Emily Bates Adventures

Emily Bates and the talking bird
By Anastasia

I closed my eyes and laid back on the soft grass, watching the colors of the sky change, as day turned to night. It was beautiful. I've never been here at night, but since I had nothing better to do and it was a nice night I decided to stay here for a while. I hear a rustle under some leaves a few feet away from me. I sat up quickly and inspected the ground. It was probably nothing. As I went to lie back down I hear it again. This time I see what is making the noise. It was a bird, and it was hurt. I picked it up gently and found that its wing was all tangled all up in some plastic. I carefully untangled the plastic, trying not to hurt it. Finally I undid it and set the bird down to fly away. But it didn't leave it just stayed there, watching me. To my surprise it opened its beak and spoke in a clear voice. “ My name is Cybelle. I speak for magic and nature. The trees have seen your good deeds and have decided to grant you three wishes.” I sat there puzzled for a moment and then realized that I must have been dreaming. I said jokingly to the bird. “ I wish that I were more famous than the Lady Gaga,  the Pope and the President all together.” The bird bowed its head to me and said, “ as you wish.” The earth started to tremble and shake. I closed my eyes. It suddenly stopped shaking. I realized that I was back in my bed. I rolled my eyes. I knew it was a dream. My mom was screaming downstairs. I ran down there in my PJ's. I gasped, hundreds of people with cameras were screaming my name and pushing at the door trying to get in. I ran over to the door and helped her push the door shut. I screamed “What is going on here!” My mother ran frantically to the TV. “Look! Your on every channel!” The TV showed hundreds of people surrounding my little 2 bedroom house. There was another knock on the door. “Who is it now?” My mother asked, “ It is the L.A P.D,we here to make sure that your daughter is safe” My mother opened the door and let at least twenty men in uniform into my house. “ Whats going on here!” I said once again. One of the officers turned to me and said, “ Emily Marie Bates,it appears that you are more famous than Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, and the President put together.” Me and my mother gasped at the same time. “ To insure your safety, we have been ordered to keep 24 hours surveillance on you” I was speechless. “If you don't mind Ms. Bates I would like to have a chat with your mother.” He turned to my mother and began a silent conversion with her.
         “Pssp!” I looked over and saw an officer curling his finger at me. I walked over. “Hello officer.” He seemed overjoyed that I had addressed him. In fact he jumped up and down like a little girl. “Ohmygodohmygodohmygod! I can't believe I'm talking to the Emily Bates! You see I have a daughter and she adores you! I was wondering if you could sign this.” He reached down into a pack that he had and pulled out a barbie doll still in the box. I looked closer and I saw that it was made in my exact likeness. “Um, okay”  I took a sharpie lying on the table and signed in my best handwriting.
         The sun finally came down and I looked out my window. The people hadn't left and they looked like they weren’t going anywhere soon. They had set up tents and were sleeping on our lawn. The officers hadn’t left yet either. They were outside taking turns watching me from in the hallway. I felt like a prisoner. I laid back on my bed. What started this whole thing in the first place? Something the officer said earlier this morning... “Emily Marie Bates, it appears that you are more famous than Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, and the President put together.”
         Then it hit me.
         That is exactly what I said to that strange little bird in my dream. I gasped. “What! Whats wrong? Who’s in here? Are you okay?” One of the officers had ran into my room and was looking around the room frantically. I cleared my throat. “I'm fine, officer. I'm sorry for alerting you.” He nodded his head and began to walk out of the room with an annoyed look on his face.
“Wait.” he turned and looked at me.
“I need to go somewhere and I don't know how to get pass all of the paparazzi.” “Where do you need to go?”
“To the old old forest across from Campaign Rd. Do you know where that is?”  He nodded his head. “Good. We need to get there. Fast.” I got up and went to put my shoes and jacket on when he stopped me. “Hold your horses, girl. I gotta make sure that your mother is okay with this.” That stopped me. Mom probably wouldn't want me to go out this time of night, especially with the paparazzi waiting for me too stick my head out the front door. I thought for a moment and said, “ Yes, why don't go ask my mother real quick and we will go.” he turned again to walk out the room.
“Wait.” I said once again. He stopped. I walked up to him and hugged him, wrapping my arms around him. “Thank you.” I said. He smiled awkwardly and walked out the room. When I'm sure he is gone I run to the back door open it very quietly and tip-toed out to his car. Thank the Lord for all of my rotten friends who taught me how to steal a car.
Wait.
I don't even know how to drive.
I slammed my palms on the steering wheel. Great. Now what do I do? Before I had time to think up a plan I heard a loud commotion going on in my room.
“We need backup! We need backup! Emily Bates is Missing In Action! Get the S.W.A.T team! Get the F.B.I! Get the Secret Service... I don't care if President needs them, that’s why we have a Vice President. Didn't you hear me? The Emily Bates is Missing In Action. Send out an Amber Alert! Get the C.I.A....”
I put my head in my hands.
“Oh, no.” I sighed
That same clear voice that was in my dream spoke to me again.
“Looks like someone down. Is something wrong?”
“Cybelle?”
I turned to side to see the same bird that was in my dream.
“You look sad. Isn't this what you wanted.”
“No this isn't what I wanted. I mean, I thought this was what I wanted but it isn't. I want to make another wish.”
The bird bowed its head.
“I wish....”
I was about to wish everything back to normal when I realized something. I could wish for anything I wanted and get it. So instead of wishing for everything back to normal, I said
“Instead of being more famous than Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, and the President put together, I wish I was richer than all of them put together.”
The bird bowed its head and said “As you wish.”
Suddenly the Earth started to shake and to move back and forth. The wind rushed, making a deafening cry in the air. I closed my eyes.
Suddenly the wind screaming and the Earth stopped shaking.
I opened my eyes to see myself back in my bed again. Back in my same old house. I sat up in bed and let out a breath. Whew, that was the strangest dream I had ever had in my life. I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen; Where my mom was already baking some pancakes. She smiled at me,
“Hey there sleepy head. I was just about to get you up.”
I was just about to tell her about my dream when there was a frantic thumping on the door. My mother wiped herself off.
“Who could that be this early in the morning?” she got up from the counter and walked to the door.
When she opened the door she was showered with confetti. A tall, annoying, T.V  host with a big mouth screamed, “Congratulations Emily Marie Bates! You are now richer than Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, and the president put together! What do you have to say about that?”
A hush fell over the crowd and a thousand microphones were held up to my mother's face.
“Um... My name is Kathy Bates. My daughter is Emily Bates, she is over there.” She pointed to me standing next to the burning pile of pancakes.
The T.V host and at least a hundred reporters elbowed past my mother and rushed over to me. The annoying T.V. Host with the big mouth screamed, “Congratulations Emily Marie Bates! You are richer than Lady Gaga, Steve Jobs, and the President put together! What do you have to say about that?”
A hush fell over the crowd and a thousand microphones were held up to my face. I put my face to the annoying T.V hosts microphone
“Um... Good”
The T.V host turned the camera behind him and screamed, “Fabulous! This Mario Umland and this is E entertainment.”
Finally my mother screamed, “Alright, everybody out! All of you get out.” She shooed all the reporters out and slammed the door and locked it. She looked bewildered and sat down on the couch.
I sat down next to her. “Mom, how do you feel?”
She looked at me and a smile spread across her face.
“I feel like seven billion, two hundred million forty eight thousand nine hundred and two dollars and sixty-six cents”
I smiled. Just a few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Me and Mom look at each other. I nodded and we cautiously approached the door.
“Who is it?”
A soft voice came from the other side of the door.
“Hello. My name is Ingrid Newkirk. I am the president and co-founder of P.E.T.A. We would like to have a chat with your daughter for a moment if that was alright with you.”
“What is P.E.T.A?” I mouthed
“Sounds like a charity.” My mother mouthed back
“Um... There are no reporters with you or anything?”
“No. We respect your privacy, Ms. Bates”
“Well, I guess its okay.”
She opened the door and let a woman followed by three serious looking men into the house.
“Um... Please sit.”
She smiled and sat down. “I guess I will start with the introduction.”
Newkirk cleared her throat “P.E.T.A organizations is the largest animal rights organizations in the world, with more than three million members and supporters. P.E.T.A focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer greatly for long periods of time: on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry. P.E.T.A works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, legislation, special events and protest campaigns,”
I cleared my throat. “I don't mean to be rude. But what does that have to do with us?”
“You see, Emily, these things all cost money. We are horribly underfunded and without these thing thousands of animal with suffer and die and be turned into,”
Her voice got husky and her eyes got glassy.
“Coats! The horror!”
“Well I guess if it is for the animals.”
I went to the kitchen and some checks out and wrote down a hundred dollars.
I gave it to her.
They all looked at me at the same time. One of the men coughed.
“We're going to need more zeros than that to make this work.”
My eyebrows pinched to together.
“How many more zeros exactly?”
Newkirk smiled at me.
They happily trotted out the door with one hundred thousand dollars of my money.
That’s how it started.
Soon I had appointments with almost every charity I could name and some I couldn't.
“Don't you want children in Africa to eat?” said the Aid for Africa Foundation
“Don't you want to conserve the bird population in Arizona?” said the Tuscon Audubon Society
“Don't you want to improve the public's understanding of mental illness and early intervention.” Said the American Psychiatric Association
I laid in bed all night and couldn't sleep. Everybody wanted something from me. I couldn't take it anymore.
I put my head in my hands and cried.
A clear voice spoke to me again.
“You look sad. Isn't this what you wanted.”
I wiped my tears with my sleeve.
“No, Cybelle. This isn’t what I wanted. I realize now that I was being selfish and all I want is things to go back to the way things were before.
The bird bowed its head.
“As you wish.”
Then I woke up. What a strange dream.