THE ANDERSONS

That night, Sam had another dream about Tarantella but this time Sam saw himself in a horrible world with bones scattered around. Sam heard the voices of his parents crying for help. Suddenly, Lucy, George and John fell from the Sky. They fell right beside Sam. Suddenly, a strong whirlwind blew Lucy away. Sam could hear Lucys voice a long way off.

Suddenly the whole place became dark, the only light was that of the lightning which illuminated the skies. Suddenly, two pairs of red eyes materialized from nowhere and then another pair of red eyes joined.

”Tarantella ” Sam said beginning to get angry.

”And Carlane ” said George.

”Did you have the same dream? ” asked Sam.

”Yes, I did ” George replied.

Suddenly, a fork of lightning illuminated the Sky and to Sam and Georges horror the eyes were not that of Tarantella and Carlane but rather of their parents. John also seemed to see his parents with those red eyes. The skins of their parents shriveled and fell off and then Sam saw Carlane and Tarantella. They were laughing at him. They once again conjured the Whirlwind with which they had taken Lucy. It blew all about the three boys and Sam suddenly woke up.

He had just had another dream about Tarantella. Sam now began to think Tarantella had arisen but what about his father whose voice had mysteriously changed into Tarantellas voice. Sam soon forgot about those thoughts and wore his clothes quickly. He went down to have breakfast. During breakfast, there was silence for a while and then Mr Anderson told them that George was coming to live with them for some time since his parents had travelled. Sam gasped because he knew what this meant. George was Sams cousin. George also had a younger sister called Nancy. Even though George was Sams favourite cousin, Sam didn like Georges habit of getting him into trouble. Lucy was also really excited because she would now have someone to play with. She was even more excited when she heard that they would arrive the following day.

In the afternoon, Sam went to visit his friend John. He decided not to tell John that they may be cousins. He wasn even sure whether he should tell John about the dream he had the previous night.

”John may already know about the dream ” Sam thought but then another thought crept into his mind. ”What if he doesn ? ” Sam thought.

”I don believe that John knows about the dream or else Lucy might have talked about it ” Sam thought.

John sensed that Sam was trying to hide something from him and so he asked Sam what was troubling him. Sam attempted to conceal his worries but soon gave in and told John everything about the dream which was worrying him. Sam sensed that nobody was at Johns house except John so he asked

”Where is everybody? ”

John answered

”My parents didn tell me where they were going but they left me a letter in which they said they were going on a business trip and that was Monday, the same day we found out why Tarantella was terrorizing your family ”.

Sam seemed to think on it for a moment and then he opened his eyes in shock.

”That was the day my father went on his business trip and when he came back I asked him if he knew about the curse of Tarantella and when he quoted it… ” Sam paused and kept repeating.

”…and when he quoted it ” and then he turned and faced John.

”What? What happened after that? ” John asked.

”…and when he quoted it, his v-voice. It…It s-sounded exact…exactly l-l-like Tarantellas voice ” Sam completed his sentence quivering in fear.

”Huh? ” gasped John. ”You mean to tell me that your fathers voice sounded exactly like Tarantellas voice ” John looked even more shocked than Sam.

Sam told John that he didn think that was his real father because he felt that his real parents were in danger.

”Besides… ” said Sam. ”…my father went with my mother and it was his job, not Moms so I don see why he should come back without Mom ” Sam concluded.

John agreed with him. Sam also wanted to tell John about the possibility that John and he were cousins but later decided that it might not be true so it would be better to let John find out for himself whether it was true. All of a sudden, Sam remembered about Georges visit and told John about it. John was really excited. John whistled and said,

”Your cousin George visiting you, I think you
e in for some trouble ” John said.

”Yeah, I know ” Sam said feeling a bit nervous.

”I wonder how you
e going to survive this ” John taunted Sam.

”Yeah, me too ” Sam replied.

”Ive got to go ” Sam said as he began to notice how late it was becoming.

”See you tomorrow John ” Sam waved.

”Goodbye Sam ” John waved.

Sam left John standing alone in the garden.

As Sam was walking home, he suddenly realized that it was dark and he was the only one walking along that alley. He suddenly became aware of a dark shadow swooping over his head. He ducked just in time for the shadow wasn able to grab him. He looked up and saw the dark outline of a thin person with red glowing eyes screaming in anger.

”Tarantella! ” Sam exclaimed aloud.

Tarantella was flying on an ugly broomstick. She circled around and began to chase Sam. Sam began to run as fast as lightning. He evaded Tarantellas bony fingers. Sam was rather swift. He was beginning to get tired when he saw his house straight ahead. He sped up while still dodging Tarantella who desperately tried to stop him from entering his house. Sam happily ran to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. He tried to push it but it didn budge meanwhile Tarantella was drawing close. Her mouth curled into an evil grin and her eyes were now gleaming.

Sam banged at the door desperately but no one opened it. He spied a tree nearby with branches leading to his room window. Then Sam had a brilliant idea. He began to move slowly away from the door and when he reached the wall, he stopped and spied the tree again. It was much closer. Tarantella foolishly sped towards Sam and when she was very close, Sam swerved to the left where the tree was and Tarantella hit the wall!

Sam quickly climbed the tree, he opened his room window and leapt into his room.

”If you want to get me, you must be much more clever than that and less clumsy Tarantula ” Sam mocked.

”We shall meet again boy ” screamed Tarantella in her crony voice.

”Nyeeah! I don think so ” mocked Sam who was very surprised by her clumsiness.

”We shall ” said Tarantella laughing as she slowly disappeared.

Sam went downstairs for supper but his father was not at home. Sam and Lucy were all alone and the whole place was quiet for some few minutes and Sam told Lucy all about Tarantellas chase. At first, Lucy did not believe him but seeing the seriousness on his face, she finally believed what he said.

”Where is Dad? ” Sam asked curiously.

”He went out some few minutes before you came in ” Lucy said.

After dinner, Sam and Lucy went to bed.

Sam couldn sleep that night. He just lay in bed waiting with foreboding. He was sweating profusely. Just before midnight, he began to feel thirsty. Just as he opened the door, Lucy woke up. She had just had a nightmare about Tarantella. She saw Sam and asked.

”Where are you going Sam? Its midnight and you are sneaking around ”

Sam nearly jumped out of his skin. He hadn realized that Lucy was awake.

”Im just going to get some water. Get back to sleep ” Sam said warmly.

”Ill come with you ” Lucy said.

”What? ” Sam said in disbelief. ”What do you want to follow me for? Whats the point of you following me? ” Sam asked not giving Lucy a chance to talk.

”Come on Sam, whats the big deal? Besides, Im also thirsty ” Lucy said a little curiously.

”Oh ” Sam realized his mistake.

He tried to change the subject but Lucy didn give him the chance.

”You
e acting kind of weird ” Lucy said.

”Im ok ” Sam said. ”Im just feeling a bit jumpy ”.

”Of course you would feel jumpy after being chased by an evil witch especially one like Tarantella ” Lucy said as though she were teasing Sam. ”If it had been anyone else, hed have died of fright ” Lucy said with a laugh.

After conversing for a long time, Sam and Lucy finally went downstairs to get some water but when they got to the last stair, they saw something that made them shiver and shake. They saw a pair of red eyes gleaming in the sitting room. They quickly hid behind the wall leading to their kitchen. As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they saw the shadow of a man. He seemed to look in their direction, then he began to walk in their direction. When he reached where they were, he turned on a switch and the whole room became bright. Sam and Lucy saw their father standing in front of them. They nearly screamed in fright as they realized that the shadow they had seen with the gleaming pair of eyes was really their father.

”What are you doing down here at this late hour of the night? ” their father scolded them. ”You should be asleep by now ” Mr Anderson said coldly.

”Dad, we just came downstairs to get some water because we felt thirsty ” Sam explained surprised by his fathers behavior. ”Something fishy is going on ” Sam thought silently.

He began to think of his fathers crony voice and his gleaming eyes. The only explanation he could come up with was that his father was somehow possessed by Tarantella. He finally reached this conclusion when he was back in bed.

The afternoon of the next day was really exciting since George and his family were due to arrive. Sam and his family went to the railway station to meet Georges family. They waited for about five minutes, ten minutes. Lucy began to sleep on Sams shoulder when all of a sudden, a train started hooting loudly. Lucy woke up startled. She squealed with excitement as she saw George and his family descending from the train but the shocking thing was that George and Nancys parents were not with them. Sam asked the conductor why the train had delayed and he said that some buffaloes had blocked the railway line. He had to race at high speed to meet his deadline. Sam thanked the conductor and rushed to Georges side. The two cousins embraced each other and began to talk. Sam had quite forgotten about Tarantella.

”Where are your parents George. It is rather strange that they aren here with you ” Sam said a little nervously.

”Yeah, but they told me that they were going to meet your parents after a strange but urgent phone call ” George said as he looked hard at Sam.

George was a brown haired boy and wore glasses. He didn have any freckles and lived in London.

”What?! ” Sam exclaimed loudly. ”George can you please just repeat what you said and slowly because I don quite get what you
e saying ” Sam said looking as pale as though he were about to faint from shock.

George repeated what he said slowly but the look on Sams face told him that something was totally wrong.

”Dad never told me anything about this ” Sam said weirdly. ”But Dad tells me almost everything. Dads been behaving strangely lately ” Sam said feeling a little dazed.

”Dad?! ” exclaimed George. ”But my parents said they were going to meet both your Mom and Dad ” said George who began to understand Sams reaction. ”Look Sam, some few days back, I had a strange dream about Tarantella and since then there have been a few kidnappings in our neighbourhood. There was one time where a little girl was kidnapped by Tarantella right in front of the cameras but it was so fast that they were only able to get a picture of the girl being pulled upwards unto the broom ” George who seemed to be thinking in his right mind said.

George had the strange ability to remain calm even when strange things occurred and it was with this ability that the blame always fell on Sam whenever he and Lucy played a prank.

”I know about the dream because I had it some few days ago. Later, Tarantella tried to kidnap me but I fortunately outsmarted her ” Sam said rather proudly.

Sam also told George about the time his fathers voice became like that of Tarantellas up until the time his eyes gleamed. Sam also told George about his discovery and the curse of Tarantella.