Little Barry Berra bounced up and down on the lifeless couch, ignoring the angry protests from the battered springs.

“Really Mama? Goldilocks is gonna visit us?”

His mother Mary caught him mid-bounce and

set his sneakered feet on the worn brown carpet, then

shifted the laundry basket on her hip.

“Yes she’s going to visit us. Your aunt is going

to be staying in Omaha for the weekend to see some people from work, so Goldilocks is staying with us. Now stop using the furniture as a trampoline or jungle gym and help me clean the house.”

Once she had left the room, Barry stuck out his tongue.

“And if you stick your tongue out at me I’ll have you in bed by four every night for a week,” Mary called in from the kitchen. Barry snapped his tongue into his mouth and dashed up to his room. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have his favorite cousin come see him fro the whole weekend. THUD! He kicked a soccer ball at the sky blue wall. Goldilocks wasn’t afraid to get muddy like his other cousins. THUD! She always stayed up late playing videogames with him after bedtime. THUD! She didn’t get nightmares from the horror movies he picked out.

“Barry Berra! You stop kicking that soccer ball at once!”

“Yes Mama!” Barry yelled to his mom, giving the ball one more kick before pushing the power button on his T.V.

* * *

Meanwhile, Goldilocks was packing her suitcase. She didn’t’ bother with folding; instead, she simply tossed her pre-wrinkled clothes into the growing heap before she finally struggled to zip it up. She nodded at her handiwork and then yanked the abused suitcase down the precarious wooden stairs.

“I’m done packing Mom,” she announced. She was surprised to see her mom without a cell phone or headset in her ear. The familiar

beep of her mom’s cell phone immediately rang

demandingly. Goldilocks roller her eyes and dragged

her suitcase out the door. When she slammed the trunk

closed and climbed into the backseat, her mother was

just locking up the house, arguing loudly with the person

on the other end of the phone. Goldilocks sighed and

looked out the other window at the flourishing trees.

As they pulled out of the driveway, she thought of the fun she’d have with her favorite cousin Barry. He would play soccer and tell gross jokes and have burping contests at dinner with her. Her aunt and uncle would ask how school was going and what was new with her and her friends. They would ask what movies she wanted to see and buy her favorite ice cream.

She smiled as she sank deeper into the leather seat, closed her eyes, and dreamed of happiness.

Several painstakingly slow hours later, Goldilocks awoke to find they were almost to Barry’s house. After a quick question squeezed between her mother’s phone conversations, she found she had to wait just five more minutes until she was in the cheerful Berra household.

* * *

Barry Berra watched restlessly out the living room window for a gleaming grey sports car. After several false alarms, such a car drove into the winding dirt driveway, sending Barry into fits of exclamations and jumping.

“Mom! Mom! She’s here! She’s finally here!”

The couch groaned under all the pressure until Barry sprung off it and flew outside, waving his arms madly. Goldilocks’ blonde curls popped out of the back seat, followed by her excited smile. Even though she was wearing flip-flops, she still ran over to Barry, as thrilled as he was, and threw her arms around him. The two wobbled and almost toppled over, but then broke away.

“Heya Barry! I haven’t seen you in a long time!” Goldilocks was bouncing up and down from all the excitement, her cheeks flushed.

“Goldilocks, honey, could you come get your suitcase please?”

Goldilocks rolled her eyes and went to grab her suitcase from her mother. She said a quick goodbye and gave a quick hug before rushing back over to Barry.

“Goldilocks, guess what?” Barry said. “My soccer team came in first at the tournament last weekend!”

They went into the house, chatting animatedly about soccer.

* * *

The first few days were wonderful. Mary and Larry Berra fawned over Goldilocks and made her favorite dish: spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread. She and Berry shared a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and stayed up past midnight watching horror movies such as “The Ring” and “The Grudge.” When morning came, fresh doughnuts were on the kitchen table, just asking to be eaten by two hungry children. The Berras took Goldilocks to a river where they swam and jumped off rocks into the cool water. Afterwards they went to a diner and ordered pepperoni sandwiches, which they ate slowly as they shared stories and jokes and made plans for the rest of the weekend.

That night, as Goldilocks and Barry were

watching cartoons in the living room, Mary and

Larry declared they were going to go run errands.

They kissed the two children on the heads and

then headed out the door.

Half and hour later, Goldilocks yawned and claimed she was exhausted from their movie night the previous night. She gave Barry a hug and went upstairs to sleep.

Barry began to grow bored of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, so he began to look around for something else to do. He decided that what he needed was a snack, so he headed over to the fridge. And lo and behold, sitting atop the fridge was the biggest bowl of chocolate pudding he had ever seen. His mouth watered just looking at it, and suddenly he knew what he wanted to spend the rest of the night doing. He just had to eat that pudding.

But he was too short. How would he

reach the pudding when it was on top of the

refrigerator? He scanned the room quickly and found what he was looking for: a chair. His parent’s chairs were too tall and heavy for Barry to drag across the kitchen, so he lugged his own over to the fridge, made sure it was steady, and climbed cautiously onto it. The pudding was just in reach now. He reached up his small arms and grasped the sides of the glass bowl and attempted to gently bring the bowl down. The bowl, however, weighed more than it looked, and Barry was sent crashing right through the bottom of his chair!

He still managed to save the pudding bowl, but his chair was another story. After he detangled himself from the wooden frame, he inspected the damage; his chair was completely ruined, and his parents would be furious with him. His worry was fleeting, though, as he remembered the colossal bowl of pudding in his hands. He carried it into the living room, set it on the coffee table, and returned to the kitchen to retrieve a spoon. Sitting on the living room couch once more, Barry began to demolish the pudding spoonful by spoonful.

Half an hour later, the pudding gone, Barry remembered something his mom said to Goldilocks and him earlier: the pudding was for the going-away party they were throwing for Goldilocks tomorrow. He panicked and searched the room wildly, as if looking for the solution in the stained wood walls or the burgundy couch.

From upstairs, Goldilocks began mumbling in her sleep. Barry stood unmoving for a second, listening to her through ceiling, before a mischievous smile began to spread on his chocolate-spotted face. He slipped into her room with the pudding-covered spoon and bowl and began the first step of his plan.

* * *

When Mary and Larry Berra returned home from their errands, grocery bags piled in their arms, they smiled at the sweet silence that greeted them.

“Isn’t that nice?” Mary said. “They’ve worn themselves out.” She and Larry set the heavy groceries on the kitchen counter and began pulling items out of the bags to put away.

“What the heck happened here?” Larry said, milk in hand, as he stood in front of the refrigerator. Mary turned towards her husband and gasped.

“What on earth happened to that chair?” Suddenly it dawned on her, and she looked up. “My pudding! It’s gone!”

Larry went over to Mary and kissed her on the forehead.

“It’s okay Honey; we’ll just make more of it.”

“No! I made that for Goldilocks and now it’s ruined!”

“Well let’s go ask the kids and maybe they can help us make more.”

The Berra parents climbed up the stairs and opened Barry’s door to talk to the sleeping children. They found Goldilocks sleeping in Barry’s bed and Barry sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor, but they didn’t find that interesting. What did surprise them were the pudding bowl on the floor next to Barry’s bed and the incriminating spoon on his bedside table.

Goldilocks mumbled and turned over. Mary’s eyebrows shot up as she noticed the chocolate pudding around the sleeping girl’s mouth. Mary went over to wake her.

“Goldilocks! Goldilocks! Wake up!”

Goldilocks’ eyes opened sleepily.

“What is it Aunty?” She sat up to look at her aunt and noticed the spoon on the bedside table. She was puzzled, but she kept quiet.

“Goldilocks, Honey, didn’t I ask you not to eat the pudding on top of the fridge?” Goldilocks frowned.

“Yes, why?”

“Then why did you eat it?”

Goldilocks looked around the room. The empty pudding bowl lay on the floor beside her. She looked up at her aunt again.

“I didn’t eat it Aunty Mary.” Mary crossed her arms and spoke with a harsher tone.

“Goldilocks, don’t lie to me. The bowl is beside the bed, the spoon is on the bedside table, and you have pudding all over your face.” Goldilocks touched her mouth and pulled her fingers away. She did indeed have pudding on her face, but how?

“Aunty, I’ve been sleeping the whole time! I don’t know how I got pudding on me.” She saw her aunt’s face grow darker, so she offered a highly unlikely situation. “Maybe I was sleep walking?”

“I cannot believe you would make up such awful lies! Didn’t your mother teach you that lying is wrong?” She glared at her niece. “I’ll give you one more chance to tell the truth. Did you eat that pudding?”

Goldilocks began to cry. “I didn’t Aunty! I didn’t!”

“Then you leave me no choice.” Mary stormed out of the room and picked up the nearest phone. Goldilocks could hear her aunt talking to her mother but couldn’t make out what she was saying. Larry merely stood in the doorway and shook his head disappointedly. Mary called him downstairs for a quick conference.

Barry opened his eyes. He had cleaned his face perfectly, planted the evidence, and stayed out of trouble, and he grinned at Goldilocks.

“You’re in so much trouble.”

“Shut up! I didn’t eat that pudding! I couldn’t even reach it!”

“That’s why you used my chair. You broke the bottom of it too, but you still just ate that pudding. Why would you do that?” He grinned evilly. His cousin’s blue eyes grew wider as she realized what had happened. He chuckled, knowing full well his mother wouldn’t believe her if she told. When his parent’s footsteps returned up the stairs, he ducked his head back down and pretended to be asleep, flashing Goldilocks his devilish grin one last time.

The second Mary walked into the room, Goldilocks began to protest.

“Aunty Mary! It was Barry! He ate it and planted all the evidence so it would look like I did it!” Her pleas only made her aunt angrier.

“Get out of bed and pack your things. Your mother is picking you up first thing tomorrow morning.” She swept out of the room, angrily discussing that evening’s apparent events. Goldilocks cried herself to sleep.

The next morning, the tension in the Berra household hung over the family like a funeral shroud. Nobody spoke throughout the entire morning except when Goldilocks’ mother arrived. The girl hung her golden head as she ducked out of the house and into the car. She and Barry didn’t even say goodbye.

“Really? She blamed it on Barry? I don’t know why she would do that; I never taught her to be like that. Oh hold on, I have a call. Talk to you later.” Goldilocks’ mother gave Mary a quick hug and left, her cell phone held fast to her ear. Barry looked out the picture window in the living room at the car as it backed

out the driveway. Goldilocks was hidden behind the tinted windows, but he sensed she was looking out those windows at him too. He waved sadly, wishing he had just left the pudding on top of the fridge where he found it.

Years later the two cousins still weren’t allowed to see each other. The most time they had spent together was at their grandfather’s eightieth birthday party, and even then the two families had sat on opposite ends of the table in the restaurant. Not a day had gone by when Barry hadn’t regretted blaming the pudding incident on Goldilocks, though he could never bring himself to tell his parents the truth. He had lost his favorite cousin forever.