"Captain Invisible Pants!"

What if the toy in your cereal box was much more than you'd imagined...

“Get your hand out of that box!”

 

Gavin’s mom snapped her fingers at his little brother, Ben.

 

“How many times do I have to tell you boys; you can get the prize out of the cereal when you finish the box. Do not stick your grubby little paws in the Fruity Pebbles.”

 

Ben looked up at his mother with his big green puppy-dog eyes and whimpered,

 

“But Ma, it’s the Invisibility Super-Duper Magic Removable magnetic tongue ring!”

 

“Tongue ring? Young man you are 8 years old, you do not need a tongue…I take that back I don’t care if you are 58 years old I do not want to see a ring ever stuck through that tongue!”

 

 “You won’t mom, duh, it’s invisible.” Ben said enunciating all 4 syllables in the last word for effect.

 

His mother rolled her eyes and went up stairs shouting down, “I hear that, Benjamin!”

 

Ben immediately removed his hand, again, from the multi-colored box. Gavin smiled and slid off his bar stool. He walked into the kitchen and got into the cabinet above the stove. Gavin pulled down a huge royal blue glass punch bowl and carefully sat in on the counter in front of his younger brother. Gavin, an extremely bright 12-year-old boy, winked at Ben and grabbed the opened box of Fruity Pebbles. He began to pour the entire contents of the box into the punch bowl until a small, plastic-wrapped prize tumbled out, covered in a thin coating of sugar from the crumbled cereal pieces that had been smashed in Ben’s first few attempts.

 

 Ben eagerly stuck his hand in the bowl and grabbed the cereal, his cheeks stretched to his ears in an ecstatic smile.

 

 “Hold it.” Gavin said, as Ben slipped off his chair.

“Mom said you couldn’t have it till you finished the box,” Gavin turned and started towards the refrigerator. He opened the door and pulled out the milk.

 “But…” Ben started.

 “No buts, you wanted it, no you have to finish the cereal.”

 

He poured the rest of the carton of milk into the giant punch bowl and handed Ben his spoon. Ben groaned and Gavin picked up the sugary plastic coated treasure his brother had been vying for. When he opened the package he saw nothing inside.

 

 “What a rip-off,” he said; throwing the wrapper in front of his kid brother and then ran upstairs.

 

Ben sat on the stool for a second and waited. He carefully and quietly slid off and tiptoed to the stairs; he peeked up to see if anyone was coming then ran back to the kitchen. Ben opened the back door, carrying his huge bowl of Fruity Pebbles, and ran around to the side of the house where the family dog, Legolas, was lying near his over-sized food dish. Ben poured the cereal into the dish waking the dog with smells of sugar and also a slight shower of milk. Ben sat the bowl down by the dog’s saucer and ran back inside. He placed the empty cereal carton in the trash bin, grabbed his invisible tongue ring, and ran up to his room.

 

Once inside he closed and locked the door behind him. He looked around his room to see if anyone was lurking inside, then pulled his curtains closed so only a small sliver of sunlight peeked through. Ben sat on his bed, feet dangling, and held the plastic wrapper with both hands. He looked inside and saw nothing. Turning the wrapper over a small silver ball fell out into his open palm. Ben grinned. He threw the empty plastic onto the floor and jumped off the bed over to his full-sized mirror hanging on his closet door. Ben pried the two tiny halves of the silver ball apart and placed one half on the underside of his tongue. With his other hand he tried to find the opposing spot of tongue on the upper side and felt a slight pressure when the magnetic poles snapped into place adjoining the balls to his tongue. Ben looked in the mirror, tongue still hanging out of his mouth and admired his new pseudo-piercing. He made some silly faces at himself, but as soon as he closed his mouth something strange happened.

 

 

When Gavin walked back down stairs, catcher’s mitt in hand, he saw no sign of his younger brother. He’d only been up stairs for less that ten minutes, no way he had already finished all that cereal. He looked outside and called Ben’s name, no answer. Gavin shrugged and threw his mitt on the porch. Standing in the front yard he looked around for his little brother.

Legolas, the family’s huge German Shepherd-St. Bernard mix, came bounding around from the side of the house and jumped onto Gavin, knocking him down. As Legolas began to lick Gavin’s face he smelled evidence of Fruity Pebbles and milk. Rolling the dog off him, Gavin looked up to Ben’s window and saw his brother closing his curtains most of the way.

 

“That little…” Gavin hissed.

 

He ran over to the large oak tree that grew in front of the house and grabbed the lowest branch. He swung one leg up and pulled the rest of himself onto the closet branch by his brother’s window. He navigated his way to the edge and hopped off onto the roof. Crouching down low, he peeked through the curtains. His little brother sat on his bed and rustled with the empty wrapper he’d gotten out of the cereal box.

 

 “Stupid kid,” Gavin thought, “There’s nothing in it.”

 

His brother turned the plastic upside down and looked as if something had fallen out.

 

“Couldn’t be,” he thought, “It was empty; I swear it was.”

 

He watched his kid brother jump off the bed and go to the mirror.  Ben stuck his hands in his mouth and sure enough, when he removed them a small silver dot was stuck to his tongue.

 

“I’ll be damned,” Gavin said aloud.

He watched Ben making faces at himself in mirror; he scoffed and wondered, “Am I really related to this kid?”

           

            A squirrel scurried down his once occupied tree and Legolas jumped from his spot on the grass barking. When Gavin turned back around he didn’t see his brother. He looked all around his room, but no Ben. Just before Gavin began to climb back down Ben reappeared in front of the mirror, mouth opened.

 

 “Holy…” Gavin said aloud.

 

He lost his footing on a loose shingle and began sliding down toward the ground. Before he fell off the edge he looked up and saw his brother’s face, mouth agape, in between the curtains at his window.

 

–Thud-

 

Legolas stood over Gavin, licking the cut on his forehead. Gavin tried to lift his arm to swat the dog away, but winced in pain instead. His brother appeared at his side.

 

“Gavy, are you okay?” Every time Ben closed and opened his mouth he would disappear, and then reappear again.

 

            He grabbed his tongue with his little hands and slid the two silver balls off and carefully placed them in his back pocket.

 

 “Get Dad,” Gavin cried.

Reviews

[Wayne Peake]

Hi Jjacks

This was wonderful!

Very clever story, I really enjoyed it. Nice smooth storytelling, great characters, intriguing title.

[Roy Hudson]

A dog named Legolas eating Fruity Pebbles. I'm not even going to comment on the irony of that. =) This was a cool story. I love tales of wonder featuring kids. Reminds me of some of Ray Bradbury's older stories. Good stuff.