Tray took them from her I can do it He wasn’t going to let Old Gray get the best of him He’d be tough After using the rag and ice to stop the bleeding he looked at the tiny holes in his arm They reminded him of teeny bugs burrowing into his skin And why were there thin blue streaks snaking off from each one He quickly applied the ointment Can’t let this fester He fumbled with the Band-Aids until Mom took over to help him out It’s hard to stick on a Band-Aid one-handed After the doctoring was done Mom ran her fingers through Tray’s curly black hair I called Animal Control They’ll be patrolling the neighborhood Tray looked down at his punctured arm I hope they brought armor
weird nightmares That night Tray was plagued with weird nightmares In one the holes in his arm had turned into blinking amber eyes and the hair on his knuckles sprouted cat whiskers In another dream he was trapped in a room full of fun house mirrors In each one he saw Old Gray’s reflection warped and twisted and ready to rip him to shreds Then he dreamed his arm turned a putrid yellow and swelled to the size of a tree trunk He saw himself fading into sleep as a surgeon held up a saw ready to hack off his bloated arm Old Gray sat at the end of the operating table grinning like the Cheshire Cat
Tray woke in a pool of sweat He quickly examined his arm Not swollen Not yellow Not even sore He ripped off one of the Band-Aids Ouch He screamed Some of his hair came off with it But he let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the wound underneath was barely noticeable The hole was just a teeny scab with no blue snakes or ooze or any of the things in his nightmares His mom rushed in frantic What’s wrong He held up the Band-Aid Oh She slumped Please try not to scream when you take off the others He looked down at the remaining nine Yikes He nearly screamed just thinking about it But he held his breath and yanked them off quick quick quick Though his arm stung from Band-Aid removal he was happy to see that the rest of the holes were just as clean
as the first He hopped out of bed and went down for breakfast Tray sat down to his usual breakfast of Toasty Oats and orange juice Somehow it didn’t sound too tasty this morning He poured it back into the carton and got a glass of milk instead When he poured the milk on his Toasty Oats he filled the bowl all the way to the rim more milk than cereal That’s okay he thought Or was it Why was he craving milk Tray ate all the cereal then poured more milk into the bowl He lifted it to his mouth lapping up every drop He licked his lips Yum then set it down Mom stood by the stove eyes wide Thirsty It was then that he realized what he’d done Uh yeah Next time use the glass He smiled sheepishly Okay
