"What do we do now?" Ben asked, looking at the reporters but speaking to Pepe el. "I'm never going to escape these people. It's so hard being a famous person, Pepe el... harder than being a doctor or an astronaut or something easy like that anyway. Don't ever try it."
Pepe el vowed to never try being famous, especially when he saw how tall the reporters were. Pepe el knew for a fact that all reporters were tall so that they could intimidate the person they were trying to get an interview out of. And when they all got together, they could form a circle and lean over the innocent little creature they were trying to catch which left no escape route for said innocent creature. Pepe el knew this because his own brother - Alexander Phillip Harold Monarch - was tall and he was also a reporter when he wasn't a van driver for Susanna Ramirez. Pepe el also knew that when his brother wasn't as tall as the other reporters around him, Alexander Phillip Harold Monarch wore shoes with high heels on so that he could appear taller. Pepe el felt intimidated by his brother whenever they spoke on the phone (as the two did not want to appear before each other due to their environmental beliefs), and felt that Alexander Phillip Harold Monarch's height was evident in his voice. Thus Pepe el was intimidated enough by reporters and his brother that he did not wish to be famous like Ben.
Pepe el saw his brother's face in that of each and every reporter closing in on Ben. He was suddenly filled with a rush of anger, and wondered why his mother had had time to give Alexander Phillip Harold Monarch a complete and overly long name and was not even slightly bothered enough to complete his own name. Pepe el also saw in each reporter's face his brother's gait and long legs and was filled such powerful and overwhelming fury - built up from all the intimidation he had experienced over the years - that he charged at the group of reporters with all his might. This left a central tunnel through which Ben could crawl, as all the reporters fell to the floor and then got back up again in their attempts to catch him.
Both Pepe el and Ben were panting by the time they reached Pepe el's van which was neatly smashed into a tree. Pepe el smiled when he saw his brilliant parking which reminded him of an easier time in his life - a time where reporters did not exist. Ben saw the same parking and wondered how on earth they were going to get back home if they could not even start the car. Then Ben realised that home was actually a very dangerous place too, and figured that it would be better to find a hiding place with Pepe el than it would be to return to his house.
"What do we do now, Pepe el?" Ben asked. "I can't go home and this van won't start."
Pepe el thought for a long time, and Ben became increasingly impatient and worried. He was met with a sense of hopelessness and panic that was rapidly becoming familiar to him, and also present was the ever growing feeling of being trapped in his own lies.
"I've got to tell the truth," Ben whispered to himself. "I can't keep telling lies. It's ruining my once brilliant life."
Pepe el heard Ben's words as Pepe el pressed his right ear up near Ben's mouth, and thought that his ears experienced a nice breeze as Ben whispered, especially in the extremely hot weather. England had reached thirty degrees!
"You want to tell the truth?" someone asked from behind the van. "Tell the truth. See where it gets you."
Ben and Pepe el cautiously approached the van by stomping loudly and telling each other repeatedly that there was an intruder behind the vehicle. Pepe el told Ben that he would risk Ben's life in order to save his own. Ben was so touched by this show of honesty that he raised his arms to hug Pepe el. Pepe el, who had been touched by Ben's lack of honesty, also raised his arms to hug Ben. Then they both raised their arms to hug each other but did not actually come into contact with each other.
"If you two are done with your strange show of affection," Susanna said from behind the van. "I've got a car back here and you two need to get in."
YOU ARE READING
Junk Mail
HumorBen Hughes, a 22 year-old failure, has never known success. He's heard of it and he's dreamt of it, but it seems to have always slipped through his fingers. Taunted by his mother, and judged by the world, Ben decides to take matters into his own han...
