[Critique Group 1] May Submission 2020

[Deanna Noriega]

Busted!

By DeAnna Quietwater Noriega

Lisa glanced at the illuminated clock face on the kitchen wall. It was two
A.M. Easter morning. She followed the faint sounds of whispers and giggles
in to the living room. A feeble flashlight beam skipped over the furniture
briefly backlighting and illuminating two small pajama clad figures. 

                "Ryan! Michael! What are you doing out of bed," Lisa hissed.
Mike dropped the flashlight and it rolled across the worn carpet. 

                "Oh, you scared me! We were just checking for Easter
baskets."

                "You guys are nuts! It's practically the middle of the
night. You haven't even given the Easter Bunny time to make his deliveries.
Get back to bed before you wake mama."

                The two small boys trudged back down the hall to their room.
Lisa picked up the flashlight and clicked it off. She sat down in the old
armchair to think. What if there were no Easter baskets this year? Money was
pretty tight since daddy didn't come back from Korea. Mama worked two jobs,
but she wasn't paid much because the kinds of jobs she could get near the
reservation didn't pay very well. Last night after she came home from the
truck stop, she was so tired; she accidently dunked an egg in to her coffee
cup instead of the cup of Easter egg dye! There were only two dozen brightly
colored eggs in the ash split basket grandpa had woven sitting in the middle
of the kitchen table. Maybe that was all the Easter they could expect. .
Lisa leaned back and reached behind her to tug the afghan around her
shoulders. Something was tucked under it! Carefully she lifted it away.
Three small baskets nestled against the side of the chair in the corner. 

Softly she called, "Mike! Ryan! Come see!" Her brothers scampered back in to
the room. Their small faces lit up with excitement as their big sister aimed
the feeble beam of the flashlight at the baskets. One held a pink
marshmallow rabbit, one had a blue marshmallow chicken and the third had a
yellow duck. 

"Pink is for girls Lisa, Mike's favorite color is blue and I think the ducky
is mine cause I have Ducky Lucky my stuffed duck to sleep with," whispered
Ryan.

"I think you are right, but you guys better take your baskets back to bed,"
Replied Lisa. She gently lifted up the basket with the pink bunny in it.

Lisa slipped quietly back in to the bed room she shared with mama. She
placed the Easter basket on the night stand on her side of the bed, and
crept back beneath the quilts. Then she heard a series of rapid bangs. She
jumped up again and raced to her brothers' room.

Lisa flicked on the light switch. Ryan crouched at the foot of his bed
desperately trying to stem the flow of jellybeans as they escaped from the
torn cellophane that had held the colorful display in the store bought
baskets. They streamed off the bed and landed like machine gun fire on the
hardwood floor. Mike sat on his side of the bed in horror as his jellybeans
also began to cascade to join Ryan's doubling the rapid fire noise. Mama
appeared in the doorway rubbing sleep from her tired eyes. 

Lisa collapsed in a helpless fit of giggles. Mama knelt down to begin
gathering up the renegade candy. She said, "Ten second rule, let's get this
all collected in my lap and I will make sure it is clean. You can eat one
thing and then it is back to bed for all of you midnight marauders. It
sounded like we were being invaded by desperadoes with all the gunfire."

The three Swan children scrambled to collect the run-away candy. There would
be plenty of time in the morning to begin the serious business of trading
colors to get the most of each person's favorite flavors.

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