My Neighbors Essay, Research Paper

I’m sure going to miss their great friendliness and hospitality. They were always so nice to me, and my mom and dad. They were probably the best neighbors we have ever had. I think Judy was the first friend I met when I moved here from Wisconsin. We were both so young, it’s bad of me not going to the funeral. I’ll probably regret that I didn’t go later on but, I just couldn’t handle it right now.

“Brandon we’ re home”.

“Yea Mom I’m upstairs, do you think that anyone has moved into the Smites house yet?”

“No I don’t think so, why?”

“Because all the lights are on. Also there is a car that looks like the Smites in the driveway.”

“You know that is impossible their car was totaled in the accident. The police had to cut the car in half to get the three bodies out.” Well don’t worry about it. You know we just came from their funeral it must be someone from the real estate company who has a car like John and Beth had. Why don’t you come down and eat. We stopped and got pizza.”

“Sounds great I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Gosh mom why did you get all this pizza? Are you expecting company?” “No Brandon, if we don’t finish it tonight, I’ll put the left over pizza in the refrigerator.”

“Sure mom, like we’re going to finish it all tonight.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, I think you are in for a surprise tonight.”

“Hey.. uh mom what’s that old grungy book doing on the table?”

“Its an old book that’s been passed down through several generations of my family. I thought that you would like to look at it with me and your father.”

As I took a glance at this queer looking book I noticed the peculiar title that read MAGICO NEGRO. I figured it was spanish but had no idea what it meant. I ignored it and as I was hungry, and sat down for dinner.

When I was getting ready to chow down, my mother said “Why don’t we pray?” This had me stupefied because we usually only pray when it’s a special dinner or holiday But when mom picked up the freaky book I was alarmed and fearful of what she planned on doing! I saw that she had opened it to the “V”s and was looking at the word vecino in capital letters. Mom was acting very strange. She told my father and I to hold hands with her in a circle around the table. She then continued, telling us to repeat after her. Her words were not familiar to me as she said “sim sim sala beem”. We all repeated, again “sim sim sala beem.”

After what seemed like twenty minutes of repeating these odd words and phrases mom stopped. I felt a cold gust of winter air blow down my spine. I found this unbelievable as it was a hot August evening. I was really ready for the pizza, as it was getting cold, especially with the cold blast of arctic air blowing through the house. Just as I was about to dig in, mom said “wait for the guests.”

“What guests, I didn’t know any one was coming over!” Who could it be, mom and dad’s best friends were dead!!

DING DONG the doorbell rang, I don’t think I’ll ever get to eat. I hate pizza warmed in the microwave. Mom said “Brandon why don’t you get the door” I reluctantly agreed. As I approached the door I could see the outline of three people. One looked to be about my age with long hair. As I opened the door to see who was keeping me from my dinner, I almost fell over. In fact I guess I did fall over. The next thing I knew I was on the floor and Mr. Smite was trying to revive me, and Judy was holding my hand. I can’t tell you the thoughts that were going on in my head. Mass confusion, total disbelief, how could this be happening, they’re DEAD!

Mom came running in to the foyer to see what the commotion was all about. “Hi Beth, Hi John, Hi Judy, glad to see you again, thanks for coming.” Boy was I confused! What was my mother doing talking to three dead people. Someone had a lot of explaining to do, and this time it wasn’t me. They carried me in to the family room and set me on the couch.

“Well you see Brandon there is something we have been meaning to tell you about,” exclaimed mother. “We are all Brujos, in this country they call us witches and warlocks, but that sounds so cold and unbecoming. So we prefer brujos, after all, the magic is based on our spanish heritage. The Smites and us have been friends for over 250 years. You see, if a tragedy befalls one of us or our family we simply recall each other from the grave and begin life again in another city under a different name. That’s why we had to move from Wisconsin. Do you remember when you stayed with the Parkers for a week just before we moved? Well your father and I had a terrible accident. You remember that old rickety boat we had in Wisconsin, well your father and I were out one evening when it began to take on water, let me tell you, the water up there was mighty cold. We only lasted about an hour and a half when the hypothermia set in, my goodness it brings back chills just thinking about it. Well thanks to the Smites we are all a family again.”

Ok now the pizzas freezing cold I just found out that my parens are witches or brujos or something. What’s next? Is the Wicked Witch of the West going to come flying in on a broom, and where’s Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow and that lion guy, I don’t want to put up with all those Munchkins. They’ll eat all the pizza.

Needless to say I didn’t get much sleep that night. I couldn’t decide what it all meant. Was I a witch, or is that warlock, and how about Judy is she a witch too?

The next morning finally came, and as I walked down the stairs I saw the Smites sleeping on the floor of the family room. Still hungry from the night before I ate more cold pizza.

As the shock of the past evening was wearing off, I became more than a little curious about that book that my mother had been reading just before my whole world fell apart. As my curiosity got the best of me I began to systematicly search for the book. It had to be here somewhere, but where? I slowly tip toed through the house not wanting to awaken the sleeping dead, and just before I was about to give up, there it was looking as torn and tattered as ever. I picked it up and went to the kitchen table. Just as I sat down I could hear the footsteps of someone approaching me from behind. Thinking that I was in big trouble I tried to hide the book on my lap. Slowly turning arond and looking for the perpetrater I was relieved when I saw Judy out of the corner of my eye. “What are you hiding Brandon? What is that book?” As I strained to hide it from her view my grip weakened. Unable to hold it any longer the book slid from my grasps and fell to the floor with a thud that I thought would bring the sleeping dead back to life. Standing dumfounded in my jockey shorts in front of Judy was not what I had planned on doing that morning. The only thing I could do was lie. Lie like a dog. So thats what I did ” I .. I .. uh .. was looking for something to eat and found this book, what do you think it is?”

“Is that the magic book that my mom and dad told me about?

”Uh… what book is that?”

“The one on the floor that just fell out of your lap , duuhh!”

”Oh this book, my parents told me it was passed down from generation to generations. I don’t know what it is. I think its a cook book, yeah a cook book.” “You lie Brandon, its the magic book my parents told me about, isn’t it? you liar. Now let me see it.”

”No way, I found it, Judy its mine.

“Hey shut up before we wake the masters up.”

”The masters, who are the masters?”

“You know our parents.”

”Why do you call them masters?”

”Because they are masters of black magic”

”Black magic?”

”Yea B.M. I’ll be a master too one day”

”Uh, yeah whatever. Judy come on do you want to see what is in this book?”

“Of course I do”

”Then lets go outside, so we don’t get in trouble with our parents.”

“I don’t know if we should”

”Lets go down behind the plaza there’s a lot of open space back there and our parents don’t know its there, so lets go!”

“Excuse me, Brandon but I think you had better get dressed first, don’t you? ”

”Uh, yeah probably.”

”Ok I’m ready lets get our bikes and head to the plaza. Got the book?”

”Yeah it’s right here, now then lets move out.”

”Oh no, Judy you don’t have a bike. I think we’ve got an extra one in the garage you can use though it’s an old strawberry shortcake bike but it still works.”

“Sounds good to me as long as it’s sturdy and ride able.”

“Don’t worry it is.”

”Then lets hit the road .”

“OK Judy we’re half way their just have to make it through the trail.”

“Brandon I still think we think we should have gone the long way even though it does take longer.”

“Don’t be a weeny just hold the book tight and follow me! lets go!” “WAHOO! actually this is kind of fun, but I think this cheap strawberry bike is going to blow up or something, it’s a piece of junk!”

”Don’t worry we only have to get around this bend and we’re there. Ok maybe not this one but I am sure if not this one it’s the next one, yeah its gotta be the next one.Yes! I was right again! ever notice how I’m just always right.”

“Oh be quiet, you just like to brag!”

“Shush and get over here Judy, there’s an open space over her by the dumpster.”

“Oh how appropriate we’ll perform our magical incantations on a dumpster, what fun!”

“So would you rather go and perform them on the people in the front of the shopping center. Your a witch right I’m sure you’d enjoy that.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you since you found out you your parents were warlocks but I think that you need to calm down and think about all the advantages you’ll have.”

”Oh yeah like what’s so good about being a witch? ”

“Well first of all remember how I told you all my bad grades and things at the end of the last marking period?”

“Yeah?”

“Well all I did was use the ink erase spell I have in my Little Tots Sorcery Book and whamoo! all my low grades disappeared, and with the help of my computer I became a straight “A” student!”

“Wait a minute your telling me you got your own spell book at your house?”

“Yeah I do, don’t you have one?”

“I wish,! Why do you think I don’ t have one yet Judy? ”

“Maybe because your parents thought you would misuse it and wanted to wait until you were mature enough to use your own properly.”

“Well forget them, looks who’s got the big major book now I’m sure they’re sorry that they never gave me a spell book or told me I was a warlock for peat sake.”

“I’m sure that they had a good reason. If you want me to, I’ll be happy to teach you the basics of sorcery, kind of like an instruction manual or something like that.”

“Sure Judy I’ d appreciate that a lot.”

“Alrightythen bring the book over here and let me show you how it’s done.”

“Uhh Judy I think we have a problem.”

“What is it Brandon? ”

“This stupid book is all written in spanish!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“No really it is all in spanish.”

“I know that Brandon I was being sarcastic.”

“What does sarcastic mean?”

“Never mind Brandon you wouldn’t get it. We should be ok I took a whole year of spanish in sixth grade.”

“Oh yeah now we’re safe, you changed that grade from an E to an A right.”

“Well sort of but I still learned a lot.”

“Sure you did Judy, sure you did.”

“Alright I’m sure that we can figure out some of this stuff. lets see here I think that this one must be a spell for making cash.”

“Whoa you mean a money making spell! Let me do it.

“Fine just read the spell and do what it says.”

As I wasn’t familiar with these spanish terms I decided to say them out loud, so if I mispronounced one Judy could correct me. I started to say the words that were written in the book. It read, sic sic siado siate. So that is what I said, and before I knew I was in up to my neck in psats. I figured I would stuff’ them in my shirt and pants and no one would know, I would take them to the airport and go to the currency exchange! Soon I could not keep up with the mounting coin pile. I was being buried alive! All of a sudden, I felt an arm pierce through the pile of change and grab my wrist, quickly, I realized Judy was trying to pull me out. I pushed with my free hand and kicked with my feet whamoo, I was out! I asked Judy what we were going to do with all these psats, she said she hadn’t clue. After about ten minutes of her looking through the book, she found a spell that she thought was a gold making spell. I figured that getting smothered in gold was not my idea of a fun time but, thinking of how rich I’ d be I said ok. I went ahead and rehearsed the magical words to the spell in my head, cause I didn’t want to screw this up. After some mental preparation and a ‘hurry up already” from Judy, I went ahead and said the words, “gud gud i de de”. I shut my eyes, for a second nothing seemed to be happening. I assumed that I had mispronounced words, then as soon as I finished that thought, I was covered in a 3 foot thick layer of slimy, jiggly green jello. I could see Judy digging through my jiggly wiggly tomb. My sight through the jello was a blurry green and was always moving. I moved my arm and it felt like it weighed 500 lbs! After what seemed like an hour of eating green jello, peeling green jello and breathing green jello, I was free to move again!

As soon as I was freed from my jello cast, Judy had one more spell to make me do, I repetitively told her no, at least a dozens of times, after my last two horrible yet strangely pleasant experiences, I had had enough. But when she told me what kind of spell it was I couldn’t refuse. It was a spell to get any kind of food or drink, anywhere you want it, anytime you want it, for free!! I slyly grabbed the book from Judy and said ”Let me take a look at it.” I looked over the words and tried to make sure that it was a food spell and not another absurd demented get buried by an object spell. (since I had no concept of the spanish language this was pretty hard). But after a while of debating, and with Judy coaxing, I decided to let her do the incantation, because maybe I wasn’t performing them right. So after some mental preparation on my part, I let Judy say the magical mumbo-jumbo. She began in a much deeper voice, and I was so into her way of pronunciation, that I didn’t hear what she said, but whatever she said, she had planned it out. She was getting bored because she transported us back to my house with the bikes and everything. I could have shot Judy’s head off when she did that, but she made me go inside and this is how it went from then on.

“Oh thank heavens” said Brandon’s mom “we thought that the demons took up and got you, or something else terrible happened. Thank god your home. We called everywhere looking for you but, no one believed us when we asked if they had seen Judy too. Oh by the way Judy your parents are across the street with the movers, your parents were scared they would have to leave without you, go on, skedaddle, I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you again. bye Judy bye!!!!”

“Mom, dad how come you didn’t tell me I was a warlock or give me a little magic book.”

“Because honey, we were afraid that you were to irresponsible, and that you would lose it, or it would fall into the wrong hands. With it someone could screw up the magic, hurt people or themselves!”

“I know what that’s like mom, trust me I know what that’s like! Oh by the way mom, heres your book back.”

”Thank you Brandon, now go say bye to Judy before they go.”

“Alright mom, but where are they going?”

”To Georgia”

“What!”

“Hey Judy wait up. Judy I’m glad that you didn’t get on the broom to Georgia yet cause I heard that’s where your headed. I just wanted to say bye and I’ll miss you, thanks for helping me with my magic, and I hope to see you at the annual witch convention!!”

”Don’t worry Brandon I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

THE END