Joke's On You

The last of the winter rain poured down to the countryside before spring would enter. Days were warming and the sun appeared more often. On that day however, all the babies (even Breeze, Ginni and Olive. They had came for a sleepover) cowered behind pieces of furniture.

The loud, frightening sounds of thunder and lightning sounded more like a terrifying monster. With each crackle, the babies whimpered even louder. “Don’t worry,” reassures Skip, “If anything happens, good old Skip will protect you.”

Henry mumbles, “Thank you.”

“Maybe if you tell them a story, they’ll feel better,” suggests Harlin.

“That’s a brilliant idea, Dad! Thanks!” praises Skip, “Alright babies, what genre do you want?” Grace asks, “What is a gone rah?” Skip realizes the babies have not yet learned that word yet and says, “I mean what type of story do you want me to tell you?”

“Scary!” shouts the babies in unison, since today the newest word they learned was, “scary”;

Skip gives his dad a puzzling look. Skip asks, “Are you sure? What about a fairy tale instead?”

The babies reply, “No, we want a scary story!”

Harlin shrugs, surely his son couldn’t tell a too creepy tale to the babies. “Once upon a time, no scratch that! On a dark and a stormy night there lived a young rabbit boy named a Skippity Jones.”

Harlin starts laughing. “Is something funny?” inquires Skip.

Harlin replies, still laughing, “Skippity Jones, that is hilarious! Continue, please.”

“As I was saying,” narrates Skip, “Skippity Jones was alone that night. He was an only child and his parents were away on a business trip. It was dark and stormy, just like tonight. Suddenly Skippity Jones heard the front door swing open with a weird creak. When he went to check on the door, the shadows from the window enlarged!”

The babies scream in terror and Harlin laughs some more. “As I was saying,” Skip says, slightly annoyed, “Skippity could here skittering noises on the floor above him.

Skippity hid behind the table, but when he finally got up, he noticed the tea in the cup was now red! Red because of blood!

No one knows what happened to Skippity Jones, for when his parents came home he was gone! Authorities only found a teddy bear, the rest of Skippity’s toys had disappeared with him! Some say Skippity turned mad and ran into the forest with his toys. However the legend says, the Teddy Toy Taker stole all of the boy’s toys and sucked out Skippity’s soul and placed it in the teddy.”

“Wait, if Skippity is gone, how come you know what he heard?” questioned Breeze.

Skip, a little surprised he had missed those details, replies, “Skippity Jones was a very organized rabbit. He wore matching colored clothes and wrote down the things he did that day. Therefore, Skippity Jones took note of what sounds he heard and what things he saw.”

Breeze answers, “Oh, okay!”

“Moving on, Skippity’s parents were devastated and his parents always kept that teddy bear on the fireplace mantle piece.

Inside the teddy, Skippity’s soul remained there forever. Everyday he screamed for help, hollered for his parents to save him, yelled for an escape. However till this day, Skippity is still stuck in the teddy bear, unable to die he stays in there forever and the Teddy Toy Taker creeps on,” Skip narrates with a spooky tone.

“I don’t want to be a teddy bear!” wails Honey, “No offense, Teddy and Tedda.”

Ginni cries, “Too scary!”

“I do not like this story,” sobs Henry.

“Great, now they’re even more scared,” Karen scolds.

“Here. Some donuts,” soothes Bellia, “Now you all should go to bed. I’ll set up Ginni, Olive and Breeze’s mattresses for the night.”

“How come the authorities could not find Skippity? Was the perimeter searched? Did they question the neighbors? What were the clues? How many search parties were sent? Did they just give up after 1 week?” interrogated Breeze, always being the “smart one” amongst the babies.

Skip yells, “I’m the storyteller, so no questions!”

Heidi informs everyone that it’s time for bed and one by one everyone files into their beds for the night. “Sleep tight!” whispers Harlin to his darling daughter, Honey.

Honey replies with worry in her cute voice, “What if Teddy Toy Taker come and put my soul in toy? Me scared.”

Harlin starts calming his daughter, “Never fear, Honey, daddy is here. No Teddy Toy Taker is taking my Honey away!”

Honey giggles and tells her father good night. The house quieted down and soft snores began. Creak, creakkkkkk! “Huh? Who’s there?” Skip says, awoken from the noise.

Bell mumbles already about to fall asleep, “Go to bed, Skip. Good night already.”

“I heard something. It was like a door’s creak just like in my story,” Skip explains.

“Haha, yeah right,” ridicules Bell, “It was probably nothing.”

Bell drifts off to sleep, but Skip gets up and starts investigating what exactly happened. As he walked through the hallway a large shadow appears! Skip shrieks and runs to his bed and pulls the covers above his scared face.

Skitter, skitter, skitter! “Who i-i-is there?” he stammers.

Skip gets up once again, but he notices the shelf where some toys are kept are gone. The teapot set, the toy boat and Tedda was missing.

No, no, this was just a story, Skip tells himself in his mind, If it’s just a story, I’m finding the truth.

Skip walks to the bathroom and finds Harlin at the bathroom too, putting away a lamp. “What are you doing?” both ask.

Skip answers, “Finding the truth about the missing toys, creaks and strange noises.” “Oh,” Harlin replies, “I was replacing the lamp’s light bulb and I had a cup of tea. Now go to bed, it is getting late.”

Harlin returns to his bed, but Skip still searches for clues. There were more shadows, noises and missing sounds and Skip got even more afraid. “What’s happening?” he whimpers as he runs behind the dining table, “I don’t want to be a toy. I want to be me!”

Skip gets up and stares into a teacup that his father had drank tea in. Instead of being empty, the cup was filled with a red liquid, blood! Skip screams, “HELP! HELP! I”M GOING TO BECOME A TEDDY BEAR!”

After all the racket, Harlin comes down laughing hard. He takes the blood filled cup and drinks it causing Skip to run to the kitchen and grab the chopping knife. “Stay back, you Teddy Toy Taker! Did you kill my dad?” he screams.

Harlin puts his paws up and says, “Skip, it was a joke! I creaked the door open by moving it slowly. To make the large shadows I went outside to the balcony and shined the lamp to make shadows. When you went back to bed I slowly took away the toys. As for the skittering I just went upstairs and ran a lot and when I was putting back the lamp you caught me.”

“And the blood?” questions Skip.

“That was just cherry tart cake filling. It’s delish!”

“So the Teddy Toy Taker is not real, right?!”

Harlin nods and says, “Yup, joke’s on you!”