(The rough draft continues for those of you who love seeing what a story looks like in its rawest form.)
The next morning, a scream could be heard throughout the cul-de-sac – Turd had struck again. This time, he turned the hot water off of Sara, Piper’s mom. “THAT’S IT!!! YOU’RE BANNED TURD!!! YOU’RE OUT!!! NOW!!!”
Lucky for Sara, Piper was still at home, so she had her check to make sure Turd was out of the bathroom before she came out. Minutes later, she was pounding on Joe’s door with Piper bug-eyed behind her.
Joe opened the door bleary-eyed. He’d just woken up, and wasn’t happy that she was yelling at him before he’d had a chance to down his first coffee of the morning. He stood staring at her in his Spiderman jammies. Sara’s jet black hair was flat against her head, and she still had water dripping down her face. Sara was wearing her bathrobe.
“Do you know what Turd just did to me?” Sara didn’t give Joe a chance to answer. “He just turned the hot water off while I was taking a shower!”
Joe laughed. “He used to do that to me and Joe all the time.”
“I’M A WOMAN, JOE!”
“Oops! Forgot about that,” he mumbled.
“Thanks a lot,” said Sara glaring at him with her dark brown eyes. “I’ve had enough of his pranks! Did you know Piper can’t even do her homework without him typing along with her, or deleting her schoolwork?”
Joe rubbed his stubby chin, “I think she might have said something about it.”
“Something about it?” Sara was now giving the death look.
“Sara, you know as well as I do that Turd is a poltergeist! He does stuff. Always has.”
Pickles had now joined the morning yell. “Dad, think! Turd was in the shower with Aunt Sara. That’s going way too far!”
“In the shower???”
“What do you think I’ve been yelling about, Joe?”
“I don’t know. You know I can’t think without coffee.”
“Oh sure, and when we were little, you always claimed you couldn’t think without your first cuppa chocolate milk in the morning.”
Joe gave her a sheepish look. “Well…I couldn’t.”
Pickles and Piper Mysteries 