Storytime Bloghop: The Day I was Clever

It’s time again for the quarterly Storytime Bloghop. This time I did something a little different. Easter, my brothers (I’ve got three) and I were fooling around with a new gadget one of them had gotten. We took some really crazy pictures. So I included one of those at the end of the story. Since it is the punchline, you might want to not look at it until you read the story first. 😀

The Day I was Clever

When I arrived in our kitchen that morning, staring bleary eyed at the wood furniture and the stone counter, Dad gave me NewReality™ glasses.

“It’s time for you to see the world a little differently”, he said and vanished. I think he might have left for work, although his vanishing did feel slightly spooky to me.

Due to too little sleep (I’d played with my 3D virtual reality game half the night), my brain wasn’t working yet so I put them on, and the world changed. Now I stood in a kitchen made of white marble and chrome. Where my bowl of cereal had stood, a plate with artfully decorated pancakes waited for me. I dug in, slightly disappointed that they still tasted like my cereal.

The way to school had changed too. The bus had turned into a sleek limousine, my classmates were wearing spiffy suits or skirts and blouses, and everyone wore a tie. When they saw me, they smiled like friends. I knew they weren’t, so the roaring laughter in the background made sense somehow. I just didn’t know what they were laughing about.

At school, I sank into the seat beside my best friend who grinned at me.

“My, do you look strange,” he said. “If you’d brought your mobile, we could’ve taken pictures.”

“They’re just my new glasses.” I answered. They couldn’t be that bad, could they?

Only when the teacher arrived did I realize that I’d forgotten to bring my books. At least I’d brought my homework so I didn’t get a black mark, but everybody was laughing about me. And when I say everybody, I mean everybody.

As I passed through the hall on my way to my next class, people I’d never met more than in passing came to me to shake my hand. As long as I was looking at them, they just smiled, but as soon as they moved on to pass me to the next person, they burst out laughing – even the teachers snickered when they walked past me. I didn’t see it but I heard them.

After the second break, I had enough. Knowing I’d be in big trouble later, I still sneaked off the school grounds and set out to walk home, staring at the ground to keep others from seeing my face. What were the new glasses doing to it that everyone was laughing so hard?

I turned a corner and stopped in surprise. I’d accidentally walked in the wrong direction. Heat surged into my cheeks as I turned around again. I had barely reached the gates of the school when a car pulled up beside me. To me it looked like a beautiful convertible, but it sounded like a robot with asthma. The tinted driver window rolled down, and my mother’s face smiled at me. She looked like an angel in a flowing blue evening dress, so I smiled back involuntarily.

“Get in the car,” she said, and I obeyed wordlessly.

In our new kitchen, she ordered me to sit on a chair, prepared a hot cocoa for me and a mug of coffee for herself. My stomach turned to ice. I know I was in trouble now. Still, she kept smiling – or were the glasses just changing her expression like they’d changed the kitchen?

“How often have I told you not to turn night into day with your gaming?” Her voice sounded cold and distant, but I felt her anger underneath. I lowered my head and apologized, but it was no good. “And now you’re even wearing gaming glasses to school! Don’t you know how ridiculous that looks?”

“Dad gave me those this morning,” I protested.

“That isn’t possible.” Now, Mom sounded more annoyed than angry. “He left for a business trip to Paris last week. Don’t you ever listen to anything I tell you?”

I had to admit that listening wasn’t my strongest trait.

“Now, give me those glasses and go to bed.” Resignation filled her tone although the face I saw was still smiling. “I’ll write an explanation for your teacher. But no more gaming this week.”

I groaned and took of the glasses. Immediately, my mother’s blue dress turned back into the faded jeans and oversized T-shirt she always wore. I yawned and handed her the glasses reluctantly.

“Let me show you how stupid you look with these,” she said and put them on. “Gosh. How did you manage not to run into things with these? Everything’s completely blurry.”

Although I wondered about her last remark, I burst out laughing when I saw her face with the glasses.

This is how clever Mom looked. I still wonder about me.

 

 

That was my story. I hope you liked it. And her are the links to the bloghop’s other participants. If it is anything like the last hops, you’ll find many great stories. Go and read them:

Never kid a kidder by Angela Wooldridge
The Color Of … by Chris Makowski
Nightmare by Erica Damon
Pick Up Lines by Bill Bush
The Scorpius Gate by Sandra Fikes
V is for Vortex by Elizabeth McCleary
Deep Dive by Juneta Key
Bugs by Gina Fabio
Secret by J. Q. Rose
Journal of Anah by J Lenni Dorner
The Vineyard at Mar Mozambique by Karen Lynn
Stealing Space by Barbara Lund

14 thoughts on “Storytime Bloghop: The Day I was Clever”

  1. Bill Bush says:

    Okay, that was funny! Good job!

  2. Great story! I loved the laughter, as well as the altered perspective, but I think my favorite part was when the mom said the dad couldn’t have given them to her because he was out of town. Gave it even more mystery. And the picture is classic!

    1. Cat says:

      Thanks. I’m glad you liked it.

  3. Fun story! And I think you look amazing and clever in your lovely glasses. 😉

  4. Juneta says:

    That was funny. The photo was great. Great job.
    Juneta @ Writer’s Gambit

  5. Barbara says:

    Fun – love the “punch line” photo!

    1. Cat says:

      Thank you. It was a lot of fun to make, too.

  6. For a minute there I thought you were going ’emperor’s new clothes’ on us – I was a bit worried what the photo would be 😉
    Great story – I’m tempted to read it to my son who is a bit too fond of being plugged in

    1. Cat says:

      lol – he sounds like my brother (47 this year)

  7. Erica Damon says:

    Haha, love it! I want whatever game that was that turns everything fancy though, but only for at home!

    1. Cat says:

      It wasn’t the game, it was a freaky kind of magic from the glasses (after all it didn’t work for the mother). But that might not be as clear as I would have liked it.

  8. J.Q. Rose says:

    Loved this story. You have quite the imagination. And I believe there is a message in here about gaming all night. The photo made me laugh!! Thanks for sharing.
    JQ Rose

    1. Cat says:

      Yes, the photo made me laugh as well. 😀

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