Margie was ignoring her momcalling her to get ready to go school supply shopping and was watching TV ontheir ancient, dusty TV. It was the junkiest thing ever, but at least it hadcable and Margie could watch mid-afternoon Meal of Misfortune, her favorite TVshow. She was sitting on the floor of the itsy master bedroom with her backagainst the bed. Sammy was sitting on the bed. He was playing his GameGuyagain. Margie looked up at him.
“Hey, Sammy?” she asked him.Sammy ignored her, completely absorbed in his video game. “Sammy?” she triedagain, “Samuel Green!” She snapped her fingers in his face, but his eyes wereglued to his GameGuy. “SAMMY!” he still ignored her. She did not like videogames. Actually, she hated them. She ripped the video game out of Sammy’shands. “Samuel Green!” he looked at her, then reached and got the game back.Margie sighed in disapproval. She hated videogames. She focused back on her TV show.
The contestant, Kailah, had justanswered an algebra question and it was time to see if she got it right. Shehad chosen answer B. The judges blindfolded her and lifted up the lid to mealB. Underneath it was brussel sprout and egg salad. “Ooh-hoo-hoo! Hee-hee! She’sgoing to get it!” Margie giddily said to herself. The judges took a fork andscooped up some of the disgusting meal. Kailah was smiling in anticipation. Thejudges gave her a big bite with both brussel sprout and a little egg. Kailahimmediately spit it out scraping her tongue with her palms. “Well, that answerwasn’t right. That was terrible!” Margie laughed. She loved this show.
Then something very, very strangehappened. Her fingers started tingling, then her legs, almost her whole body was tingling, but she ignored it. Believe it or not, the television ate Margie. Actually sucked her upand ate her!
It happened like this: Margie felt the floor disappear and wasscared there was a strange earthquake going on and she was falling to thesecond floor. She screamed, “SAMMY! MOM! DAD!” She panicked and was breathingquickly, and then the bed disappeared before her eyes. She couldn’t see Sammyanymore. “SAMMY!! SAMUEL, WHERE ARE YOU?!” She was yelling and tried to standup, but was so scared she couldn’t control her body. She was breathing quicklywith short little breaths. She lost control of her muscles. She started crying.“Sammy... WHERE ARE YOU...?” She thought she had died. The whole world wasblack as night. She felt like she was vibrating, spinning, and falling all atthe same time. Then she saw a light. It was on top of her. It was still andartificial. She felt a hand touch hers. She jerked around, startled. “Sammy!It’s you! You’re here!” she hugged him, then pulled away. He looked frightenedout of his mind. “Margie... I’m scared. What’s going on?” Margie then lost hersmile and looked around at the darkness. She stood up and another man appeared.He was wearing a suit and had a microphone in his hands. Then two men and awoman were there. The woman was blindfolded and the men were taking a fork outof her hands. Next arrived a thousand people sitting down, all laughing. That’swhen she noticed who the woman was.
She gasped, “Kailah.” Her littlebrother looked up. “Who?” She pointed to the woman, “That’s K-K-Kailah...thecontestant on Meal of Misfortune.”
“What?” She looked down at him.“A TV show,” she was annoyed now. “Ohh...now that can’t be good. Why are we ina TV show, Marg?” Now she was especially annoyed. “How am I supposed to know?”she snapped. Then the rest of the show appeared; the lights, the meals, thegame show board and all the signs. The game show host started babbling on abouthow the correct answer was C and about how she can either give up and eat mealC backstage or keep playing but go down a level. Of course Kailah chose to keepplaying. Margie was so absorbed in the game; she expected a Green Gal deodorantcommercial to appear after the host said, “You’ll find out soon, after theseannouncements.”
Instead, the host smiled at thecontestant and turned around slightly glancing at them. Then he turned directlytowards them. “Who are you?” he asked them. “Um... I’m Margie,”Margie replied, “And this is Sammy...my little brother.” He nodded. “Who let you backstage?!” Margie wasbewildered by this question. “Um... I can’t explain that.” The host looked atme angrily, “And why?” Sammy spokeup, “Because it’s a secret!” “Oh, great,” Margie mumbled. The host looked atthem, “A secret, huh? Get out of here! Use you secret and leave!” “We can’t.”Sammy explained.
“WHY?” the host yelled.
“Because there’s no TV!”
“Get out! Now! Security!”
“Oh, now you’ve done it, Sammy.”
“Margie, it’s not my faultthere’s no TV.”
“Sammy!” Margie yelled to herbrother as she was dragged away by a big man in a big black suit. Another manappeared and dragged away Sammy. Margie struggled to get out of the man’s bigbeefy hands. He dropped her outside. “Where is my brother?!” she asked the man.“I don’t know, little kid. Go away.” He waved her off and went inside.
The door swung open and swungshut. After a few seconds Margie ran towards the door and tried to pull itopen. It wouldn’t budge. She tried again. Yep, it was locked. How on earthwould she find Sammy?
Whatam I going to do? Margiethought to herself. She sat down on the concrete sidewalk. Wait. How about I just wait for another person to com outside and grabthe door when they go in.
There was just one problem.Someone would definitely see her. She needed to hide and throw something in theway of the door before the door shut when they went in.
She looked around for a goodhiding place where no one would see her from the door. She found a spot rightnext to the door with a big trash can in front of her and around her. Only ifsomeone moved the trash can would they see her. She had taken off her shoe soshe could quietly throw it between the door and the door frame. She sat for along time.
The trash cans were a silvercolor, so she could see her reflection. She examined it. Her orange-ish hairwas all messed up and dirty from sitting around the trash. Her nose wasdeformed in the roundness of the trash can. It was still pointy, though. Herface was dirty, as well. It resembled a teardrop. She sighed. Her appearancewas a nightmare. She was as pale as a vampire and as dimensional as a cube. Shewasn’t very round. She had sharper features than the rest of her family. Herdad was definitely the closest to her. His face was more of a square, though.Her mom’s and Sammy’s were circles.
Suddenly she jumped. She heardfootsteps and the creaking door opening. She braced herself, realizing shecompletely forgot she was outside. She focused on the plan. She looked at theperson who’d walked outside. It was a janitor.
Wait!She thought. The janitor is outside. That means...uh-oh. He’s here to take the trash to thecurb.
She groaned. The janitor walkedover and lifted the first trash bag out of the can. Then the second. He wouldsee her on the third. She looked down, hoping her wouldn’t notice her if shedidn’t catch his eye. He did. He lifted the trash bag and froze. His eyes werelocked on hers. He looked surprised, obviously not expecting a 13-year-old girlto be sitting behind a trash can.
He dropped the trash bag back inthe trash can. “Wha-what are you do-“ “Please don’t call security!” she saidfranticly, scared she’d have yet another encounter with the security guard. “Iwon’t. Just-just tell me what you’re doing.” The second bewildering question ofthe day. What was she going to say? She was breaking in? Yeah, right.
“I just need to go talk to theproducer. I have a question about the show for my school project. I tripped,trying to go in and, um, lost my key... in the trash.” The janitor nodded. “Iguess I can let you in.” Margie hated lying. It always left her feeling guilty,but she needed to lie. It was the only way to save her brother and get inside.She stood up, “Thank you so much!” The janitor unlocked the door and held itopen for Margie. Margie reached down, picked up her shoe, and went inside.That’s when she remembered how much trouble she would get in if she was caught.She looked around, trying to find a hiding place, but there was just hallway,and if she did find a hiding place and did hide, she’d never find Sammy.
Shewas walking down the halls when she saw the host coming her way. “Uh...oh...”she squealed under her breath. She looked around franticly for a hiding place.She saw no alcoves or rooms. Actually, she saw one room: the men’s room. Shequickly ran in, not even caring that she was a female in a male bathroom, justthinking about saving her little brother.
Shedashed into a stall and slid the bolt lock. She sat on the toilet putting herfeet up so no one would see her pink high-tops. She heard the door open andslam shut. She froze. Through the stall cracks she saw the squinty-eyed hostwearing a striped suit. She quietly took off her shoes and put her sock feet down onthe ground. The host went into the stall next to her and slid the bolt lock.She thought about silently escaping the restroom, but, not knowing how long itwould take the host, she stayed there. Soon enough, the toilet flushed and thebolt lock slid open with a clack. Sheheard water running and the sound of paper towels being automatically dispensedand -riiip- being torn from thedispenser. Then she heard the crumbling of paper as he dried his hands and itfalling out of his hand into the trashcan. She heard the door open and slamshut again. She let out a deep breath, as if she’d been holding the whole time.That’s when the fact she was sitting on a toilet in a boy’s bathroom kicked in.She quickly stood up, checked to make sure no one else had entered, and quicklyran out, keeping her eyes ahead as to not see anything. She ran out in the halland the door slammed behind her. No one was in the hallway and a TV in thehallway was going, showing that the show was back on.
Good, she thought No one will be out in the hallway. They’ll all be watching the show orin their offices.
Shewandered the halls for a while until she heard a shriek. “STOP!” a little boy’svoice called. “Hey, you bullies, STOP IT!” Her heart started pounding a milliontimes per minute. She followed the sounds of the yelling and shrieks andoccasional screams. What were they doing to him? She entered a room and sawSammy being held up by a security guard. His feet were kicking and he wasstruggling to get out of the security guard’s grip. “Kid, stop it, wait foryour parents to come get you,” the first security guard was joined by anotherone who Margie hadn’t noticed standing in the corner. “No! I won’t!” Sammystruggled as the other security guard took the other arm. “Well, then we’d takeyou to the police and you’d wait for them there...” “Okay, I’ll wait!” Sammyshouted. “Finally,” the security guard sighed and Sammy stopped struggling.Margie didn’t know what to do. She thought of going in pretending to be Sammy’smom and take him, but the security guards would definitely recognize her. Maybebait would work? But what would that bait be? Margie started to sneak out, butthen on the security guards started talking, “Hey, I’m going to go use thelittle security guard’s room, the breakfast burritos are on the run.” The othersecurity guard sighed, “Okay, man, I wish I got one. Everyone said they were sogood but they ran out before I got there!” The first guard laughed and startedwalking her way, she hid underneath a water fountain near a women’s restroom.The security guard ran right past her.
Perfect! Margie thought. One security guard down, one to go; andhe’ll go for sure. I wonder where I can get a few breakfast burritos.
Margiesmiled to herself. She stood up. Her heels clicked for a few seconds, and thenshe started walking down the halls. She checked a lot of rooms for a breakfastburrito, but found none that were empty andhad a breakfast burrito or two.
Shewalked for at least five minutes. She started worrying about the other securityguard, and when he would get out of the restroom. It could be any minute now!She had to set up a trap. She needed to. She needed her brother back. She randown the halls to the men’s room. The same one she’d been in. She opened thedoor. What could she do for a trap? Throw toilet paper everywhere? He wouldobviously see her. She looked at the door. It was a lockable door. She could lock it, but with what? She heard thetoilet flush and started panicking; he was definitely almost through with hisbathroom trip. That’s when she saw it. Inside a lock light switch was a skinny,silver key; left there by a janitor most likely. She quickly pulled it out, letgo of the door and let it slam, and locked the door. It locked with a click and a “Wait! I’m in here! Oh,great,” by the security guard. Margie smiled, but then felt sorry for him. Shedecided to leave the key in the door so the next person to go to the restroomwould let him out, besides, he had water, right?
Good work, Margie!Now it’s back to the big burrito hunt.
Margiekept walking through the halls, checking in rooms and hiding when someonewalked by. Finally, she saw what she needed. Inside a room were two burritos. Perfect! The only problem?The sign outside the door read Mr. McGee... the host.
Margiechecked the TV in the hall. The two hour special was almost up. That gave herless than 3 minutes to get in and get out. Margie quietly opened the door,knowing someone else could be in the room. She checked around in the hugecloset and even underneath the desk. On the desk where the two burritos. Shegrabbed them and ran out, being careful to leave the room exactly as she foundit.
Sheran out into the hall, dodging the host who was walking past her to his room.She hid underneath a water fountain. She ran down the hall to the room whereshe left Sammy. She disguised her voice as best as she could and said, “Um... Ihave two extra breakfast burritos! Would anyone” she coughed “Like them?” Sheheard the security guard shout, “I do! I do! I want them!” and start running,but then he said, “Sorry, ma’am, whoever you are. I can’t leave this child.”They still couldn’t see each other. “It’s a bacon wrapped tortilla baconburrito!” “I’m coming!” he ran out, Margie hid in a wall alcove. She threw thetwo burritos as far as she could in the other direction. The security guard ranto the burritos and started eating them in the hall, his back turned on Margie.
Margiedashed into the room, where Sammy was already starting to run out. “Sammy!” “Margie!”They hugged really quickly and then Margie pushed him away, “We’ve got to go,and I mean RUN...NOW!” Margie grabbed Sammy’s hand and ran out into the hall.She ran into the security guard and he dropped his burrito. He picked it backup saying, “Hey, watch where you’re- HEY! It’s you two kids! Get over here!”And he started to run after them. “Faster!” Margie yelled at Sammy. “Okay. We’vegot to lose him!” Sammy yelled back. Unfortunately, the closest exit was nottoo close. They ran into the host. “What are you two in here for?!” he yelledand ran after them as they escaped him. “Get over here!” the host yelled.Finally, Margie could see the white doors leading to outside. “Hurry, hurry,hurry! HURRY, HURRY, HURRY!” she yelled as she took the last few steps. she rapidlypushed open the door and ran out. Sammy followed, slowing down. Margie turned, “No,don’t stop, they’ll come outside.” Margie tugged at his wrist and startedrunning. She never let go of his hand, scared that, if she lost his hand, she’dlose him forever. As soon as they were a decent distance away and couldn’t seethe security guard, the host, or the building anymore they stopped.
Theyboth turned and looked at each other, both out of breath. “Margie...” Sammyhugged Margie. Margie hugged him back. It was the first time since he startedplaying video games 24/7 that they’d hugged. “Good job, Weirdo Squirt,” Margiesaid to Sammy. “Now, let’s see if we can go home.”
