A Short Story
I was given a challenge. Write a story using this as inspiration.
This is what I came up with:
Quarantine
As Kim pulled into the garage after an excursion to the grocery store, she felt lucky during this time of imposed quarantine. Both had jobs that allowed them to work from home. She and her husband had agreed to team teach the kids while schools were closed. Fred was in command of math and athletics. Kim handled literature and music. Although lessons had been a tad slow this first week, she trusted them to get down to business soon.
She opened the door into the house and spotted her husband leaning against the kitchen counter with a pair of binoculars to his face. He focused out the sliding glass door to the backyard. Wearing the lid to a roasting pot on his head, he scratched on a notepad. Papers were scattered across the counter.
“What are you doing?” she asked as she set down two bags of coveted groceries.
“Hey, watch it, those are my notes.”
She picked up the paper and read it. It was a series of dots and dashes. He picked up the flashlight and pushed the button making a series of blinks “Dot-dot-dash-dot,” he muttered and returned to his notepad.
“Where are the kids?” she asked.
He pointed out the sliding glass door and across the backyard. Kim followed his finger and noticed her son, Joel at the far end of the yard. He also wore a lid to a pan tied to his head and a pair of binoculars strapped around his neck. Joel kept spying into the neighbor’s yard. Kim waved to little Leza and noted she had a bright pink Frisbee tied her head. A clipboard was protected by her folded arms and she wrote down what Joel said to her.
“Wait, here it comes,” he said.
“Here what comes? Fred, what is going on.” Kim asked.
“Obviously we are the British Expeditionary Forces, and Joel is across no man’s land spying on the Kaiser’s Army,” he said curtly.
Kim blinked. “And the patio furniture stacked by the bushes between our yard and the Drake’s yard is…”
“No man’s land, yeah,” Fred returned to his binoculars. “
“And our neighbors, the Drake’s, are the Kaiser’s Army?”
“Yeah!” Fred said. “What better way to learn history than to relive it?”
“That’s great honey, but you know Bob Drake can get carried away, don’t you?” she said and ran her hand through her hair.
“Oh, come on, that’s harsh. He’s just enthusiastic,” Fred said and moved to get a better angle into the Drake’s backyard.
“Enthusiastic? What about the time he attempted to roast a side of beef in his backyard and the bushes caught on fire? We had to call the fire department.” She began to walk towards the sliding glass doors staring out to the jumble in her backyard.
“Quick, write this down.”
“I am not going to-” she began.
He interrupted her, “Come one, please? B-a-b-y stop g-o-a-t-s”
“Baby Goats? You’ve got to be kidding me,” she said.
“Wait there’s more. I-n stop. S-w-e-a-t-e-r-s stop. O-n stop. P-o-p-t-a-r-t-s.”
“It’s gibberish.”
“It’s code.”
“Here’s the last thing. I-n stop. S-p-a-c-e.” Fred stared at her. “Baby goats, in sweaters, on pop tarts in space! We’ve got to run for cover.”
Fred went to the sliding glass door and called out to Joel. “Brace yourselves!” He turned back to Kim and said, “Baby Goats: The Kaiser. In Sweaters: Arming themselves. On pop tarts: in flying machines. In space: now.”
A volley of multi colored water balloons flew from the neighbor’s yard hitting the deck the flowerbed and the trunk of the old tree. Leza and Joel squealed with laughter as they hid behind the big tree for safety.