The Adventures of Chris & Kim

A New Beginning

Chris Green and his younger sister Kim were two ordinary middle schoolers. Except for one thing: they had a magic coat. It was a huge coat, long and heavy, made of fur. What kind of fur it was meant to resemble, Chris and Kim didn't know. It was a strange, rusty brown color and contained sparse pieces of golden hairs that glinted in light if you moved it around. This led Chris and Kim to believe it was fake fur. But nonetheless, it was magical, and that's all that mattered.

 Chris and Kim first discovered the coat when the family moved to their new two-story house in Vermont. Chris and Kim had grown up in a small New York apartment before that. But when their parents announced that their mom was pregnant, it was evident that the small apartment would not be enough room for five people. Of course, Mr. and Mrs. Green could have found a bigger apartment elsewhere in the city, but all throughout their childhood, Chris and Kim's parents had always talked about moving to Vermont one day. Chris and Kim knew there was no persuading their parents otherwise. And so, they begrudgingly packed up everything they had and soon found themselves in small Vermont town called Trullport.

At first, the two of them found it boring. There were no kids their age around the town. Of course, they knew this was because the school year had ended. It was the beginning of Summer, and most everyone in town was on vacation. Mrs. Green assured them that as soon as the school year started, the town would be bustling with kids their age.

The previous owner of the house had been a thrift store owner before he retired and moved to Florida. He had left a few random things in a spare room of the house that he didn't want anymore. Such things included a four-foot-tall porcelain horse statue, a collection of ballerina figurines, a retro Leopard-print chair, a taxidermy of an angry wolf, and three racks of retro clothes. After the family had settled in all their belongings, Chris and Kim's parents decided to make the spare room into a bedroom for the baby.

One morning, after breakfast, Mr. Green said, "You're mom and I want to get started on the baby's room as soon as possible. We're going into town to get some paint and look at carpeting. While we're gone we want you two to move everything that's in that room to the attic for now."

Chris and Kim just sighed and rolled their eyes. This baby thing was a nuisance to them.

After they moved everything from the spare room to the attic, the two of them took a closer look at the items. Chris knelt down in front of the taxidermy wolf whose teeth were barred and eyes menacing. He could almost imagine the wolf's growl and see drool drip from the fangs.

"Ya know, I always thought when people taxidermied animals, it was to remember a pet or make the animal look like a serene part of nature. This one is just ugly!" said Chris.

"Wouldn't want to run into it in the dark though. That would be scary," Kim remarked.

Chris chuckled. "True."

"And these clothes are ridiculously retro!" Kim commented as she browsed through the clothes on the racks. She took a pair of brown, corduroy bell-bottoms and held them up to her waist. "Look at at me! I'm from the 70s!" she said in a mocking tone.

Chris laughed. "What about that fur thing hanging up There? Is that a coat or a dress?"

Kim took the thing Chris had pointed to off the rack and surveyed it. "I think it's a coat. But it's a really long one. It's way too big for me," she said as she tried it on. She mocked a model pose and exclaimed, "I am the queen of the 70s! Take me to a disco party!" And then she began to spin around. 

Chris rolled his eyes and chuckled. But all of a sudden, Kim wasn't there. Startled, Chris walked around the attic. "Kim? Where'd you go?"

There was no answer. "Kim? Is this a prank?" Chris looked around the attic once more and still didn't find her. Then he decided to check the rest of the house, even though  he knew he would have heard her go down the creaky stairs if she had. Chris frantically searched the house, calling Kim's name.