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Samantha?
“Dennis calling Samantha. Are you there Samantha?” Dennis spoke into the radio for the fifth time that morning. “Samantha I need to tell you something, answer me.”
Tara came up behind him. “Still no answer?” she asked.
Dennis turned to her, his eyes watery. “No. She hasn’t answered me all morning. Do you think the Monsters got her?”
She hugged him closely, “I’m sure she’s fine. Maybe they’re too far away right now.”
“I should have called Samantha right after Tammy got away. Then she would have known to watch out for Monsters. If the Monsters got her it will be all my fault,” he cried.
“Don’t say that. Samantha will be alright. She said she’d be a few days, didn’t she?”
Dennis nodded, rubbing the tears from his eyes. “Yeah she’s probably rounding up soldiers right now to help her come get us. But we’ll keep trying to call her all day.”
“And all night if we have to,” Tara agreed.
He put the radio down, giving it one last, longing, look. He hoped Tara was right, and Samantha was ok. If she wasn’t, Dennis didn’t know what they would do. They’d definitely have to go out and get more food. Which was the last thing Dennis wanted to do. The Monsters out there were way to scary and nasty.
Samantha had to get them.
“Dennis how many juice boxes do we have left?” Tara asked suddenly.
“Three more. Why?” he asked.
“Samantha might not be here until tomorrow or even the next day. We shouldn’t drink anymore,” she paused for a second thinking. “Unless we get really thirsty of course. We can have one then,” she added.
Dennis, who had been thinking about getting the last grape juice, stopped. “I guess you’re right,” he said sulkily. “But we’ll drink the last one right before my sister gets here. That way we’re not thirsty when we have to go outside.”
“So what should we do now?” Dennis asked, bored.
Tara looked around. “We could paint the fort. Oh,” she said disappointedly, “we don’t have any water for the paint. How about we play house?”
He curled his nose up. “Playing house is for girls.”
“Well I am a girl, and I want to play it,” she retorted.
Looking around the room, Dennis tried to think of anything that would be better than playing house. “How about you tell me what the North Pole is like?” he finally asked.
“Ok. Sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.”
They both sat on the floor. Tara sat on a pillow, carefully tucking her brown skirt under her so that it wouldn’t be right on the dusty floor. Dennis, less concerned about the pink jeans and unicorn sweater he was wearing, sat cross legged on the floor. They both sneezed as the dust rose up around them.
Brushing her long brown bangs from her eyes, she cleared her throat. “Lets see. I told you last night that my Dad looks after the reindeer, and that my Mom looks over the books for Santa. Right now its daylight all the time up there. It’s only night for like half an hour.” She giggled as Dennis stared at her his eyes wide in wonder. He’d heard on tv about that stuff, but he hadn’t really believed it.
“In winter, its night time forever. But the Northern Lights light everything up constantly. Like a big disco light. It‘s so bright its almost impossible to sleep. It also gets really cold up there. But Santa made it so that the village is always kind of warm.”
“How does he do that?” Dennis asked in a whisper.
She leaned forward and whispered back at him, “Magic. Every year we have a big party on the fourth of July, and Santa sings a song. That keeps everything safe and warm up there.” She smiled and closed her eyes briefly. “It’s all wonderful. In summer it only rains at night, so we can play all day. And in Winter the snow is always perfect for snowballs. And there is never a blizzard, or nasty wind.
“Every day we have candy canes, and cookies for dessert. And we only have to go to school for half the day. So all the kids have the rest of the day to play. And we get comic books for free.”
“We don’t get anything like that here,” Dennis moped.
“And that’s why the North Pole is a much nicer place,” she replied.
Dennis couldn’t argue with that. “So what are the reindeer like? Does Rudolph’s nose really glow?”
“Samantha, are you there?” Dennis spoke desperately into the radio. “Samantha the Monsters know you’re coming. Answer me. They’ll be waiting for you. Where are you?”
They waited, holding each others hands, praying that someone would answer. Nothing came from the radio. Except for the sound of their breathing, and a few half hearted moans from the Monsters downstairs the attic was quiet as a tomb.
“We should go to bed now,” Tara said softly. “We can try calling her again tomorrow.”
Dennis didn’t bother answering, laying down without a word. He clutched the radio in front of him. As he lay in the darkness with Tara behind him, he pressed the button every few minutes. Quietly he would repeat the same words over and over again, “Samantha can you hear me.”
No one answered him.
Dennis immediately picked up the radio. “Samantha you there,” he croaked.
“Dennis?” a male voice gasped.
“Sid! You’re alright!” Dennis exclaimed.
“Not really. We were heading to your place to pick you up. But the Monsters ambushed us.”
Dennis dropped the radio in horror. His body felt numb.
Sid kept talking. “There were too many of them. They nearly got me, so I’m not going to be able to do much anytime soon. And I got separated from everyone again,” he said in disgust.
Tara lunged for the radio. “What about Samantha? Did she get away to?” she demanded.
“Yeah, she got clear. I saw her car heading down the road. The Monsters couldn’t keep up, and they were mostly coming after me.” There was a brief pause. “I’m sorry Dennis. We’re going to have to wait a while before we can pick you up.”
Dennis saw his arms moving. His body was still numb, he couldn’t feel anything past his neck. He saw his hands moving, very slowly, very carefully. Sid said something else, but he couldn’t hear it. All of his attention was focused on his hands as they took the radio from Tara’s hand. She held the radio briefly, it looked like she wanted to talk to Sid still. But Dennis jerked it from her grip.
Still unable to hear anything, he watched, fascinated, as his hands threw the radio across the room. From the corner of his eye, he couldn’t turn his head, he saw it hit the Christmas tree shattering some of the ornaments.
“This. Is. All. Your. Fault,” he said each word distinctly and slowly, as he stared straight into Tara’s eyes.
“W-what do you mean?” she asked confused.
“You stopped me from killing Tammy when I had the chance. She told the Monsters that my sister was coming. So they waited for her, and now she can’t come to pick me up. This is all your fault,” he spat the words out.
Dennis could move now. His body was under his control once more. His ears heard Sid saying something over the radio. It sounded like ‘stop’. Dennis didn’t care what Sid had to say. Not right now. He focused his attention entirely on Tara.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Tara protested. “I came back from the North Pole and all I knew was someone was beating someone else to death. This isn’t my fault!”
“IT IS SO!” Dennis shrieked. “If you had stayed out of my way I’d be with my sister right now. Instead I’m stuck in a shitty attic.” Dennis knew he wasn’t suppose to use that word. He just didn’t care anymore.
“If you had killed her, Santa wouldn’t let you come to the North Pole. He can’t let evil people come in.”
“I don’t care!” he raged. “I don’t want to get out of this attic at Christmas. I want to get out of it now. And Samantha was almost killed, because I was a stupid little kid. I told Tammy that Samantha was coming. I didn’t kill her when I had the chance. I was stupid.”
“Don’t say that!” Tara yelled back at him, wiping away the tears on her face. “You’re not stupid, and this isn’t anyone’s fault. Tammy did it, not you or me. So stop yelling at me.”
“NO! I won’t stop yelling! I want you out of my house. All you do is eat my food, and played with my toys. And all you’ve done is order me around, and made my sister have to run away. GET OUT!”
“Dennis, listen to me,” she tried to protest.
Dennis covered his ears and started yelling senselessly to drown her out. He watched as Tara grabbed her dress and headed to the chimney, still in her pyjama’s. Gasping for breath he watched as she crawled into a small hole at the side of the chimney and vanished.
She hadn’t looked back.
Dennis finally noticed the tears on his face, the snot running down his nose, and the sobs that racked his body. He threw himself down on the bed and cried.
