Snowsuit Gone Bad

SNOWSUIT GONE BAD

Robbies’ Twelfth Birthday Party was over. The guests had long gone. His mom was in the kitchen washing the dirty party dishes. Robbie looked at his meager haul: some candy from Kathy, the fat girl from next door; a radio control race car from Jon, his best bud; and a battery-operated scooter from his parents were the most outstanding gifts.

But I didn’t get ‘Decision at Dawn, War 9’ for my GameBoy, he thought. “Mom and Dad should have given me at LEAST that instead of the silly scooter. They KNEW I wanted ‘Decision at Dawn’, I’ve told them for months that’s what I wanted. They must hate me,” he said kicking the empty RC car box.

He walked over to the sofa and threw himself face down on it, head hanging over the edge. Under the coffee table he spotted a thin book he hadn’t seen for years, “Frosty the Snowman”; a present from grandma when he was six. Idly he picked the book up, What a crock this was, snowmen can’t talk, everyone knows that, he thought brushing cake crumbs off the cover.

A CRACKLE came from the book and smoke began to rise from the cover. Robbie dropped it, rolled over and pulled both feet up on the couch, staring down at the smoking “Frosty”. The smoke rolled together in a tight, white ball. Out of the mist appeared the head of a giant man with a tasseled blue cap wearing a long mustache. “Well, well,” the man said, “what do we have here? A young boy has released me from my prison. I am Mustifficax, the genie. Who might you be?”

“I...I...I’m Robbie,” he stammered, “who are you?”

“I already told you that Robbie. You must be deaf. I’m Mustifficax, the genie. I’ve been in that book for 20 years, it feels good to get out. So good that I’ve got a present for you.”

“A present? I thought I’d get three wishes, isn’t that what genies do?”

“Where did you get THAT idea,” the genie said; “Giving three wishes went out ages ago, right after computers were invented. Now you want my magic gift or not?”

“Sure, why not?”

Mustifficax reached down into his white cloud and brought out a folded red package, “You do believe in magic, don’t you? This won’t work if you don’t.”

“Yeah, I believe. How do I know this is really magic?”

“Because I TOLD you it is. Remember, you are the human, I’m the genie and I deal in magic.”

Mustifficax unfolded the package, revealing a red snowsuit, complete with two mittens dangling from the sleeves and black, fur-lined boots. “Here, put these on,” he said, handing the outfit to Robbie.

“But it’s the middle of AUGUST!”

“Just do it and I’ll tell you what the snowsuit can do for you, just remember, you have to believe or it won’t work.”

Robbie struggled into the suit, boots and gloves as Mustifficax explained, “This suit will let you be invisible, or instantly transport you any place on Earth. BUT, you have to believe, and once you take the suit off it will not work again.”

“Well, that sucks,” Robbie said as he slipped the second boot on and stood up, moving stiffly inside the thickly-insulated suit. “So how does it work?”

“Just think what you want it to do.”

“Think? That’s it?”

“Yep, that’s it.”

“OK, I’ll think.” Robbie thought, Make me invisible.

Robbie was invisible, he couldn’t even see himself. Turning to Mustifficax he said, “I’m going to see if Mom can see me,” but the smiling genie already was disappearing into thin air.

Robbie ran into the kitchen. He stood beside his mom as she picked up a stack of plates and turned to take them to the cupboard. She looked right through Robbie.

It WORKS, it really does, he thought, Take me to the Mall and the Game Maze Store.

Again the suit worked. Robbie was inside the Game Maze Store. Hundreds and hundreds of computer games were stacked on shelves. Games for the X-Box, X-Box 360, Wii, the Mac I-gamer 2009 that had just come out and, and Game Boy. There! Robbie saw his game, “Decision at Dawn, War 9”. Still invisible, he walked over to the game, took it off the shelf and slipped it into a pocket. It went invisible too.

“Whew, this suit is getting HOT,” he said quietly, “I need to go someplace to cool off before I melt. I know where.” Robbie thought, Take me to the north pole.

POOOF, Robbie was on ice, surrounded by snow. Sticking out of the ice beside him was a pole and a sign, “The North Pole, reached by the USS Nautilus 1987.”

“Wow, this suit is great,” he said to himself, pulling the Game Boy cartridge out. It still had the price tag, $59.95, and the anti-theft device on it. He set it down on a block of ice and removed both of his gloves so he could open the game, then unzipped the front of the suit, letting the cold air come in.

In just a few minutes he was cooled off, so he re-zipped the snowsuit and put his gloves back on. Take me home...to my bedroom, he thought.

POW! He was home.

“I gotta go tell mom about this,” he said out loud as he begin stripping off the suit, tossing it on a pile on the floor, right next to yesterday’s dirty clothes.

“Oops, the Game Boy cart is still in the suit,” he said and reached down to pick the red suit up, but he couldn’t; it was smoking and starting to shrivel. The cart was lost! In 30 seconds the entire suit had disappeared into the thin air.

“Well, the genie said it wouldn’t work after I took it off, he didn’t say it would burn up... And now I don’t even have the cart. What a sucky birthday party!”



995 words