Chapter 2 - Details - The Key Reader

ROUGH DRAFT. This is nowhere near finished, and not proof read.

It was full moon, and the white light escaped through the half-closed curtains in the kitchen and displayed uneven, symmetrical shapes where the curtain failed to shield of the light. The only other light source was the open fridge. The egg shaped timer on the side of the stove revealed the hour; 5 AM, and I'd been unable to sleep since the phone call I'd made to the retirement home.
Wandering aimlessly through my room hadn't done much good, and after a couple twist and turns in my bed, looking for one position that wouldn't make me feel uncomfortable, I gave up, and figured food would be my companion till sun rise. Then I'd go back to my bed and yawn theatrically when my cousin Mark would knock on my door and tell me breakfast was ready.
  There wasn't much in the fridge, and I murmured to myself as I realized I'd have to go grocery shopping first thing tomorrow, preferably before anyone got the chance to notice I'd eaten all the food that was left. An almost empty carton of fat free yogurt and half a pepper were the only things in there which I knew for sure would be safe to eat, so I broke loose two containers of yogurt and headed for the kitchen counter to get a cutting board and a knife for slicing up the remainder of the pepper.
As I contemplated the idea about having the yogurt as dip for the sliced peppers (carrots taste wonderful with strawberry yogurt, so why not peppers?), I heard scooting sounds in the living room.
I sighed and cleared my throat and let out a long, restless sigh.
“Marrissa, you can stop sneaking around..”
A loud thump came from the living room followed by a low cry from my niece. The scooting sounds changed direction, and got steadily closer to the kitchen door.
“I wasn't sneaking around” she said under her breath as her freckled face appeared around the door frame. “I saw the light from the kitchen, so I thought I'd go turn it off.”
She walked into the kitchen, still dragging her feet after her. She was wearing pink Hello Kitty socks and a white flannel pajamas. Her naturally blond hair was messy. By the looks of it, she'd been sleeping for a while.
She looked at me for a second, looking perfectly innocent for sneaking up on me. She spotted the yogurt containers on the counter, her face suddenly bright.
“Hey, sweet! I thought those were Mark's!”
She started for the counter, intently pining for the containers with her arms stretched out. In one swift hand movement, I swiped up the containers with my free hand and placed them on the self with the cook books where she wouldn't be able to reach them. Marrissa was only nine, and short for her age.
She glowered at me and folded her arms, face red as if she was about to throw a fit. A few strands of blond hair fell over her eyes.
“Just don't crap your pants, okay?”
She stomped her way to the other side of the kitchen, and sat down on one of the kitchen chairs. I could feel her accusing eyes on the back of my neck. I could hear she was struggling to find a retorting response. After about a minute, she spoke.
“Why do you always have to be such a freaking prick?!”
She pouted, and looked in the other direction as I stopped cutting the peppers and turned around with concerned disbelief displayed on my face.
“Where the hell did you pick up the kind of language?” I demanded with a concerned “big brother” voice. Marrissa was like a sister to me, so naturally, I overreacted quite a lot.
She smiled smugly. She'd gotten the reaction she wanted. Playing her cards right now, and she'd get the yogurt.
“I think that's pretty self-explanitorial...” she said with an attempt to sound pompous.
“Self-explanatory..” I snapped back at her. “Jesus, don't you kids learn anything in school?”
She balled up her fist and slammed it into the table with full force. I raised my hands, demanding her to stop.
“Quiet, okay?! You're going to wake everyone up!” I said with a sharp voice. “The dog is going to start yelping any minute if you keep that up, you know how sensitive he is to loud sounds!”
Marrissa placed her fist on the table and slowly untwisted her hand, smoothing the fingers out on the table and continued.
“.. I think that's pretty self-explanitorial..”
I rolled my eyes.
“.. that I learn if from you. I heard you calling that Hummel kid a prick the other day.” She smiled victoriously.
 I put the knife down on the counter and put the sliced pepper into a bowl and dragged my feet over to the kitchen table, taking one of the yogurt containers from the shelf with me as I went.
“You better give me that yogurt” she said, pointing at the container that was still on the shelf. ” or I'll tell Mark you told Hummel he's a prick. You know he doesn't like it when you trash talk people behind their backs”
She studies my face as I dragged out a chair and got seated, probably expecting a multitude of reactions from me. I kept my calm, though.
“Well...”, I said, ripping of the plastic lid of the yogurt container and reaching for a pepper slice “he is a prick, so I'm only telling the truth. I think Mark thinks Hummel is a prick, too.” I looked up at Marrissa and grinned swiftly.
“Touché.”
  Ignoring her suddenly still composure, I curiously took a piece of pepper, now drenched in strawberry yogurt and popped it into my mouth, letting the flavors mix. Marrissa looked up as she heard the pepper crunch between my molars, and stared at my face intently to see what kind of reaction the taste would induce. I chewed for a while, trying to make up my mind about the taste.
“So..”, Marrissa said after a moment of suspense, “how was it?”
She could be a real pain in the neck sometimes, but her ever so childish way of evaluating things always made me feel at ease for some reason. She was too sweet for her own good. Always so enthusiastic and energetic. She couldn't go more than 10 minutes before she'd be bored with whatever she was doing. I sure loved that kid, though. She was so much like I'd always wanted to be. As a nine year old, I'd be spraying the neighbors cat with the garden hose and placing frozen Pop-tarts under my parent's bed sheets, and laugh like a madman when I heard their agitated voices around bedtime.
  I took another piece of pepper from the bowl and dipped it in the yogurt.
“Have a go”
 I held out the piece encouragingly. She looked at it suspiciously, as if it was something dangerous and eerie that would come to life is she touched it. She studied my facial expressions for any subliminal messages they might reveal as she tentatively reached out her hand to take the piece from me, then quickly pulled it back once she held the piece between her fingers. She studied it closer and frowned.
“Was it bad?” she demanded.
“Try it”
“But if it's really bad, I don't want to eat it!”
“I said try it!”
“If I eat it and get sick, it's your fault!”
“You're overreacting.”
“I'll wait to see if your face turns green”
“.. Huh?! What are you talking about?”
“You just had a piece. If it's bad, you'll turn green any moment now.”
“That's ridiculous. Who told you that?”
“Frank. His mom's a doctor, so why would she lie?”
“You can't be serious. Frank's a real shithead anyhow..”
“Hey!”
“Sorry, I didn't know he was your boyfriend..”
“Cut it out!”
“Just eat the goddamn pepper already!”
“If you stop swearing”
“Won't happen”
“Then I won't eat the pepper”
“What are you, four years old?!”
“Hey!”
“You're afraid to try anything...”
“But, (NAME), stop being so...” her voice shaky this time.
I sighed again.
“Quit being such a cry baby and give it a try! It's not dangerous, and if you don't like it you can just spit it out, but don't knock until you've tried it.”
That seemed to do the trick, because Marrissa pressed her lips together and stared at the piece as if she owned it, with a devious expression displayed on her face, eyes glimmering. The change was so swift. Marrissa didn't seem to give anything a try unless she knew exactly what was expected of her.
She stared intensively at the pepper, and traces her lips on the inside of her lips, and made a popping sound with her lips.
“You have nowhere to go now, pepper. Give up, or you'll be thrown into the darkness of my evil tummy where you'll have no chance to escape, and then you'll end up..”
My shoulders sank, and I looked pleadingly into the moon lit sealing and took a deep breath, as if to refrain from bursting out in hysterical accusations about her being a coward again.
“Sorry!” Marrissa said, and covered her eyes with her free hand and stretched out her tongue to carefully place the pepper on it. Slowly, but surely, she pulled her tongue back. She held for a second before closing her mouth, still covering her eyes, but now with both hands.
It was cute. I snickered to myself as she made a face as if she'd just eaten dirt. Without further ado, she spat out the half eaten piece on the table, where it landed, covered with saliva.
“(NAME)! That. Was. Terrible! You tricked me!” she said with a voice full of resentment and scraped her tongue with her finger nails.
My shoulders were shuddering as I tried not to laugh out loud, and gave Marrissa a pat on her head. She glowered at me when I didn't stop laughing.
“Cut it out already..” she murmured, but I could hear she had a hard time not joining me in my laughing fit. She picked up the piece and threw it at me.
“Gross! What the hell was that good for?” I yelled at her, feverishly drying up the wet patch of saliva from my t-shirt with a napkin.
“For you being a jerk!” She was laughing now.
"That makes absolutely no sense..."
She snagged a pepper from the plate and started nibbling on it.
I couldn't help but to smile.

Author's Note

KEEP IN MIND, THIS IS NOWHERE NEAR FINISHED, and there are tons of errors in there, I know.
Also, I don't want to give you the name of the main character yet, so (NAME) will have to do for now.