“Hi Christi! JJ, don’t swing the cat around!” I swung 6-year old Christi up in the air and she laughed. She tugged on my long, blonde hair. I set her down and playfully tugged on her hair. She giggled and ran into the kitchen. “Alright, so I’ll be home around 8 o'clock tonight. Is that alright?” Nancy asked me as she hugged Christi. “Yeah that works out great! Then you can pay me tomorrow.” I gave her a sweet smile. “Alright. JJ, come give mommy a hug.” Nancy hugged JJ and left to go to work. Me, Christi and JJ watched her car leave.
Christi climbed up into my lap. “What are we gonna do now, Sam? Oh, I have something to show you!” She suddenly jumped up and ran up the stairs. 10-year old JJ, who sat there quietly, mumbled something. “What did you say?” I asked. He got up and left the room. Huh, I thought. That’s strange. Suddenly I heard Christi scream. I jumped up and rushed up the stairs. She was sitting on her bed, screaming and crying. I sat down on her bed next to her. “What’s wrong?” She pointed at the wall. There was a black spider. I laughed and rolled up a magazine and swatted it. She stopped crying. “It was easy.” I told her. “You just hit it with something and it dies.”
She gave me hug and quietly thanked me. We walked down the stairs and I went into the kitchen to start lunch. I was cooking ravioli when I heard JJ yelling. Then he stopped. I decided I should check on them. I checked their rooms. No one was upstairs. I check the living room. No one. Then I noticed the basement door was open. Why were they down there? I walked down and stairs and when I saw it I felt a pang in my chest, like I was shot. JJ was laying on the ground in his spider costume he had gotten for Halloween. And standing above him, was Christi, who was holding a baseball bat. When she saw me, she smiled and pointed at him. “It was easy. See.”