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Shaylah came back down the steps- pulling her grandfather along with her. He had to duck his head very low as he entered the room.
“What in the world have you guys found?” said their grandfather, as he was looking around the dark room. “Let me see that flashlight Izayah!” he said, holding out his hand for the light.
“Can’t you see it Grandpops?” asked Izayah, not understanding why his grandfather needed the light when the rest of them could still see from the glowing light of the Oogie’s hair, even though it was a lot dimmer.
“No- I can’t see!” “It’s just too dark down here for anyone to see anything.” he answered Izayah, as he waved the light back and forth into the darkness. How in the world did these kids find this, he thought. What in the world is it here for?
“Come on kids, all of you.” “Let’s get you all back up these stairs and out of this old pit.” he said, as he started them moving back up the stairs. “I don’t know how in the world this got here- but I don’t want you guys playing down here, okay?”
“But what about the Oogie Man?” asked Alaysia.
“Come on now, you’re too old now to be thinking there’s any such thing as a Boogie Man.” her grandfather said.
“Not a Boogie Man grandpops, an Oogie Man!”- she tried to tell him as he was shooshing them up the stars. But her grandfather didn’t pay any attention to what she was saying.
After getting everyone back up onto the yard, the children’s grandfather, grunting from the effort- closed the heavy wooden door back onto the hole.
“You guys can stay out here and play, but don’t be going back into that old root cellar.” their grandfather ordered them. “You should have come and told me about it sooner.” “I need to make a couple phone calls & see if I can find out what it was there for from the previous owner.” “He should have told me about it.” he said, as he walked back to the house.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Alaysia.
“I don’t know, answered Izayah- but we just can’t leave the Oogie down there like that.” “I almost wish that we hadn’t told Grandpops about it.” said Alaysia, feeling sorry for the creature in the root cellar.
“We had to tell him.” said Shaylah. “Besides, grandpops would have come out here and found out anyway when he saw the door opened up in the yard.” “Grandpops isn’t dumb you know!” she exclaimed.
“I know grandpops isn’t dumb Shaylah.” “But, now what are we going to do since he told us to stay away from the door?” Izayah asked her.
All four of the children just stood there gazing down at the door, each of them lost in their own thoughts. All of them feeling sorry for the Oogie.
“Come on, let’s go play!” said Micaiah.
“Yeah!”- chimed in Shaylah. “It’s going to be dark soon and then we’ll have to go inside.”
Both Micaiah and Shaylah took off chasing each other through the yard, laughing and squealing as the girls began to play the game of Tag. Alaysia and Izayah just stood there, staring at the door. Both kids worried as to what was going to happen to the hairy creature down inside the root cellar.
“We aren’t going to just leave the Oogie down there, are we Izayah?” asked Alaysia, her voice almost quivering from the sadness she was feeling inside.
“I don’t like it either Alaysia.” answered Izayah. “But what can we do?” “Grandpops would really be mad if we disobeyed and went back down into the cellar.” He said to her.
“I know, I know!!” she said. “But the Oogie has been down there for soooo long already, Izayah, and it sounded like it was about to start crying when grandpops made us come out of the cellar.” “Have you ever heard anything sound so sad?” she asked him.
“I feel sorry for the Oogie too Alaysia.” he said. “But just remember- We still don’t know for sure that it wont hurt us.” “The Oogie will be okay for now.” “Like you said- it has lived down there a long long time, and it survived.” “It will be okay for now, so don’t worry, okay?” he asked his sister.
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After he had closed the door to the cellar and warned the kids not to go near it, the grandfather went back inside the house. He went into his den, opened his desk drawer, and rummaged through it until he found his address book. He sat down in his favorite chair, picked up the remote and pressed the button to turn off the television. After finding the phone number he was looking for in his address book, he picked up the phone from the end table beside his chair and dialed the number to the man that had sold him the house just a few months ago. As he held the phone to his ear, he listened as the phone rang, and rang, and rang. After several rings with no one answering, he gave up. I’ll have to try again later, he thought as he laid the phone back onto the receiver.
Humph- he grunted as he thought to himself. Why in the world would I not have been told about that old root cellar? Kids could have fell in there and gotten hurt. Then he thought about what one of the kids had said when they were in the cellar and laughed to himself. What imaginations they have, he thought to himself. Where, in their sweet little minds, did they come up with the idea of an Oogie Man? Ha ha!!
“Well- he said aloud to himself as he got out of his chair, grunting from the effort. I’m going to have to do something about that cellar before one of them goes down there again, maybe gets trapped in there, or worse.” “I can’t have that.”
He walked through the hall that led to the back door and stood looking out through the window. He saw Shaylah and Micaiah chasing each other around the yard. Alaysia and Izayah were still standing by the edge of the door that led to the cellar. Going to have to distract those two I see, he thought to himself.
Pushing the back door open so that they could hear him, he yelled out: “Alaysia, Izayah- can you two come here please?’
Both children started at their grandfather’s voice, instantly looking at each other and feeling guilty- because both of them felt as though they had been caught in the act of doing something they shouldn’t have been.
“Coming grandpops!” “Coming grandpops!” Izayah and Alaysia answered as they turned and began to walk towards the house to see what he wanted.
“Do you want us too grandpops?” asked Shaylah.
“No sweetie.” he answered. “You and Micaiah can stay out and play.” “Just remember what I said about staying away from that old cellar, you hear me?”
“Okay Grandpops.” They both answered and went right back to tagging each other and yelling “Your It.” as they began to play tag again.
Alaysia and Izayah went into the house and found their grandfather in the kitchen pulling a bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator.
“Here we are grandpops!” exclaimed Alaysia. “What did you want us for?” she asked.
“It’s getting to be pretty close to time for dinner and I thought you two could help me get something whipped up.” “What do you think?” “Want to help your ol grandpops fix us up something to eat?” he asked, while thinking to himself how clever he was to come up with the idea of distracting the two of them from thinking about that old root cellar.
“Sure we’ll help grandpops.” said Izayah. “What are we going to make?”
“Yeah Grandpops- what are we having for dinner?” asked Alaysia, just realizing that she was hungry.
As he got out some glasses for all of them and was setting them on the counter so he could pour them all some orange juice to sip on while making dinner, he said: “Thought we’d just make us up some submarine sandwiches, what your ol grandpops calls Poor Boys.” “And, I have some great potato salad that your mom brought over when she dropped you all off this morning.” “There’s a big bag of potato chips and some French onion dip too.” “For desert, well we might have some ice cream.” “that’s if you aren’t too full to eat it after dinner.”
“I won’t be too full for ice cream grandpops- you know that!” said Izayah excitedly.
“Me either grandpops!” exclaimed Alaysia, not to be out done by her little brother.
“Here Alaysia- take these glasses of juice out to your sisters so they have something to drink, and then come back and help with all this food.” said her grandfather.
After Alaysia returned from giving her sisters the glasses of orange juice and leaving them sitting outside at the picnic table happily sipping away, she jumped right in to help her grandfather and Izayah make dinner.
Little did their grandfather know that his ploy of distracting their minds from the old root cellar by having them busy themselves hadn’t really worked, as both children’s minds were both thinking of nothing else. Both of them trying hard to figure out a way to get back into that cellar and help the hairy little Oogie Man.