Floating. Off the bed, while still hugging Anne. It was a fun feeling, not a stomach-dropping feeling or a light-headed feeling. Fun.
“OH MY-ANNE WE ARE FLOATING!” I tried to stay quiet so my mom wouldn’t hear.
“What do you mean-AHHHHHHHHH!”
“Anne, shhhh!” But it was too late.
“Girls? Girls, are you okay?” I searched my mind for an excuse.
“Yep, there’s just a spider!” I called. “Anne is terrified of spiders!”
“I hate spiders!” Anne wailed. She was good at acting. I somehow floated down to the ground and stomped on the imaginary spider.
“Killed it!” I announced.
“All right! I have to go, we are picking up a-”
“Don’t spoil it!” I heard my dad’s voice now. “Tell her when we get back!”
“Okay, okay.” My mom agreed. “Bye, girls! Be good!”
After my mom left Anne and I stared at each other with wide eyes.
“The rings made us float?” I finally said.
“I guess so...these really are magic rings!” Anne marveled. “Wow!”
“HEY! The other stones can probably make us float too!” I exclaimed. “But I guess they have to be in ring form or something to work. We need to get more rings!” Anne agreed.
“A quick trip though. Let’s grab one of each color.” Anne decided. We walked out of my room and saw a note on the table. It read, ‘Your father and I are on a quick errand - be back in an hour. Love you, Mom’.
“An hour?” Anne exclaimed. “I don’t think that qualifies as ‘quick’.”
“Who cares? More time to grab some stones.” I shrugged. “And let’s make no one’s following us this time.
(Forty-Five minutes later)
Since Anne insisted on checking the back to see if the stuff on the ledge was still there (which it was) we took longer than expected.
“Anne, come on! We can look at this later! We have to get home before my parents!”
“Okay, okay! Did we get all the colors, just in case? And the ring bands? Okay, let’s go!” We finally left and we were able to get home before my parents.
“Ah, the greatness of not being killed by my parents!” I joked. Anne laughed and we took the stones and ring band to my room. We had decided not to put them in the band yet so we didn’t start randomly floating in front of everyone.
“Okay, put them on my bed.” I told Anne. Anne carried the stones and I had all the bands. We dumped everything on my bed. I decided to put a small purple stone in a ring band first. We got stones that were all the same size, just in case.
“Okay, putting it in, in three, two, and-”
“Hi, Kate! We’re home!” My mom’s voice filled the hut. “We have a surprise!”
“Come on out here!” My dad’s voice said. “Or do we have to...come get you?! Haha!” Anne and I exchanged frantic looks.
“Quick! Hide the stones!” I whispered, then shouted, “Coming!” Then I whispered, “Once they’re hidden, come out too.” I got off my bed and ran into the kitchen.
“Hi, Mom! Hi Dad! What were you doing during your ‘quick’ one hour errand?” i joked. My parents smiled at each other.
“Well, we know how much you loved those baby piglets-”
“Especially the little tiny pink ones-”
“And we love you so much-”
“Just give it to her!” Then my parents presented me with a baby pig, tiny, that was light pink with a dark pink spot in the shape of a flower over its eye. I gasped. Anne ran out and saw the piglet and gasped too.
“Awww!’’ We both cooed. My parents gave me the piglet and it squeaked. I held it and looked at its big brown eyes.
“What are you gonna name her, sweetie?” My mom smiled.
“Peony! Her name is Peony!”