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Blonde curls bounced behind Katie as she bounded down the stairs. Green eyes filled with excitement shone in the house lights. She turned to look into the living room to find her father reading the newspaper, illuminated by the only light turned on in the room. A bare foot tapped to the rhythm of the classic rock station. Jeans and a t-shirt replaced the slacks and long-sleeved shirt he wore when he left that morning, which Katie took to be a good sign. He was probably in a cheerful mood.
“Daddy?”
“Yes, dear,” he replied without turning his head.
“I’m going to be playing downstairs tonight.”
The newspaper crinkled as he lowered it to see his daughter, his face half covered by his big smile. “Did I do well with the doll house?”
“Yes, I love it. I’ll come up for bed. You don’t need to come get me.”
He nodded and turned back to his newspaper. Katie knew he wouldn’t come looking for her, but it was routine for her to point out how responsible she could be. He spent months working on the house for her, and whenever she went down to play with it, he never came to check on her. Sometimes if she would come up later than she was supposed to, he would just grin and send her off to bed if she said she was playing with the new house. She usually was too. She’d get so wrapped up in the adventures she developed that she lost track of time.
But that’s not what she was doing tonight. Tonight, she had plans to go on a real adventure with the cutest boy in the eighth grade. Joey Harper was two years her senior, but grew up next door and often visited. As they grew older, Joey visited less to play with guys instead. Locality probably played a role in inviting Katie, but she didn’t care. As long as she got to go, the reasons didn’t matter.
Slipping quietly out the back door, she went around the house to find Joey dressed head-to-toe in black. A black bookbag hung low on his back. Shaggy dirty blonde hair fell over his forehead. She could barely see him in the shadows, but he saw her. A low groan came from his lips at the sight of Katie's silver sequin shirt.
“Good thing I wore layers,” he mumbled, and Katie watched as he slipped off a hoodie and then a long sleeved shirt. Throwing the shirt at her, he returned the hoodie and bookbag to his back.
“I was trying to look nice,” she whispered, but Joey didn’t answer. Katie could feel his annoyance, and taking a deep breath, she tried not to look hurt. He didn't tell her what they were doing tonight. She had hoped Joey would appreciate the effort she put into her wardrobe. She thanked herself for choosing the jeans and tennis shoes over the black skirt her mother bought her for a wedding and flip flops. Pulling the shirt over her head and feeling its warmth comforted her. She could smell the almost forgotten scent of his house, a mixture of baking cookies and his cat, Misty.
Joey led her past the darkness of his house and down the street. His parents were probably out for the night, and she hoped Joey’s adventure wouldn’t be long enough for her parents to start missing her. He led her to the park they used to play at and across it to the jungle gym, covered in shadows from the street lamps throughout the park. Katie could barely see Joey’s face, except for his blue eyes that shone even in this dim light.
Sitting under the jungle gym, Katie felt like the jungle gym had gotten smaller. Joey's head rested against the bottom rung, which long time ago, that rung seemed almost unreachable when she sat underneath it. This used to be their childhood hideout. Their place to hide when their friends portrayed as cops would come looking for them. Here they would plan out their little schemes, hiding from their mothers. As they grew older, they moved their adventures into the basement. As Joey grew even older, he moved to his own house with more masculine friends who would play baseball or video games. Katie kept making her own adventures, but it was never quite right alone. That's why she picked up her dolls again. She needed other personalities than her own. Eventually, she asked for a doll house. Her adventures needed a setting of course. She never expected here to be the first setting of her real adventure.
Taking off the bag, Joey sat down on the ground, propping the bag against his leg. Slowly, to make as little noise as possible, Joey unzipped the bag, and Katie sat next to him and peered inside. Normally, Joey's bag was full of school books, video games, and once even a lizard, but none of these things seemed to be there today. She could see nothing in the dark, but something inside found a little light and glimmered. Reaching in the bag, Joey pulled out a small black gun about the size of his hand that shone all over now that it was out of the bag. He handed it to Katie, who took it in her hand. Katie just stared at the object for a moment feeling its heavy weight in her tiny hand. “Is it loaded?” she whispered.
He nodded, and she tried to return it. “No, that one’s for you. Dad has plenty you know.”
“These aren’t like the ones he keeps downstairs.”
“No, those are mostly rifles and shotguns. He keeps the handguns upstairs. They display better in a case, but he thinks all those guns would scare whoever walked in the house.”
“I can imagine.”
“Are you scared?”
“N-n-no. I just wasn’t expecting guns.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t be shooting them.”
“What are we doing with them?”
“We’re just gonna scare some people I know.”
“Who? Why?”
“This guy on my paper route. He’s always complaining that he doesn’t get his paper. I tried telling him that his dog takes it, and he just replies that I should get it up on the porch. I don’t have time to slow down for this guy, and my boss keeps cutting my pay every time this guy complains.”
“Why don’t you just tell your boss?”
“Doesn’t work.”
“Still doesn’t seem necessary.”
“You don’t have to come.” Standing up, he threw his bag back on and leaned against the jungle gym, staring off in the distance.
“No, I’ll go. Might be fun to be in a real adventure.” She took a deep breath and wrapped her fingers around the handle. That felt uncomfortable. She moved her hand to the barrel of the gun. At least now it couldn't go off, right? Why did she have to have a gun, too? She knew nothing about guns. Still, what other choice did she have? She didn't want to tell Joey in case he sent her home, and that's definitely not what she wanted. She didn't spend all her spare time trying to create adventures to chicken out of a real one.
“All right, put this on.” He threw a black ski mask. Katie pulled it on, but she wasn’t even done hiding her hair before she felt a tingle in her nose. She tried to ignore it, but failed and let out a big sneeze. “Katie…” Katie couldn’t tell how annoyed he was with the ski mask hiding his facial expression, but he didn’t sound too mad.
“Sorry, it itches.”
“Just get over it, okay?”
Katie rubbed her nose, and the tingling subsided. Joey started to move away from where they came, and Katie followed. He walked briskly, and Katie felt she could barely keep up. Joey turned a corner and faced a small, simple house. An awning hung above the porch lighting up a few toys and a green porch swing. Various flowers bordered the brick walk leading up to the house. The delicate house looked peaceful and undisturbed, and Katie wished the house was gray and falling apart. But she couldn’t change that. This is where Joey wanted to go, and Katie followed him around the house.
A large tree grew up next to the house. The trunk was thicker than her arm, and the branches looked like they could hold five of her, but the lowest branch was still out of reach. How was she going to get up there?
“C’mon, I’ll give you a boost,” Joey said. Katie turned and grinned, but Joey didn’t even look at her. She imagined him wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up, but her hopes dropped as he crouched down and cupped his hands together to give her a boost. He just lifted her to the lowest branch, and she scrambled on. Moving forward to give him room, Katie looked down at the awning that wrapped around the house. She felt something hit her back as Joey climbed on the branch. “I’m gonna go around you,” he whispered, and Katie felt his strong hand on her shoulder. She watched carefully as he moved around her and lightly jumped on the awning. A small thud filled the night, and Joey stood motionless. Katie feared he may have hurt himself, but after a moment, he moved, motioning for her to follow. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and jumped. She felt his hand on her arm this time, as he helped her get her balance.
Quietly, they moved to the window. Joey put his ear to the window. “Nothing,” he whispered. With a few squeaks, Joey lifted the window and climbed in to the house. As Katie followed, she entered what was was probably a small office. The window opened next to a wooden desk with a computer on top and a chair in front. A full bookshelf and brown couch stood on the other side of the room. Faint sounds of a television rose from downstairs. Cautiously, Joey led her down a hallway, covered with pictures of a young boy at various ages. Why did there have to be a boy? Hopefully, he'd be in bed already.
Joey found a staircase and headed down it. They tiptoed down the steps, and Katie put all her concentration into not falling or making a sound. Crouching at the bottom, Joey peered into a brightly lit room. Moving to the side, he let Katie have a look. A clean kitchen with apple wallpaper shone in the light. Past the kitchen was the living room where three people sat, a mother, a father, and the boy from the pictures upstairs, now about six. The mother and son sat on a big brown couch, while the father sat partially hidden behind a newspaper in a matching chair. The father sat motionless until he turned the page only to resume his stiffness. A small clicking noise emitted from the needles sitting in the mother's hands. A little red car raced over the arm of the couch, and Katie believed the boy was making driving noises as he pushed the car back and forth, though she couldn't hear him.
A shadow fell over Katie as Joey stood up behind her. His fingers tapped her back. A shiver ran down her spine, and she stood. Joey’s figure momentarily blocked the light as he ran into the living room with his gun out and yelling “Nobody move!” His voice sounded grown up, reminding Katie of her father’s when he gave her an order. With a burst of energy, Katie ran out, mimicking Joey’s movements. The little boy cried out in fear, as his mother dove across the couch to block her son from harm. Blonde hair covered her face so only one eye could be seen in the mass. Her entire body shook, while Katie’s filled with excitement. Katie glanced at Joey who pointed his gun at the father, who had lowered the paper to watch the intruders with wide eyes. Gesturing toward the couch, Joey got the father to move toward the rest of the family.
“There’s no need to get violent. What do you want?” the man asked.
“Shut up,” Joey answered.
Whiny cries came from the boy smothered by his mother. “You shut up, too,” Katie yelled to the boy. She no longer pitied the small child. Reality no longer felt real. Instead, she felt emerged in one of her basement adventures. Cries had turned to whimpers.
“Run for it!” Joey cried, and Katie dashed for the door. Fumbling with the lock, Katie was finally able to turn it with a clunk and throw open the door. Entering the darkening night, Katie felt draped in the light of the street lamps, but she could find no dark place to run to. Running as fast as she could, she could hear the pattering of Joey’s feet behind her. She wanted to run home, but she didn’t know where she was. No cries from Joey gave any advice. A sharp pain grew in her right side, forcing her to slow to a walk. Block after block she walked holding her side. Suddenly, police sirens filled the night, and she tried to run again. It was too difficult, and she couldn’t even run another block. Flashing lights came from the next street, and she turned to run into the next yard. It was too late. A police car rounded the corner and slowed to a stop.
“Put your hands in the air!” The words filled the night sky, and Katie’s hands rose to join them. “Put down the gun!” The words echoed off the houses, and lights filled the windows across the street, lighting the yard below. The lights behind her must have done the same because Katie felt like she was under a spotlight. She dropped the gun with a muffled thud. “Don’t move.” The voice was deep and commanding. Katie barely dared to breathe as a tall policeman exited the car and walked toward her. Reaching her, he pulled down her arms and wrapped them in handcuffs. The metal was freezing and didn’t quite fit.
By now, another policeman was at her side. “She’s just a little girl.”
“Still gotta read her her rights,” the other policeman answered and started giving a speech that sounded like it had been practiced too many times. Katie didn’t understand a word.
“What?” she asked.
“Just don’t say anything until you talk to your parents and a lawyer, kid.” The car ride was short and quiet. No one spoke, and they barely moved, except for one officer continuously tapped a pen against his leg. The night replayed in her head. Less than a few hours ago, she was trying on every outfit she owned, and now she was riding in the back of a police car. Arriving at the station, Katie gave her name and phone number. She was led in a room and asked to wait for her parents to arrive.
Now that the excitement was winding down and Katie was left alone, reality set in. This was real. She was just picked up by the police with a gun in her hand. Question after question flooded her brain too fast for her to answer any. What was going to happen now? How did her future look now? What happened to Joey? What would the kids at school say? What would her parents say? Would they trust her again? Katie tried to drown out these thoughts by concentrating on the dull steady hum of the ceiling fan.
Suddenly, the door flew open and her father burst in. “What in the world were you thinking?” He paced back and forth in the room in disbelief and suddenly stopped in front of her. He just stood and stared at her. His hands open in front of him. Nothing in his face moved. Not a twitch. Not a blink. He just stared. Jaw set, waiting for an answer. Beside him, the lower half of her mother's face was covered by her dainty hand. Redness and tears filled her green eyes. They looked at Katie for a moment, but quickly looked away. Under her mother’s eyes, black blotches sat, and Katie noticed another patch of mascara on the cheek where her fingers stood, shaking. She knew her mother was breathing deeply by the way her nostrils flared.
Katie looked back at her father, whose only change seemed to be enlarged eyes. Glancing back at her hands, she caught a glimpse of her father’s clothes. The slacks and dress shirt had returned. She wrung her hands tightly to keep them from shaking like her mother’s.
“I don’t know,” Katie whispered. Her chin almost touched her chest, and she could no longer look her parents in the eyes.
“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’? What the hell were you doing out at 9:30 with a gun?” The last word seemed to shake the chair she was sitting in with its power and lingered in her ears.
“Joe-”
“Joey Harper was in on this? I knew it! You are not to see that boy anymore.”
“But dad-”
“No buts! I don’t want to hear it. You’re in jail Kathryn! You can’t see him when you get out of here. That’s assuming you get out of here.”
“I don’t think they’ll be too rough on her, Mr. McAllister. Turns out her gun wasn’t even loaded, and nobody got hurt. They will definitely do something, but she’ll get out of here.” Katie turned to the doorway to see a man dressed in a brown suit. He barely came up to her father's shoulders, even though he stood with his back as straight as he could. A balding patch could be seen on the top of his head through tufts of gray hair. A briefcase sat in his hand. Katie assumed this must be the lawyer who was supposed to protect her. Then, why didn't he look at her?
“Mom?” Katie looked helplessly at her mother, who finally lowered her hand.
“We’ll see what the police have to say, and then we’ll deal with the rest. Come on, James, let’s go talk with them.” Katie's father sighed and walked out the door, followed by the lawyer. Her mother pulled out a red handkerchief and dabbed her eyes. “We’ll be back soon, sweetie.” Her mother sniffled, and exited.
Katie watched them leave with a tear. She wasn’t sure who she was saddest to lose, Joey, her parents, or possibly herself. | 
