This is the story of three children; two sisters, Bianca and Sadie, and a brother, named Forrest.  This is the story of a small mystery that came between them, but brought them together.  Or you could say brought them together, but came between them.  You’ll see what I mean.

          The mystery came about on a day that you’d least expect it.  It wasn’t a dark and stormy night.  In fact, it was just the opposite: a bright and sunny day in spring, and it was almost summer vacation.
          
           On this sunny Sunday, the three of them were at a baseball game.  Forrest’s team, the Junkyard Dogs, was playing, while Bianca and Sadie cheered from the bleachers.  The Junkyard Dogs were winning.

Normally, this would be a very happy time, but Bianca was feeling weird.     

“I feel funny,” she said to Sadie.     

Sadie repeated, “funny,” and laughed.     

“No,” thought Bianca, “not the funny that makes you laugh.  The kind of funny that makes you want to cry.” But she didn’t say so because she didn’t think Sadie would understand anyway.  She didn’t know if anybody would understand.

Bianca didn’t understand her feelings and she could barely admit it, even to herself, so we won’t know what those feelings were for a while yet.  She tried to shrug it off, and feel happy for Forrest and his team, when a quick-moving shadow caught her eye.  It looked like someone, or something, had run under the bleachers.     

She stuck her head down between her feet and saw something a little odd.

“What?” asked Sadie.  She couldn't figure out what her sister was doing, but it looked like fun, so she copied Bianca, but she couldn’t put her head between her feet because her legs weren’t long enough.

Bianca pointed to a strange creature lurking beneath the bleachers. “Yuck,” said Bianca.  “Stay away from That!  Look, its hair is all messy, and I can’t tell whether it’s a cat or a dog or what!”  Bianca said this with utter disdain, much like she would say, “no, thank you,” to broccoli.  Even when she was grossed out, she tried to remain polite.

They heard a loud crack and looked up just in time to see the ball sail over the outfield fence.  Meanwhile, Forrest ran the bases.  The girls watched and cheered him on.  When they thought to look down, the friendless creature was gone.

“Where go?” asked Sadie.

“Far away, I hope,” replied Bianca.  Soon, the game was over, and after a victory meal of ice cream sodas with the team, the creature was forgotten.

That night, Bianca was just finishing her homework, alone in her room, and she thought she heard a sigh.  “I didn’t realize how tired I am,” she thought.  “Oh well, back to math.  The problem she was working on was hard, but she was almost finished.  And she always felt proud about getting her homework done.

Just as she finished up and closed her book, she heard the sound again, and this time she was sure of it.  Her own heartbeat - so loud it sounded like Sadie pounding on her little bongo drum, and suddenly Jojo, her pet bird landed on her head!

She laughed in surprise, but she knew he only did this when he was frightened.  Jojo helped her feel brave, so being careful not to wiggle her head too much, she cautiously began to check out the room.  As she tiptoed around, her pile of clothes rustled.  “I should have put them away earlier,”  she thought.  “Now there’s a Monster under them!”

Bianca reached up to pet Jojo and reassure herself when he stole her shiny barrette from her hair and flew out of the room.  He seemed to squeak ‘good luck’ as he left, although he might have said ‘good bye’.

Meanwhile, her hair flopped into her face, and she lost her balance on a toy phone Sadie had left on the floor.

She really felt like crying when the pile of clothing started giggling.  She knew that little, mischievous voice.  Getting up, wiping away her tears and taking a confident step forward, she fearlessly lifted up a sweatshirt.  Who do you think was in the middle of her fresh, clean clothes?

Sadie!  Now that she was revealed, she was really laughing.     

“Oh, Sadie, you scared me!” said Bianca, laughing a little herself.  She was so relieved.  Her baby sister was as far from a monster as you could get!

“Friend,” said Sadie, pointing to the closet.

“That’s a closet, “ said Bianca.  “CLAW-set.” She repeated.  She knew that her baby sister was still learning to talk, but how could she mix up something as easy as “friend” and “closet?”  Unless…

“Let’s play a game,” she whispered.  “Hold your breath for as long as you can.  She listened carefully.  She heard short, raspy breaths, and she knew they weren’t coming from her kid sister.  Bianca let out a squeal, which in turn caused Sadie to start crying.  

“Shh, Sadie, maybe the monster doesn’t know we’re here,” Bianca said, hopefully.  Slowly, Sadie’s sobs came to a halt.

“Friend?" asked Sadie, still breathless from crying.

“No, that’s a monster!” said Bianca impatiently.  She thought maybe Sadie had seen too many movies.  Being the big sister, she knew better.  Bianca picked up Forrest’s prized baseball bat, and she approached the closet cautiously.

Just then, Forrest came in looking a little angry.  He was mumbling something about problems under his breath.  Forrest looked around the room, surprised to see Bianca’s normally neat and tidy bedroom strewn with clean clothes; he was also wondering why Bianca’s hair looked like a bird’s nest.  All of this passed through his thoughts, but since he was not in a good mood to begin with, he decided to stay that way.      

“What are you doing with my bat?” he snarled.

Bianca blinked.  She was scared of the monster, but part of her didn’t want any help, especially from Forrest.     

“Oh, just admiring it,” she said, “I wish I could play baseball and get a homerun.”

The rasping grew a little louder.  Bianca glanced at the closet and then at Forrest.  She felt a little like enlisting his help, but her pride held her back.  If she couldn’t play baseball, she wanted to prove there were cooler, braver things she could do.

“Why don’t you play baseball, if you want to so badly?” he asked.     

“I don’t know the rules.  What are you doing in here, anyway?” she asked, hoping to change the subject and get him to leave. 

“I’m looking for my markers.  I’m going to draw.”

Bianca was surprised at this.  She knew that he had spent most of Saturday practicing for the game, and she also knew that Mr. Jones, Forrest’s fourth grade teacher, who had been her fourth grade teacher last year, never let a weekend go by without loads of homework. “Did you already finish your homework for tomorrow?”     

“No,” he said, as his brow furrowed.

“Well,” said Bianca, “it takes some time, but why don’t you just do it?  Fourth grade work is so easy.”     

“Hmph,” said Forrest, “maybe homework like math is easy when you already know how to do it!”     

In the course of this argument, neither Bianca nor Forrest noticed Sadie sneaking over to the closet.  Suddenly, she threw open the door, and a huge, hairy creature came tumbling out.     

“AHH!” screamed Bianca and Forrest.     

“AHHH!,” screamed the creature.       

Bianca held the bat tightly, but she felt frozen in fear.     

Sadie, however, toddled right up to the monster and gave him a big HUG!   

“What are you doing?  Are you crazy?” asked Bianca.     

“Friend,” laughed Sadie.  She tickled the monster, and he started laughing, too.  The sight was so funny that Bianca and Forrest started giggling despite themselves.  They tickled each other back and forth until everyone ended up in a big, laughing pile.

Finally, the laughter subsided.  Forrest tried to find the monster’s face, but it was hard, in all that hair!     

All three of them felt around in the thick hair until they found its face.

They gently smoothed the hair away, and they were surprised at what they saw.

“Hey!” said Forrest, “it’s pretty.”

“Yeah, beautiful!” said Bianca.

“Friend,” said Sadie. The monster smiled. Bianca and Forrest looked at each other and smiled, too. 

“Yeah, friend!” After all of the excitement, the kids were full of questions. 

“Where did you come from?  Who or what are you?  Why are you here?  Do you have a name?”

Slowly, the monster started to speak in a squeaky voice that was hard to understand at first.

“My name is Buelahtrala.  I’ve been around since Forrest was born.  I’m the love that exists between siblings.”

“Sibleys?” asked Sadie.

“No siblings, it means brothers and sisters.”

“You’ve been around since then?”  Forrest asked.  “Where have you been?”

“Oh, pretty much in your closet, sometimes under your bed.  Just close enough to look after you.  Usually I’m not really visible.  But my hair has been growing wild, and that’s when it’s easier to see me.”    

“What’s up with your hair?  Do you need a haircut?” asked Bianca.

“No, thanks.  My hair grows wild when siblings have strong feelings, like jealousy.

“JELLY!” yelled Sadie.

“Who’s been jealous?” scoffed Bianca, thinking of her feelings at the baseball game, but trying to look innocent.

“I have,” said Forrest quietly.

“You?” asked Bianca, “What do you have to be jealous over?”

“You know,” said Forrest, kicking the rug.

“No, please tell me,” Bianca said.  Forrest looked doubtful. “If you tell me, I’ll tell you why I’ve been jealous of you,” said Bianca.

Forrest looked up at his sister.  It never occurred to him that she would be the jealous one.  “You?  Okay, I’m jealous that you’re so good at math.”

“Math?” Bianca almost laughed, but held it in when she saw how sincere her brother looked.

“Well, I’m jealous that you’re so good at baseball and you get to win games.”

They looked at Buelahtrala.  Her hair was looking a lot less tangled.

“So, does that mean, if we’re not jealous, your hair will get better?” asked Bianca.

Forrest and Bianca looked at each other.  “Just because you admit that you have the feelings doesn’t seem to make them go away,” said Forrest.  “I still don’t know how to do my homework for tomorrow.”

“Well,” said Buelahtrala, “Now that you know what your feelings are, you can change the situation.”

“How?” asked Bianca.  And then she thought about it.  “I know, I’ll teach Forrest how to do his math homework.”

“And I’ll teach you the rules of baseball!” 

Just then Sadie started running around the room yelling “Sibleys! Sibleys! Sibleys!” and laughing.

Sadie, Bianca, Forrest and Buelahtrala, who was nothing more than a big ball of love, all started laughing, too. And that night Bianca taught Forrest Math, and of course, the next day, Forrest taught Bianca the rules of baseball.
The end.