifted the book up. He set the book down, then stood two blocks up and looked at Winston.
"Wemembeh, Winston, Daddy said these awe the posts." He added another on top of the posts.
"And this is the wintew," he finished as he put the lintel in place.
The tower grew as he carefully added three more post-and-lintels on top of the first, making sure that everything was lined up the best he could. When he was finished, he stepped back proudly and admired his work.
"Ok, whet's see if we can do this on the fiwst twy..."
Charlie grabbed another block and set it just next to his tower, then counted as he added more.
"Two, thwee, fouh, five, six, seven."
He pulled back to examine the row of blocks set up like dominoes leading to the tower.
"Hewe goes!"
He tipped the first block and watched the blocks tip onto each other, then onto his tower. The tower wobbled, but held firm.
Charlie grinned with pride. "I buiwt it good!"
He picked up the blocks, set them up at a different angle, and tipped the first block again. This time, the tower wobbled and then collapsed when the last block crashed into it.
Charlie grinned and high-fived Winston.
"We did it, Winston! Only two twies this time!"
A rhythmic humming drew him to the rough wooden door across the room. He grabbed Winston and padded over.
"Do you think the wocks awe getting cwose, Winston?"
Charlie opened the door to the dusty room and pulled the long piece of yarn tied to the chain to turn on the light. A little rock tumbler was spinning and purring happily on a shelf between a can of peaches and a can of green beans, both spattered with grit. Charlie stepped over the train tracks that wound through the canned food-laden shelves.
His parents had signed a treaty with him. He could set up his train and rock tumbler in the little room that had once been a coal room as long as he kept the kitchen stocked with canned food from the pantry and put new cans away after shopping trips.
Charlie turned the little rock tumbler off and picked up the canister. After a bit of a struggle, he managed to get the knob off the top, then pried the outer lid of the canister open with the little screwdriver he kept on the shelf.
"What do ya think, Winston? Think they'we cwoseh?"
Charlie screwed the knob on the inner lid of the canister and pulled it out of the canister, getting gritty brown sludge all over his fingers, then reached into the foamy brown slurry for some rocks. He set them on the shelf one by one, right in front of the baked beans, and frowned. One was shrinking. He wiped the small one off on his underwear. It was the blue-and-white sodalite, one of his favorites. He picked up a larger stone and cleaned it as well. It was the striped, gleaming tiger's eye. He cleaned off another one on his increasingly dirty briefs to reveal a light pink rose quartz.
"Somethin' ain't wight, Winston. I fowowed the diwections, but we ain't gonna have no more sodawite if we keep this up."
He held Winston up to his ear, then nodded.
"Good idea. Wayne would know."
Charlie left the canister in front of the can of peaches and made the rounds, inspecting his train tracks, wiping his hands on his legs and underpants.
Charlie plugged the little black box that controlled the train in and turned the switch to full speed, watching the little black engine spark as it pulled the coal car, the grain car, the box car, and the flat car past houses and shelves and cows and dragons and pigs and martians and horses and dinosaurs.
A Trachodon was peacefully eating a plastic tree near the tracks. A Tyrannosaurus Rex noticed it and started sneaking over, passing an Ankylosaur. The Ankylosaur noticed what was going on and quietly crept up behind the T. Rex. When the T. Rex stopped to watch its prey, the Ankylosaur smashed its clubbed tail into the beast's ankles, breaking its legs. The T.Rex roared in pain as it crashed into the ground, scaring the Trachodon away. The Ankylosaur moved in on the T. Rex and smashed its skull with its clubbed tail.
"Take that, T-Wex! You ain't gonna huwt nobody no mowe!"
Charlie's tummy started grumbling.
"Whet's get some food, Winston! I've got a wumbwy tumbwy!"
Charlie turned the train off and unplugged the control box. He grabbed a can of corn just in case he needed to add something to the cupboard upstairs, then he, Frankie, and Winston left the coal room and headed towards the door that served as the entrance to his domain.
Charlie opened the door and grinned at the sign on the other side. "Warinign. Boyz teratori. Enter at ur own risk," was scrawled in red crayon on blue construction paper. He'd "wote it all by his sewf!"
As Charlie headed up the stairs, he could hear 11-year-old Amy practicing the steady rhythm of the "Washerwoman" on the piano. He decided to join in the music and started singin' Sheb Wooley's song 'bout how "evewybody's got a bewwy button!" at the top of his lungs.
He came up to the mudroom, past the washer and dryer, and opened the door into the kitchen, announcing his presence with the chorus of the "Belly button" song.
After setting the can of corn on the table, he wandered into the living room, where the "Washerwoman" was coming, louder than before.
The "Belly Button song" rose to meet the "Washerwoman" until Amy gave up and tackled her obnoxious little brother, pinning him to the ground. Charlie twisted and turned, giggling as Amy tickled his tummy. He squealed until he choked out a desperate "Uncoh! Uncoh!"
Amy laughed. "Did you say 'Uncle'? I can't tell!"
Charlie pouted. "Yes! That's what I said! It ain't my fauwt I can't say those stupid wettuhs wight. You know I'm twiying!"
Amy ruffled his wild, long hair. "I know." She hoped he'd figure it out before school started. Otherwise, he was in for a tough year.
Amy walked back to the piano, where she started plucking out the tune to the "Belly Button" song. Charlie cheered and started singing along as he jumped on the old brown couch with the white and yellow flowers, then did a somersault off of it. He noticed that Amy was too busy at the piano to pay attention, so he snuck over to the exposed log wall and started climbing up it, sticking his fingers and toes into the bright orange foam that served as chinking. He was still singing along to Amy's playing when he called out from his perch on top of the entertainment center, his feet dangling in front of the TV/VCR combo.
"Hi Amy!"
Amy stopped playing and looked behind her.
"Charles Richard! You get down from there right now! You know you aren't supposed to be up there!"
Charlie stuck out his tongue.
Amy put her hands on her hips. "I'm going to get mom."
Charlie wrinkled his nose. "Fine." He swung his legs and leaped off the entertainment center, almost hitting Amy as he landed with a bang and did a somersault on landing.
Amy shook her head. "You really need to go outside!"
Charlie opened the front door.
Amy grabbed his shoulder. "Hold on. Have you eaten breakfast yet?"
"No..." Charlie mumbled.
Amy sighed. "Ok, let me help you get something."
Charlie stamped his foot. "No! I can do it aww by mysewf!"
Amy shook her head. "Whatever." She sat down at the piano, flipped the page, and started playing "Ode to Joy."
Charlie started singing the Belly Button song again as he gathered Winston and Frankie from the floor where they had fallen from the tickle battle and headed to the kitchen, looking up at the family picture hanging above the piano with his mom, dad, and Amy standing behind him. He was holding Butterfield Bear, whom he had planned on giving to Benny when he was born. The bear was now perched on the piano so Benny could still be a part of the family. Winston had taken Butterfield's place as Charlie's favorite stuffed animal after this.