Dusty
Gaby O.
A note by the author: the characters in this story, Flups and Twig, are inspired by a free gift I once got in one of my favorite computer games called Toca Boca Life World.
“I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DON’T WANT TO GO! WHY?” I yelled.
“I don’t want to be blown away like one of those tumbleweeds from the cowboy movies.” Flups replied calmly.
Wait, wait, wait, slow down, did Flups just call himself a tumbleweed from a cowboy movie? Yeah, he did. How is that even possible for a human to be a rolling hay ball? Well, glad you asked, because we are not actually human. You heard me right, we are not human, not even alive, but we can still talk and communicate with one another. Can you guess what we are? Well, if somehow you are THE smartest human ever, you would have guessed - dust balls! And - DING DING DING - you are right! We are dust balls! And where do I want to go? Well, keep reading and you’ll find out!
Act 1- Escape!
Hi, my name is Twig and my brother Flups and I are dust balls and we live in the corner of the dining hall in Buckingham Palace. Yes, THE Buckingham Palace, you know, the one where the King of England lives, yup, I’m special like that. Anyways, I was getting bored of our corner in the dining hall, even though it was part of the palace and all. I felt strongly about this, but Flups didn’t agree, he was quite cozy in the dining hall. I badly wanted to change his mind, so, I came up with a plan.
Step one: tell Flups that we need to leave.
Step two: tell him we will go to Big Ben.
Step three (optional): he says yes and our adventure begins!
Guess it’s time to start with step one.
“Hey, Flups?” I asked.
“Huh, what do you want?” He answered back in a rude tone.
“I am honestly getting bored of the palace, so do you want to go…”
“OH, NOT THIS AGAIN! I told you SO many times I don’t want to go anywhere!”
“Well, what if I told you we are going to Big Ben?” I asked in the nicest voice possible.
“Oh my gosh, really?” Flups questioned.
“Of course! I mean, if you don’t want to go…”
“I DO! PLEASE, LET ME GO!” Flups interrupted.
I can’t believe my plan worked! Now it was time to pack! We would only bring the most important things, so here is the list:
Computer
Posters of Big Ben for a pretty vibe
Camera
Clothes (as in the king’s socks)
So yes, these are the essentials and ONLY the essentials. Now, it may seem hard enough to get to Big Ben, it being a landmark and all, but trust me, it’s even harder for us to get outside. I could not have planned a worse timing for our escape, because the maid, Annie, was at it again, cleaning the whole dining hall. This was going to take forever!
“All I want for Christmas is YOU!!” Flups sang. Of course! Flups loved to sing! If somehow, we could distract Annie with his singing, we could escape without being swept up! Perfect! It’s just, what song can distract her?
“Hey Flups, can I take a look at your records?” I asked.
“Sure!” Flups replied.
“No, no, no, no, WHERE ARE ALL THE GOOD CDs - wait, this is perfect!”
From experience, you know, of Flups singing all day, I know in the song Smooth Criminal, the lyrics keep saying “Annie are you ok?” So, that will distract Annie because it will seem like someone’s asking her the same question repeatedly. So, I took the record, put it on the player, and it said, halfway through the song, just like I wanted it to:
“Annie are you ok?”
“Wait who is that?” Annie asked, worried.
“So, Annie, are you ok?” the song asked again.
“Yes but can you answer my question?” Annie asked politely.
“Are you ok, Annie?”
“YES JUST TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!” As Flups and I were escaping, I knew the best and funniest part of this was still coming up, so I watched for about five more seconds.
“You’ve been hit by, you’ve been struck by a smooth criminal.”
“AHH! YOU HAVE BEEN A CRIMINAL ALL ALONG, SAVE ME!!” Annie then ran off screaming with all her cleaning supplies. I was laughing so hard and for so long that Flups had the pull me by one of my hairs just to move me.
“OWWW!” I yelled.
“Sorry!” Flups apologized.
Act 2 - Taxicab
Well, that was funny, wasn’t it? Anyways, back to the story. Now that we were outside, we had to think fast before the silly big footed pedestrians walked all over us and mushed us into lumps.
“TAXI! TAXI!” A tall, slightly thin man with a brown hat and a suit yelled. The taxi he was chasing came to a halt and the taxi driver, let’s call him Raphael, replied with a calm “Where you off to, mate?”
“My jo..job.. I’m so late and I just… Nee…need a ride!” The man panted.
“No worries mate, get in!” Raphael responded. The man quickly got in and just like that, I grasped my brother by the hair and clung onto the door handle of the cab. And there we were, speeding away to victory.
“YESSSS!” I screamed.
“Please God, LET ME LIVE! TWIG, ISN’T THIS TOO MUCH?” Flups screamed.
“No.” I replied with a smirk. “Come on, we are going to see BIG BEN!”
“I know, but, what if we don’t ever make it?” Flups asked.
“Well, that’s not a possibility, we are making it over to that beautiful tourist trap no matter what happens.” I exclaimed. As we started to pass many buildings, I decided to enjoy this beautiful city, considering the fact that I have never been outside before. Everything looked so amazing, this place felt like a real-life painting! Then I saw it, Big Ben. I tried my hardest to unstick myself, and after some serious tugging, I finally broke loose still holding on to my brother’s hair. And right in front of us, was Big Ben.
“It’s beautiful.” Flups exclaimed.
“Hey let’s take a picture!” I said joyfully.
“Let’s yell “we escaped”! 3-2-1...WE ESCAPED!!!”
CLICK!
Act 3 - The new corner
So yeah, now Flups and I live in the corner of Big Ben and life has been pretty good. There are a ton of other dust balls here that we can talk to. Flups is now a pro singer, and me? Well, I got to live out my biggest dream of living in a landmark. If you ask most people, “What landmark would you like to live in?” They would probably name a place they know they’ll never live in. But, me, I always said I wanted to live near Big Ben and I always believed that it would come true. Now when people ask me, I reply:
“Big Ben, baby!”