Locked down in Taking Down the Christmas Tree

I love my home! No crazy soldiers arresting you right or left, a real bed, and junk food. After our little historic adventure (read the story- ‘The Christmas Scene’, chapters 1-9), I thought we wouldn’t have a decent Christmas. But, it was great! A sleepover, watching BLACKPINK’s Kyocera dome concert over and over again, and more fortune cookies. And as for Zack’s fortune. It hasn’t come true yet. To avoid disasters, he watched the movie version of Titanic and saw it sink. With the time machine up and working, it may very well take us to the Titanic. I wonder what it’ll do next. I shudder to think. We should dismantle it. As long as we keep uncle away from it. Because he just tried to dismantle the Christmas tree, and nearly dismantled the house.

“Percy! We have been home for a whole month now. Take that stupid Christmas tree down already! It’s so dusty and it takes up half a room. I think you’re rested enough.” The little vacation had not helped aunt relax in any given way. On the contrary, she’s mad at me. (“If you hadn’t opened the cookie we would have never had to go.”) Well, we would also have never learned our lesson. Anyway, back to the story.

“Fine. Sheesh Maureen, if you’re so full of problems, then go dismantle the tree yourself. Fine, fine I’m going, put that suitcase back in. No, I am not gonna move out of my own house!” Ah, good old Uncle Percy.

We started by taking the ornaments off. Well, me and Pepper. Tamara’s noticed a barely noticeable mascara clot on her face. That was enough to set her off, running from here to there, like it was the end of the world. Uncle was playing catch with the triplets. The ball was, take a guess… an ornament! Made of glass. Wait, what?! Time to go intercept their game!

After we made sure the ornament made it out alive, we got to the twine. That string of red wrap is seriously the worst part of Christmas. If the lettering fades, I have to repaint it back on. And don’t ask how hard it is to get it on the tree. Thank god that’s aunt’s duty. Because if it was up to uncle, we would have a red monster running wild around the house. But that doesn’t mean he was any better taking it off. He started by pulling at it. The tree fell down. Then we realized that we didn’t take half the ornaments. So, there was a mess of powdered glass at the foot of the tree. Ouch! I stepped on a shard.

On the second try, we got it off the tree, but we couldn’t get it together. Tamara held the starting of it, and Millie held the middle. Pepper held the end. Then both the trouble-making sisters rolled in towards Millie. Soon, the three of them were trussed up like turkeys.

Once we got them out we turned to the tree. Only, there were two trees. Uncle had gotten all the mistletoe from the house, and gotten himself tangled up in that, and a bit of the Christmas tree leaves. Thus, the second tree. We decided to dismantle both of them at the same time. The triplets hid behind Tamara’s legs and were content to sketch on her legs. Aunt was sitting in the background munching popcorn and setting up the tripod, for this time’s ‘America’s funniest families’ entry. I seriously wonder how we haven’t won the grand prize yet. Uncle is crazy.

On three, one of the tree’s started moving. “What’s everyone counting down for?” Uncle popped up from behind the tripod. So, what was in the tree? Slowly, me and Tamara advanced towards the mess of mistletoe, and pulled one off to reveal… Rover and Pumpkin Pie! So they were our culprits.

Now for the main event. The tree. Now when will aunt learn that trusting uncle with this job means asking for disaster, I will never know. Because when we were done with Pumpkin Pie and Rover, aunt said these words: “Percy, go clean up the rest of the tree.” Oh god! Time to get my headphones and pretend that uncle doesn’t exist.