Move to Monster City

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Day 1, Saturday,



I remember the first day Mom said we were moving. Already I was breathless, my heart feeling as if it would rot up and just…I don’t know…falter. But the real shock came later. And you know when you’re in shock? When your heart starts to pummel your insides, and it seems to twist in a knot, and you think everyone in the room…heck…to Mars can hear it. You hear the blood pulsing through your ears and you sort of go into a cold sweat. But really on the outside you can’t say a thing. Your jaw drops to the ground and your eyebrows scrunch up like an old man’s face, and you get this funny twitch in your eye like you just saw something…gross.

Plus, all the while you’re just staring there with a puddle of drool dripping at your feet, and your parents are flapping their hands in front of you trying to get you to wake up, but you just can’t. You’re just staring out into space, somewhere non-reachable by the people who kept this secret from you for so long. Then finally, you start to blink and blink while just sitting there, your hands placed in your lap.

Your parents, realizing that’s you're not a zombie, slam down the phone (but not before telling the lady on the other end that the ambulance won’t be needed) and they look into your eyes. If you have parents like mine who are all happy about the news, they flash you these creepy smiles and just…stare. And once they see your not going to talk and they don’t want vultures banging down their door they repeat the news. And if you’re like me the next thing you feel pulsing through your veins is rage.

“I know, honey isn’t it great?”

But all you can say is, “W-who. Huh? Wh-when, how…”

“Oh, sweetheart this is just amazing.”

Even worse, your parents just smile at each other and you want to start bawling on the floor but you know they've already made up their minds. Next, they start telling you all this bogus junk that makes you wish you could go back in time. Like this:

“When your father and I heard about it, we snatched up the opportunity. Besides, you don’t seem to be having much fun over here anyway. Remember you told me you’d rather live on the moon or something?”

I admit it, I did, and I wish I could go back in time and tell myself what a mistake I was committing but it was too late.

“Oh come on, Kiddo, it’ll be a new, thrilling experience. Cherish this moment and think of all the knowledge you could gain.” Leave it to Dad to make a situation even worse with a corny life lesson.

And as if my face wasn’t pale enough they had to go and repeat where we were going to live.

“Give Monster City a try, Dylan!”