1 CH.1 - Please! Please! Please Grandma! Please!

"Laura, Brandy! It's time to come inside! Dinner is ready! "Grandma calls. My little sister Brandy mutters "awww" as she climbs down the slide ladder. "I almost did it this time Grandma." I start swimming away from the base of the slide. "Grandma can we please swim a little bit longer? Brandy almost did it!" I exclaim. Brandy tugging at Grandmas shirt excitedly pleads. "Please Grandma I almost did it!" Grandma placing her hands on her hips with our towels draped over her arm says. "Brandy you two have been at this for weeks and you still haven't slid down the pool slide. You girls ask me this every time and you still don't do it." Brandy wines. "But I was going to this time!" Grandma begins to speak but gets interrupted by a never ending chant. "Please! Please! Please Grandma! Please!" My sister and I kept repeating. "Please! Please! Please Grandma! Please!" Then Grandma shouts towards the house. "Bernard! Come and make your granddaughters behave! They wo...." she is cut off mid sentence. "Woman leave those girls alone!" Grandpa yells demandingly. Shivers run down my spine. Grandma looking aggravated back at us huffs. "Okay... go ahead but you have five minutes then you have to come eat dinner." Grandma turns around still looking aggravated and went and sat down on the back patio waiting there with our towels for our five minutes to be done. I quickly jump back into the pool and position myself at the bottom of the slide as my little sister shakily climbed the ladder. "Brandy make sure you do it this time!" I called to my sister. "Are you sure you're going to catch me?" She whimpers in return. "Yes! I'll catch you!" I reply. Brandy sits down at the top of the slide and grips the sides. I call up to her. "Are you ready?" She mumbles. "mmhmm." I call out. "Okay... do it on the count of three! One... two..." She closes her eyes tight and grimaces. I think too myself "Oh great she's not going to do it again" as I roll my eyes in aggravation. I continue. "three!" She whimpers and sits there still grimacing clinching the sides of the slide with her hands. "Do you want me to count again?" I ask. She nods squeezing her eyes shut tighter. I sigh, already knowing how this is going to end. "One... two... three!" She whimpers again. I sigh. "One... two... three." Again she whimpers. So I keep repeating "One... two...three." Seemingly forever. Grandma calls out to us "You have one minute!" Brandy starts to cry. Grandma continues on to say "If you aren't going to do it get dow..." "Carole! Leave them alone!" Grandpa shouts coming through the sliding glass door to sit on the patio. I shiver.

Brandy lets out a whimpering squeal type sound and flings herself down the slide. I snap back to from the distraction of the shivers at the last second. SMAK! SPLASH! I feel a small foot slamming against my face as my sister collides with me a we both get pushed under the water. The Chlorine burns my eyes and nose and just before I close them I notice the arm floaties Brandy was wearing float to the surface. Immediate panic filled every inch of my body! I look down toward the bottom of the pool and see Brandy with her eyes tightly closed holding her nose and mouth with both hands squirming and kicking trying desperately to swim. She was getting nowhere... in fact she was quickly sinking further into the deep end of the pool! Why! Why did they have to install the slide right at the edge of where the shallow end turns into the deep end? I only just learned how to swim last week but without a second to spare I swam after her! My heart pounding harder and harder the deeper she sunk! "Oh God please don't let Brandy die" I pray repetitively as I swim as fast as I can towards her reaching out my hand to try and grab her! Finally I got ahold of her! As I swoop upward toward the surface my toe rams into the drain at the bottom of the pool. Pain shoots through my foot! I nearly gasp quickly covering my mouth and nose with one hand trying to not let any more air escape! I continue swimming upward as fast as I can. I'm starting to get dizzy but I'm almost there! I push Brandy above the water seconds before I surface both of us coughing and choking on water. Brandy begins to scream and cry.

I guess Grandma and Grandpa just now noticed what had happened because they just flung out of their seats the chairs flying across the patio as they race to the side of the pool as I swim towards them with a screaming crying Brandy. I reach the edge of the pool and Grandma quickly scoops Brandy out holding her close frantically inspecting every inch of her. Grandpa grabs me out of the pool every inch of me trembles with fear and exhaustion. I squirm away from Grandpa as he is still inspecting me and run to Brandy's side pulling her down towards me so I can look at her almost ripping her out of Grandma's arm as she tries to comfort her. Grandma kneels down holding Brandy so I can see her. Brandy is screaming and crying with snot and tears draining down her face. "Brandy!" I grab her face and turn it towards me so I can see if she is ok. Her expression immediately changes once she opens her eyes to look at me. She stops screaming and sniffles a few times then she starts to giggle. Me still holding her face. "Brandy?" I question as I look at her slightly confused. She begins laughing then points at my face. I get even more confused. Then she gently pokes me five times in a line across my forehead and giggles. "You have a foot on your face!" I let go of her face and sure enough I begin to feel throbbing right in the middle of my face. I reach up and start inspecting it. It stung slightly when I touched the bridge of my nose and forehead. Then it dawned on me.... Oh yeah... she kicked me in the face on the way into the pool... I look back at Brandy and she is laughing pretty hard. I give her a smirk which for some reason makes her laugh hysterically.

I start to feel a burning pinching sensation in my toe so I look down. But before I could say anything Brandy gasps. "Laura! Your toe is bleeding!" And she is right there's blood... lots of blood! I feel a terrified look appear on my face then Brandy starts to cry again. Grandma hands her over to Grandpa and goes and grabs one of the towels she dropped on the way over here. Brandy squirms out of grandpa's arms and squats down by my foot. Grandpa heads towards the back door. "I'm getting the first aid kit." He shouts as he walks through the doorway. I sit down on the ground watching the blood pouring out of my toe. Brandy sniffling with tears flowing down her face inspects my toe and looks up at me. "Laura? Does it hurt bad?" She asks as she starts to whimper. I look up from my toe into my little sisters eyes. "I need to be strong for her. She's only four, I don't want her to be scared." I think to myself. I soften the horrified look on my face and smile at her. "It hurts a little bit, but I'm okay." she wipes her face with her arm and slightly smiles and nods then goes back to inspecting my toe. Grandma wraps the towel around my foot and holds my toe tightly. "Bernard! Did you find the first aid kit?" She yelled toward the house. "I've got it Carole!" Grandpa aggravatedly yelled as he walked through the back door. On his way over to us he grabbed the other towel and plopped it over Brandy's head and patted her head as he made his way down towards my foot. Brandy giggles as he ruffles the towel around on top of her head. "Carole get this munchkin inside." Grandpa says with a smirk. Grandma got up and went over to Brandy and squatted down in front of her and whipped the towel off her face to behind her head. "Boo!" Grandma said excitably giving Brandy a big smile. Brandy giggled while bouncing and running in place. Grandma picked her up and headed towards the back door. Brandy whipped her head around to look at me when they reached the door. She excitedly called to me. "Laura! I did it!" I couldn't help but smile at her. "Yes you did!" I yelled back to her.

After they made it inside Grandpa unwrapped my foot. "Aaah... it's not that bad. You just scraped a few layers of skin back." He stated as he dabbed the remaining blood from my foot and toe. He began rummaging through the first aid kit. "Grandpa? You don't have to use rubbing alcohol do you?" I asked nervously. He pulls out a bottle of iodine. "Nah... a little bit of monkey blood will work just fine." He replies. I sigh in relief. He dabs it on and replaces the flap of skin to where it is supposed to be and gently smoothes a Band-Aid around my toe. "There good as new!" He says as he helps me up and pats my but. "Now get in the house and dry off." He says as he gets himself off the ground.

I head inside and Grandma is already waiting with a towel for me. She dries me off as I scan the living room for Brandy. Grandma hands me some dry clothes. "Here... go get changed. I'm proud of what you did." She says then bends down and kisses the top of my head. Then she heads into the kitchen. I start toward the bathroom keeping my eyes open looking for Brandy. I hear grandma in the kitchen. "Ah-Ah! You know better Brandy!" Grandma scolds. I look in as I pass by. Brandy is sitting at the kitchen table with a plate of food in front of her and a guilty look on her face holding a chicken dumpling in her hand behind her back. I smirk and slightly chuckle. Then change in the bathroom and put my wet clothes in the tub next to Brandy's. I go into the kitchen. Everyone is at the table waiting for me. Grandpa at one end of the table and Grandma at the opposite. Brandy sitting next to Grandpa and it was my turn to sit by Grandma. Brandy turns around and smiles really big. "I did it! I slid down the slide Laura!" Brandy exclaims. I smile back. "Yeah! You did! I'm proud of you!" I say happily. Before I could make it to my seat she hopped down from her chair and runs over to mine and pulls it out grunting. "Laura? Is your toe okay?" I smile at her as I sit down in my chair. "It okay! It's all better!" I assure her. Brandy grunts as she tries to push in my chair. I secretly help her scoot my chair in. "Wow! Brandy you are getting so strong!" I tell her trying to sound amazed at her ability to push in my chair. She giggles as she runs back to her seat flexing her arms like a bodybuilder. Grandpa helps scoot Brandy's chair in. "Who wants to pray over our food tonight?" Announces Grandpa. Brandy immediately begins bouncing up and down in her seat waiving her arms around. "Me! Meee! I do!" She squeals. Grandpa nods and we grab hold of each other's hands. Brandy proudly straitens up in her chair and closes her eyes then clears her throat. We all close our eyes too. Brandy starts to pray. "Dear God, thank you for the food grandma made for dinner. Let it help us get big and strong. And thank you God for Laura..." I slightly open my eyes to peek at her. She has a big proud smile on her face peeking at me with one eye still closed. I smile and we both closed our eyes. She continues. "Please God make her toe get better fast. Amen!" Everyone opens their eyes and lets go of each other's hands. Grandma smiles at Brandy and proudly says. "That was a very nice prayer Brandy! I bet when you grow up you will be a pastor just like grandpa won't you?" Brandy looks at grandma with a puzzled look on her face. "No... I'm going to be a ice cream lady... then I can eat all of the ice cream I want!" She says. We all chuckle and start to eat.

After we finish our dinner Grandma begins clearing our plates. As grandma grabs my plate she pats my head. I look up at her. "Grandma? Are mommy and daddy going to take us home tonight?" I ask slightly sad sounding. As she turned to put my dishes in the sink she answered. "No... not tonight. They are going to come get you girls tomorrow morning. So you need to get all your things ready tonight. Go ahead and get ready for bed and get packed." I looked down sadly. "Oh. Okay." I mumble. Grandma comes over and pets my head. "Go on sweetheart." She kindly urges.

Brandy and I quickly get ready for bed and pack our things. Then we come out to the living room to say good night. "Good night grandma... good night grandpa... sweet dreams." We say almost in unison. We run over to grandma and give her a hug and kiss good night. "Good night girls sweet dreams!" Grandma sweetly says. Then we go over to grandpa as grandma walks into her room to go to sleep. We give him a hug and kiss good night. "I'll be in there to tuck you girls in and read you a bedtime story in just a minute." He says as he pats us both on the but. "Go on and get in bed I'll be there in a minute." He continues.

Brandy and I run into the middle bedroom and hop into the bed and pull the blankets up over ourselves. "Laura... I love you." Brandy says as she rolls on her side to look at me. "I love you too Brandy." I say as I gently pat her head. We hear the bedroom doorknob rattle and look at the door. The door creeks open sending shivers down both of our spines. Grandpa walks into the room with a book in his hand. He sets the book on the dresser and closes the door and bends down and switches on the nightlight. He stands up and turns off the overhead light. Fear rushes over my entire body and I begin to shake. Grandpa turns around and I look over at Brandy. She is squeezing her eyes shut and shaking too. I hold her hand under the blankets. Grandpa locks the door and approaches the bed removing his belt. Brandy squeezes my hand tightly and opens her eyes. I look into her eyes and see the horror in them and look back toward grandpa as he removes his pants. I feel my heart begin to beat out of my chest and I feel overwhelmed by fear. My state of panic worsening the closer he gets to us as he holds his erect p***s.