Northern_Lights_2021

23 There are yellow trees now and I want Emily to see the place and meet the sponge man. I tell her that I want her to see something really special and she is excited. She holds my hand, and we go back to the bushes. She says I shouldn’t go in the big hole, but I’m already half in so she has to come. I go over to the rock wall with the pictures and wait for her. She’s yelling and saying bad words, but she comes into the place. I show her the place with the flashlight and her mouth gets real wide. People in movies do that when they’re happy they found something. She hasn’t even seen the best part. I run to the left fast as I can and turn the light off, so it doesn’t ruin the surprise. She’s scared now and says we should go back up, but girls are scared of everything. I let her feel the jail bars and she’s real scared now, but she can’t leave without meeting the sponge man. I make her come up onto the dry place and tell her to close her eyes. I turn on the flashlight when her eyes are good and closed and I shine it on the sponge man. I take her hand so she can feel, and she screams loud. I drop the flashlight and it’s broken. She asks what it is and wants to leave, but I shove the batteries back in the flash- light and show her it’s just the sponge man. She screams louder this time and I start crying. She stands up real fast and I hear a smack, then she falls right on the sponge man. I shove at her and get mad. She’s squishing the sponge man. I tell her to get off, but she doesn’t say no. She just lies there squishing him. Then the sponge man’s lap gets all red, like his scarf. I push real hard on Emily and her head looks funny, like it’s not a circle anymore. It’s bleeding all over and making the sponge man dirty, then the water gets all mucky and red too. Emily isn’t getting up. I poke her with the flashlight, but she doesn’t move. She’s a dead guy too now. My chest hurts and my head is all spinny. Emily is a dead guy and it’s my fault. I look at the jail bars and I remember that when dead guys are your fault, you go to jail. I look at my clothes and they’re all red, like sponge man’s pants. I get naked and go back out of the place into my bathroom and wash every inch of me. There wasn’t red left after I got out of the place, but I have to be extra sure. I put on my pajamas and pretend I’m asleep when Mom’s home. The trees are just branches again and I go into the place. The sponge man and Emily are sitting next to each other now, holding hands. Emily has a pair of mom’s sunglasses and a big red hat that makes her head look like a circle again. I don’t go to the place a lot now, because Emily and the sponge man aren’t all alone like the fish in the pond.