Cause a Riot

Chapter 5

'The boy walked into his brother's room that night. His brother was waiting for him with his flashlight on, grinning. The boy held a finger to his lips as he cocked his head to the hallway, trying to quieten the crinkling noises the bags of snacks were making in his hand. His younger brother looked thrilled as he got up, grabbing the pile of games from underneath his bed and walking to the boy. The boy laughed quietly. "You gotta be quiet," he whispered. "We're not supposed to be awake this late so if Mom and Dad find us, we're dead."

"You're the one making all of the noise," his brother said, pointing the flashlight to the hallway. "Let's hurry."

The two boys snuck into the hall, past their parents' bedroom, down the stairs and to the backyard door, not turning on any lights as they did. The opened the backyard door quietly and walked outside into the warm summer March night. They ran stealthily to the grass, where the older boy had set up a tent. The older brother held the tent flap up as his younger brother entered and then pulled in the bags of snacks in after him. His younger brother squealed with exctiment.

"Shhh!" the boy hissed. "Do you want to get us caught!"

"No, this is just my first time doing this."

"You're such a baby."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Whatever, what did you get?"

The older brother smiled. "Chips, cookies, and some skittles. What about you? Which games did you decide for tonight?"

The younger brother sprawled the board games out on the sleeping bags between him and the boy, sticking the flashlight in between two pillows.

"I have all these, but I want to play Quelf, first."

"No!" The boy said. "I hate that game! There are too many dares!"

"You can't take a little challenge?"

"I can but it's the middle of the night, smartie!"

"So, what? That'll make this all the more fun!"

The boy pursed his lips but he thought that was a very reasonable answer. "Fine. Let's play."

The excitement in his little brother's eyes made him smile. His younger brother could be really cute sometimes – sometimes, mind you. At other times, he was a real crybaby.

The two brothers laughed and ate away the whole night. They did the silliest dares that were hard not to laugh loudly at but they managed to keep it down - even when the boy picked up the card where he had to say "hear me, for I have spoken," at the end of every time he said something. His younger brother had to whisper-laugh and it made his stomach hurt.

Suddenly, late into the night, when the boys were getting so sleepy that they had crawled under their sleeping bags but stubbornly refused to stop playing the game, holding the cards in their hands, the door to the backyard banged open. The boy and his younger brother whipped out of bed and saw the backyard light turn open.

Uh oh.

The flap to their tent swung aside as their mother, looking angrier than their math teacher, pulled the boys by their ears and led them out of the tent, scolding them the whole time.

"Goodness, you two! You gave your father and me a heart attack! What were you thinking?! How dare you leave the house without permission? No, Cuzo, it doesn't matter if it was just in the backyard, you had to tell us first!"

Cuzo glanced at Malroy as they were led away from their tent by the ears. His younger brother could only offer him a sheepish smirk which Cuzo replied with a smirk of his own. It was the most fun he had had in weeks! Getting in trouble was worth it.

They saw their dad standing in the doorway, a sleepy Janna beside him. He sure looked worried, pale in the face. "I checked your room," he said as they entered the house. "I got so afraid when I saw you missing!"

"Sorry, Dad," Cuzo said, sheepishly. "We were just trying to have some fun."

"Well!" their mother pulled his ear tighter, and he squirmed.

"Mama! Mercy!"

Janna was giggling which made Cuzo's face go pink in embarrassment as he and Malroy were dragged up the stairs – their mother not letting go of their reddening ears.

As he lay in his bed, pulling the blanket over him in a sleepy haze, their mother having warned them with a threat to talk to them in the morning, one thought popped in the back of Cuzo's mind. He closed his eyes wondering, since when did Dad do nightly checks on us?

Cuzo smiled meekly as he stared down at the lake beyond the bridge railing. He missed those times dearly. He wished he could go back. He wished that his little brother and him could play games and eat snacks all night long instead of worrying about where they'd even get food the next day. A lump appeared in Cuzo's throat as he walked away, off the bridge to continue his search for food. He didn't want to beg – he really didn't. Cuzo had heard that restaurants threw their food at the end of each week so their food could remain fresh. He had to find that food so that Malroy and him didn't starve like they had yesterday.'