U-WRITE-IT RESULTS

"What are you talking about?" said Amy, looking at the sandwich curiously. "Why are you experimenting on a delicious sandwich?"

"Well," said Cary, gently taking the sandwich from Amy, "If you'd eaten that sandwich, you would have regretted it."

"What's so special about it?" asked Amy, reaching in the refriderator grabbing a glass of water.

"I need it to..." A terrified look appeared in Carry's eyes as she saw a shadow move out of the corner of her eye. "Don't move," Cary whispered.

Thomas was home from school a half an hour before Cary. Thomas sat out in the yard and waited. He was glad to have Cary as his brother. He looked out for Thomas.

He waited and still Cary didn't come out and he hoped Cary was okay. What would he do without him. Thomas was still a kid.

Finally he went back into the kitchen where Cary sat at the table a empty glass of milk in front of him.

"Where's my sandwich? You told me to run away"

"I ate it. Good too." He licked his lips.

"Why did you tell me to run?"

"April Fool, April Fool," he yelled.

Curious about what caused today's outburst, Harlen turned the brown paper parcel over, taking a closer look. Spiky handwriting spelled out five names, one below the other: Mr. Grant, aka Peter Joshua, aka Alexander Dyle, aka Adam Canfield, aka Brian Cruikshank. No address. No return address. Three tired looking stamps were affixed to the upper right corner.

Laying the package with the rest of today's mail on the bed, Harlen walked around behind the wheelchair. "C'mon, Cary. Let's head out for the day room. Lawrence Welk is on this afternoon."

"Lawrence Welk?" His panicky breathing now back to normal, Cary began humming some old dance tune Harlen didn't recognize.

"Yep, good ol' Lawrence." Harlen chuckled. "I bet that cute little Norma Zimmer will be on today, too."

Still humming, the old man wearing big, black-framed glasses closed his eyes and smiled.

"It's just another moment. That's what it is," uttered Jerod calmly.

Cary continued to pace around the living room, mumbling and making her little brother, Chase, look up from his game boy and eye her oddly.

Jerod was emotionally exhausted when it came to dealing with his fourteen year old daughter. He helplessly looked from Cary, who was ranting, to his plugged-in son, and then to the cluttered bookshelf filled with all of the self-help books that seemed to be screaming, "You're a failure."

Pausing a moment to catch his father's eyes, Chase said dryly, "Guess she needs her meds upped?"

The sarcasm in his son's voice cleared the tension in the air. Jerod laughed, breathed deeply and picked up the phone. It was time to make another appointment with the child psychiatrist.

"It's WHAT?" Carefully peeling back the top slice, I half expect to see a slab of C4 explosive residing on whole wheat.

Nothing but the aroma of filberts and chocolate assaults my nose. My gnawing stomach kicks into a growl. "WHAT is it?" I ask.

Peering around the kitchen door jamb, Cary whispers in a voice oozing venom, "Supercrema gianduja! They made me eat that stuff that summer with Rosa's family. Remember? I broke out in a nasty rash all over my body? My throat swelled up?"

Cary is so dramatic. She's also selectively forgetful. While gathering a roadside bouquet for Rosa's mamma, Sandrina, she'd accidentally harvested some Italian version of poison oak.

I sigh. "You mean Nutella?"

"Yes, NUTELLA," she hisses back at me.

I m not offering you any, Cary. This is MY lunch. Go make your own sandwich.

"Yeah, pull the other leg," Cary's sister told him. "Chewygood, if that's a made-up name, I don't know what is."

"I'm telling you, sis, put it down and run away. I've got the Chewygoodians appeased for now, but I don't what they'll do if you bite one of them!"

"You're so full of beans," his sister said and chomped down on the sandwich, which immediately began to squeal and squirm.

Cary passed a hand over his face. "Now, you've done it. There'll be an interstellar incident over this! I just hope I can stop..."

There was a very loud bang and Cary and his sister watched as half of the planet Earth sailed off into the universe toward the sun.

"...them from ripping our world apart," Cary finished, his voice trailing off. "Way to go, sis."