Ugly People

    “He’s doing it again,” yelled Daisy.
    Bill sighed, took his glasses off and rolled his shoulders.  His daughter moved from the living room into the dinning room stopping close enough for Bill to the hear music from her ipod.  At least I can’t make out the words, he thought, turning to face Daisy.
    “Make him stop. I’m trying to watch Survivor,” Daisy said.  Bill smiled a patient smile.
    “It amazes me that you are able to watch TV. and listen to music.  Such talent…” Bill stood up and moved towards the living.  The sound of thunder echoed through the house.
    “Sounds like another good one coming in,” Bill said.  He hoped that he was talking to his daughter, but you could never really be sure these days. 
    Bill turned into the living room.  Jacob stood in the back of the room, nose pressed up against the glass of the back window.  Steam fogged the lower half of the windowpane.  Bill sighed and moved to kneel next to Jacob.
    “Hey, baby, what are you doing?”  Bill asked.  He knew the answer before Jacob even spoke.  If there was a storm Jacob would be at the window.  Always looking for the same thing. 
    “I want ugly people,” Jacob answered.  Every time a storm came, and it had to be storm, a small rain shower wouldn’t do, Jacob plastered his face to the back window overlooking the garden.  He turned now and faced his father, smiled his large toothless smile.
    “UGLY PEOPLE,” he yelled, banging his head into the glass.
    “There are definitely two ugly people near that window that I can see,” said Daisy.  Bill chose to ignore that comment and secretly credited Daisy with her increasing wit. 
    “Jake, honey, I don’t see any people,” Bill said squinting through the glass.  The storm had started.  It was raw and powerful. The back yard was going to be a swamp, Bill thought.  He stared out the window with his young son; the rain was near horizontal, making visibility almost nothing. A slice of lightning lit the sky, momentarily brightening the garden.
    “Well, it looks like we’re here for a while,” Bill said sitting down next to Jacob.  Daisy gave him the ice glare.  Bill smiled and Daisy stomped out of the room.  Bill thought heard shouts of “mom”, but he was unsure.  “I don’t know if we’ll see any ugly people, but I sure hope we see whoever has been stealing my yard bricks.”
    “Ugly people,” Jacob said, pressing his head to the glass.
    “I certainly hope we see something ugly.”  Jacob slammed both hands against the glass in a move that Bill assumed meant agreement.

    Bill awoke slightly disoriented, but he could tell from his stiff neck that he never made it into his bedroom.  A lightning flash lit the room, and Bill realized that he had fallen asleep by the living room window.  A crumpled note lay next to him.  Slowly, he opened it:

All the good-looking people decided to sleep in beds.
Love, Mom and Jake

    Bill smiled and stood up.  The storm was raging. Thunder crashed and heavy raindrops continued to assault the window.  Bill glanced out the window just as lightning bolt lit the sky. 
    “Crap,” Bill said.  He had caught sight of the tool shed, its door swinging wildly in the wind.  The thought of staying dry, cuddling up next to his wife and a down comforter almost overtook the damage that may be caused by not securing the door properly.  In the end Bill reprimanded himself for being to responsible, put on his raincoat and moved outside.
    The raincoat did no good.  The wind whipped it up and within seconds Bill was soaked.  The choice to wear tennis shoes turned out to be better than anticipated, as Bill ran through the ankle high puddles with little problem.  Bill made straight for the tool shed.  It was at the far end of the garden, opposite the window where Bill had spent a good portion of the evening.
      A deep rumbling thunder sounded.  It ground shook, and Bill lost his footing.  With a splash, Bill floundered in a half foot of water.
    He pushed up onto his elbows, and found himself face to face with a man.  Or what Bill thought of as a man, in the few seconds it took him to realize that this person couldn’t be more than a foot tall.  The small man stared at Bill with a look of shock on his face.  Oh, what a face, thought Bill.  There was very little hair on his head, and what there was, was plastered down.  He had two sharp pointy ears on either side of an oblong head.  His nose could only be described as bulbous, seeming a squashed mass right in the center his head.  He stood up to his chest in water, holding tightly to a light brown landscaping brick.
    “An ugly person,” Bill said in awe.
    “We prefer garden Gnome,” the small man answered, trying to hide the brick behind his back.
    A loud crash of thunder sounded, Bill screamed, the gnome screamed, a flash of lightning momentarily blinded Bill.  Spots danced before Bill’s eyes, as Bill rose up to his knees.  He turned a slow circle in the mud of the garden.  The gnome and his brick were gone.

    The storm continued into the next day.  For most of the morning it rain lightly, but as night approached the intensity increased.  Jacob spent most of the day looking out the window for the ugly people, much to his sister’s dismay.  Any complaints, however, were met with shrugs.  As evening approached Bill took his place next to Jacob.  For hours they talked of ugly people, and pressed their faces  to glass.
    “Honey, did you buy more garden bricks today? I didn’t think we needed any more, but I found a receipt on the table.”
    “Yes, I did.  Someone seems to need them,” Bill answered staring out the window.

Word Count: 997