The Royal Plan

“You shall obey your Queen!” Marcia demanded.

“Yeah? Who’s my Queen?”

“I am your Queen, silly boy!”

Marcia was twelve. She looked at Jack with contempt. “You are a most irritating little man,” she said. “Now be quiet and do as I command.”

Jack was silent. He didn’t get it. He was ten years old and didn’t get a lot of things. He didn’t get why they were up so late. He didn’t get why Marcia had wrapped herself in a bedsheet, nor why she wore plastic beads around her forehead. And what was with the red lipstick and the black eye-liner? And most of all, he didn’t get why they were sitting on the staircase with the house so dark and spooky below and his parents in bed watching TV. He could hear the TV through their closed bedroom door; a Jack-in-the-box commercial.

Finally, he asked, “What are we doing?”

“We’re waiting.”

“Why?”

“It’s all part of my plan,” she said and shushed him.

The grandfather clock in the downstairs hallway began bong-bong-bonging.

Jack startled.

Marcia rose slowly to her feet. “It is time for my entrance,” she whispered and straightened her bedsheet. “Take my train.”

Jack made a face. “Your train?”

Marcia rolled her eyes then lifted the long folds of her bedsheet and put the ends firmly into Jack’s hands. “Hang on to this tight and follow.”

“Okay, your Highness,” he said just above the still bonging clock.

They descended the stairs. Marcia with her back straight, her head held high.

Bong-Bong-Bong.

“I’m not your toy!”

“You’re my servant.”

The bonging stopped.

“And I’m not your servant!” Jack said loudly.

Marcia shushed him, too late.

They heard a door open, then their father’s voice.

“All part of my plan,” Jack said softly.

--300 Words--