Chel and Riley Adventures

Riley looked over at Chel then back at his mom. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, the weatherman said that some storms are moving in, so if you’re going over, you’d better hurry. I don’t want you out in the rain,” she cautioned.
“But what if it’s raining when we’re ready to come back?” Chel asked.
“Good question,” Mrs. Conner smiled. “Just call me and I’ll pop over in the car and pick you up, that way you won’t have to get wet.”
“Oh, what a great idea,” Chel responded with no excitement whatsoever.
“Come on, Chel,” Riley lightly slapped her on the side of the arm, “it will be fun.”
“Oww!” was Chel’s response.
Riley looked around, “I wonder if we should take anything with us from the adventurer’s kit?”
Riley’s mom held up a hand, “How about I bag up these cookies and you can share them with your friend?”
Riley and Chel both nodded in agreement.
Mrs. Conner stepped away for a moment and grabbed a small bag and put a dozen or so cookies in it for the kids. As soon as the kids had the cookies in hand, Chel and Riley bounded out of the back door.
In the backyard, the two looked up at the sky to notice some black clouds rolling across the sky. It was slowly getting darker and the two knew if they wanted to get to Sagon’s uncle’s house, they needed to hurry.
“Just a minute, I want to say ‘hi’ to Lazer,” Chel said as she ran over to the dog’s kennel. She looked in and was surprised to find that he wasn’t there. In a moment of panic, she remembered when Riley’s dog had been kidnapped and was concerned that maybe it had happened again. Well, really Lazer hadn’t been kidnapped but the two had thought he had been kidnapped.
“Where’s Lazer?” Chel asked.
“Oh, he’s around here somewhere,” Riley replied.
A loud growling noise startled the two and Chel sunk behind Riley.
“What was that?” she said fearfully.
“It came from the side yard, let’s go see!” Riley took off to the side of the house.
Rounding the corner of the house the two saw Lazer face-deep in the ground growling at something. He would growl for a second and then dig. The hole in the ground was growing rapidly.
“Oh, no,” Riley shook his head, “dad’s gonna skin you alive.”
Lazer responding to Riley’s voice looked up with dirt covering his beautifully masked face and wagged his tail. He was proud of his work.
“What’s he after?” Chel wondered.
Riley went over and tried to brush some of the dirt off of his coat and Lazer responded by licking Riley in the face. “Probably just a mole or some other critter. He does this, and guess who has to come back with a shovel and rake and fix it?”
Chel smiled before she answered, “Your dad!”
“No, me.” Riley’s head sunk. Riley stood up tall and deepened his voice to try to sound older, “I like Lazer a lot, Riley. But he is your dog and your responsibility.” Riley stood tall with his hands on his hips, pretending to be his father.
“At least you get to have a dog,” Chel said jealously.
Chel walked over and stroked Lazer’s fur. He responded by barking happily and wagging his tail even faster.
All at once he hunched down on his front paws, tail still wagging, and barked. He jumped up and ran around in circles and stopped in front of the two in his crouched position. “arf!” Lazer said again.
“Sorry, buddy, no time to play, we’ve got an old friend to meet up with.” Riley and Chel patted him one last time and began walking towards the gate that led to the street.
Lazer turned his head as the two headed out of the yard. He then spun around and dove nose first back into the hole again and started growling and digging.
The walk to the Fourteen-Forty Elm Street was uneventful. The two chatted about the different games they could play once they got there. As they walked, the sky darkened even more and the wind began to blow. The leaves on the trees began to rustle as a storm grew closer to them.
Chel and Riley had almost forgotten about the condition of their destination until they suddenly walked up to a mailbox on the sidewalk that had the number one thousand four hundred forty written on the side of it with faded paint.
The two turned and looked through the broken fence and up past the un-mowed lawn to the front porch of the very large and dark house.
“CRASH!” came the sound of thunder as it rolled across the sky.
“We better hurry,” Riley began, “the storm is almost here.”
Riley started walking up the overgrown path, but Chel didn’t move. Her eyes were fixed on the overall spookiness of the house in front of them.
Riley turned, “Come on Chel,” he said, “we don’t want to be out here during a thunderstorm. It’s dangerous.”
“More dangerous than in there?” She said as she pointed at the dark, old house.
A flash of lightning shot across the sky behind the house and another crash of thunder boomed all around them.
The two knew they had to get inside and they both ran up to the covered porch and stood before the door.
The sky was growing dark and they could hear the smacking sound of rain as it hit the grass. The two looked at each other for a moment wondering who would reach up to the tall door and knock.
After several seconds, another flash of light brightened the sky and a long boom echoed all around. Riley reached up and grasped the knocker and rapped on the door one, two and finally three times.
The two stood back as the door creaked open towards them.