Holaweeno by Cole Kraus

HOLAWEENO

By Cole Kraus

Chapter Two

The Theft

The next few minutes after I came out with the truth to my parents were extremely silent and awkward. I finally broke the deafening quiet, actually unintentionally, when I walked over and sat on a bench near them. I had just been sitting on a plane for hours, so my reaction time was quite slow. Before I could even react, I had already crashed through the rotted wood of the bench I had attempted to be comforted by.

I was slow to get up, so my mom scurried over and helped me to my feet. Even though I had disappointed her, she was still my mom. Dad, on the other hand, was not about to forgive me just yet.

               “You all right?” my mom asked.

               “Yah,” I said, coughing after I spoke from the lack of talking for a while.

               After the first awkward silence, another one fell on us before we knew it. Well, we can’t stay speechless forever I thought.

               “Are we going to go through with my plan?” I asked.

               I was hoping my parents would see the good side of me because I didn’t want the lie I had told them about why we had come to this island to prevent me from doing something in the name of my grandfather. I could imagine the brains in my parents’ heads working feverishly to come up with a decision, especially my dad’s, because from the start he had seemed the most hesitant about this whole idea. I could somehow sense my mom had come up with her verdict. However, she seemed as though she was waiting for my father to speak first. I had my fingers crossed mentally, hoping to get their approval, because this whole expedition thing was actually seeming more and more exciting. Then, I could see my dad’s lips starting to move ever so slightly, almost in slow motion.

               Just as he was about to speak, a stranger burst in between us and shoved my dad to the side while grabbing my mom’s purse. Everything suddenly turned into fast forward. By pure instinct, I immediately sprinted after the thief, brushing passed a few hefty pedestrians.     

               The purse snatcher made sure not to run through the hordes of people on the main roads, since that would bring us too much attention. It was difficult to see his body features, because he was covered up with dark clothing, which was odd, considering the strong heat and humidity of the day. The thief wove through back roads and alleyways, until he escaped my field of vision. My mind knew it was no use running, but my legs said otherwise. I briefly thought about calling the police, but it was too late now. Plus, everything was so foreign to me. I’m not sure if I would have even been able to accomplish that task.

               I had slowed my pace at a four-way intersection to decide which way to go when I heard someone running up from behind me. It was my dad, and he motioned for me to stop. Even though I had built strong stamina over the years by running track, once I had stopped moving, I keeled over like a sailboat in a storm.

               My dad tried to say something, but it came out more like a heavy groan.

               I brushed my hair off my face.

               “Why—didn’t—you—let—me—chase—him?” I asked, gasping for air like a dying seal in between my words.

               “Wow!” my dad exclaimed after he had caught his breath. “If you ran like that in your track meets you would have taken home the gold.”

                But I replied as if he had asked a question.

               “Because in competition, there isn’t a thief running in front of you with your plane tickets and passports!” I said loudly still panting.

               The shock my dad must have felt would have been enough to make an electric eel shiver. After I said that, he gave me a look as if he was a caveman, and I just showed him how a cellphone worked. The reality of life finally set into his head, as he stood there dumbfounded. Just then, he started sprinting randomly in one of the four directions in front of us. I halted him in his tracks before he went too far, just like he had stopped me.

               “It’s too late now,” I said disappointedly.

               After we had settled down from the whole excursion, we both thought we should probably find Mom. When we finally spotted her, she was wearily running up and down streets with our big bag of luggage dragging behind her. Luckily, that hadn’t been stolen. Because if it had been, we would have looked like a pretty sad bunch. She explained she wasn’t looking for the thief, but for us.

               It was then that she said, “It could have been worse. The passports are in this,” as she clutched our tattered luggage.

                I should have felt relief, but I was too preoccupied with the impact of the theft.

               After the purse ordeal, we staggered back over to where it all started. Since that particular spot was right in front of Saj’s condo, it reminded me that my parents had never given me their decision.

               We sat on the sidewalk with our backs against the stucco of his building and made sure we avoided sitting on the other bench that stood next to the broken one. Even though our luggage wasn’t stolen, we still managed to end up looking pathetic. Someone actually even offered us a few bucks and a loaf of bread. My dad took the bread, but not the money. All that running had made us work up a tremendous appetite. Plus, we hadn’t eaten anything since the tasteless matter the airline called food.

               While we were eating, I told my parents about Saj, how he knew Grandpa and that he might be able to help us find the Valinium. I began to think my parents had forgotten all about me lying to them, but thanks to my big mouth, I brought it up again. However, they seemed more excited about going on this trip, although they hadn’t said so yet.

               The hot sun, all that went with it, started to give way to the moon. We all agreed we probably should call it a night and introduce ourselves to Saj. We hoped he would let us stay with him, if he still lived here.

The Ravenous Bees by Cole Kraus

In Cole Kraus’ original tale, told in the protagonist’s conversational voice, ordinary objects take on hilarious and macabre meanings.

The Ravenous Bees

An Excerpt by Cole Kraus

My family and I are going to Florida to visit my grandparents. Well, there’s really nothing so grand about them, that’s for sure. My mom said I have to look presentable when we see them. Presentable? They’re our family for Pete’s sake! I mean, I’m not going to show up in a ripped shirt and baggy shorts. Anyway, every time we go to visit my grandparents, we have to go to the mall!

    

Personally, I dislike going to malls. I’d rather be doing something more productive, like taking photographs. However, we ended up going, just like we always do. Once my mother and I were inside the dreaded building, I glanced over my shoulder because I saw the automatic doors open. But the strange thing was, I didn’t see anybody pass through.

We kept on going. But it always felt like someone was following me. It was kind of creepy, if you know what I mean. It was really getting to me; I even felt like something was almost touching me!     

     

At this point my mother was off shopping in her favorite stores and I was wandering about in others, just to pass the time.

Everybody in the mall was staring at me as if I had three heads, and I heard a kid whisper to his mother, “Is that a costume?”

The next time I passed a mirror, I stopped to look at myself, and then I screamed because small honeybees covered my entire t-shirt. I ran as fast as I could to the bathroom.

Just then, a woman walked into the restroom.

“Crap. This must be the Ladies Room,” I said to myself.

The woman yelled and ran away, once she noticed me and the bees.

However, I didn’t have any time to locate another bathroom. I just needed to deal with these bees. I immediately started the jet hand dryer. Luckily, the bees started to fly off, so I just stayed there. Once the bees were all off, they began swarming, flying in circles, totally unlike the first time I saw them. It was so chaotic and just overall strange, so I rubbed my eyes, just to make sure it wasn't an awful dream. Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Just then, a cleaning person came through the bathroom door. As soon as she witnessed the scene, she quickly shut and then locked the door behind her.

“Wait! Help! Don’t leave me here!” I called after her, but she was long gone.

Just then, I saw a bright red box bolted to the wall beside me. Inside rested an emergency axe. I quickly ran to it, leaving the safety of the hand dryer. The case was locked, but I didn’t have time for manners. So, I smashed it open with my foot, and grabbed the axe.

“Six years of soccer finally paid off,” I thought.

Suddenly, a siren sounded right as I removed the axe from its holder. This did not help the situation. It was so loud I felt like my ear drums were going to explode! However, I didn’t slow my pace. Once the axe was in my grasp, I swung it at the door as hard as I could, but the axe just bounced off the wood not even making a dent.

I tried twice more, getting the same results. Then, I swung so hard I missed the door completely and almost landed on my backside. It reminded me of when I was in my town baseball playoffs when I struck out against Brad Marks to end the game. He was the fastest and meanest pitcher in the league, and no one liked him. This time though, there weren’t a hundred people in the stands watching me fail, just a couple of thousand honeybees. It wasn’t until the fifth try that I succeeded in splitting the wooden door of the restroom. It was like hitting a grand slam. I swung again, this time making significant damage, enough for my body to fit through. Then again, I thought, if it’s enough for me, it’s enough for the bees as well.

As soon as I exited the splintered door, I had my eyes peeled for my mom. This was not a simple mission though, because it was a very large mall. Just then, I spotted her shopping in a clothing store. I quickly busted through the glass doors, knocking over a manikin in the process. 

“Oh, hi Joe,” my mom said when she noticed me. Oh, and believe me, I was pretty easy to notice.

“We need to get out of here,” I said, tugging at her arm.

“Just one minute, I need to check out first,” she said.

“No time for that,” I said, urging her on.

“Joe, I know you don’t like the mall, but I just have to pay. We’ll be out in a second,” she said.

I sighed.

After about two minutes of her standing in line I began to sweat, because I saw the pack of honeybees coming from the women’s restroom. Another minute went by, and I couldn’t wait any longer. So, I burst into the check out line and grabbed my mom’s arm, pulling her through the store and out the doors, disrupting multiple shoppers, and somehow I ended up making a baby cry.

Immediately, alarms sounded, because of my mom’s unpaid items.

“Joe, what’s going. . . .

But my mom was interrupted.

“Hey, look, thieves!” an older women said, waving her cane up in the air.

“Citizen’s arrest!” a burly woman screamed, before throwing her bags to the side and effortlessly tackling my mom to the floor, like a rugby player.

Since I was holding my mom’s arm at the time, I stumbled down right with her.

“You don’t understand,” I yelled, once back on my feet. “We’re not thieves!”

“Well, you sure look like thieves to me!” she said. “If you’re not thieves, then how do explain running away with these clothes? And another thing, aren’t you a little young to be robbing a store?” she said, looking at me.

“I’m not robbing anything!” I said, starting to get annoyed.

I mean, the woman had a point. We did appear suspicious. Well, it’s more like I looked suspicious. I was the one who dragged my mom into this mess, and when I say dragged, I literately mean dragged.

“What’s going on Joe?” my mother asked, again.

“I’ll tell you later. Come on!” I blurted out, right before I took off for the car.

It felt as if I was in a bullring, the bees being the bull and I being the helpless picador trying to avoid the killer beast and flee to safety.

Suddenly, a policeman muscled through the crowd that had quickly formed.

“This just keeps getting better and better,” I said aloud.

He didn’t chase us too far, because he soon realized why we were running. We weren’t running from him, we were running from the honeybees. The policeman immediately became the pursuee instead of the pursuer, and so did everyone else. However, the bees were not interested in anyone else. They were like fruit flies at a farmer’s market where there was only one fruit, and I was that fruit.

About the Author

At 13-years-old, Cole Kraus likes to entertain his readers in a realistic way. He enjoys the work of authors Harper Lee, Suzanne Collins, Jonathan Swift, and John Steinbeck.