Friday, July 13, 2012

Dramaland, The Story

Once upon a time in a land not too far away, lived a woman named.... oh, for the sake of convenience let's call her .... Shelly.

Shelly was a mother with five kids.  Her children were good kids.  In fact, sometimes she'd get compliments from complete strangers over their wonderful behavior.

But sometimes something strange would happen.  It was a phenomenon that Shelly could never quite explain.

Sometimes, without warning, Shelly and her children would suddenly transport from their current location to a place she often called Dramaland.  All of their surroundings would remain the same.  The trees were still the same.  The weather was still the same.  The people were still the same.  But one thing was different.  One thing was very much not the same.

The drama.

The family drove down the street.  It seemed to be a typical evening.  The summer sun set behind them as they made their way home.  All seemed normal.  Until.... "Mom!" screamed a voice from the back row of the van, "that truck didn't turn on his blinker when he went to pass us!"

Oh no, thought Shelly, here we go.  Dramaland.

"They should get a ticket!" yelled Kid One.

"They should be arrested!" hollered Kid Two.

The Dramaland Police Force suddenly appeared out of nowhere equipped with their Tasers and beanbag shotguns to take down the criminal who didn't signal as he passed our vehicle.

And then all was back to normal.

A little while later, Shelly sat in her living room as Kid Three came running into the room.  "Mom!  Mom!" he yelled.  "She broke it!"  Shelly looked quickly at her son to discover what happened.  But before she could, she felt a little spin in the air around her as the TV continued to blare and Kid Five's baby swing continued to slightly rock.

Not again, Shelly thought.  Dramaland.

She saw the Lego car in Kid Three's right hand and a single Lego piece in his left.  Although Kid Four accidentally stepped on the car that had been left in the middle of the floor, all of the Legos in the house became Dramaland Legos and they disintegrated into fine bits of plastic that swept up into a colorful gust of wind and blew out the door only to be lost forever.

 Dinnertime finally arrived and Shelly set out the food for the children.  Kid Four reached out and grabbed a hot dog.  A siren-loud wail erupted from her.  "Mom! It too hot!"  She threw her head back and emitted another scream, calling upon the Powers of Dramaland.

It's going to happen, Shelly thought.  Dramaland is going to kill someone.  Someone is finally just going to explode.


And Shelly did.