Humor

How the Grinch Stole a Brother

“Yellow four. Go.”

Lili raised her green eyes expectantly to her younger brother’s, whose eyes matched her own. With a devious smirk, the blond played a plus four/change-the-color card, crushing Lili’s dreams of winning. Kieran only had two cards left, and Lili now had seven.

As she picked up, her eleven-year-old brother asked, “So, where are you going next?”

“You mean by the pizza?” She had been the one to suggest code-naming her newfound teleportation abilities, although Kieran had chosen the word itself– pizza. In a family of six, it was nearly impossible to have a private conversation, especially over Christmas break. “Kier, I already told you, I’m not going anywhere until I figure out how the… pizza… works. I don’t wanna get stuck in space!”

Kieran scowled, and they both forgot to call “Uno” as he played his next card. Moments later, he asked: “Which Grinch is your favorite?”

Relieved to avoid an argument, Lili replied, “The newest cartoon, hands down.”

“Me too. Wouldn’t you love to go there?”

“To Whoville? Yeah, I would.”

“You would what?”

Did he have that short a memory? Eyebrows raised, she repeated, “I’d like to go to Whoville.” Immediately, Lili felt a now-familiar tingling in her toes. Her eyes widened, confusion dissolving into fury as she watched her feet turn into white cartoonish snowflakes that fluttered through the air. “You tricked me!”

Bouncing with excitement, Kieran tackled her in a bear hug, and she struggled to break free, but when she dissolved and teleported, her brother disappeared with her.

After a brief moment of blinding white light and weightlessness, Lili felt herself reassembling from the snowflakes. Her brother’s hands, clamped onto her arms, also reappeared. She briefly took in his elated expression before crossing her arms angrily.

“Kieran! I told you we would not be going anywhere. You can’t trick me like that! What if we had landed on the edge of a cliff?!”

Glancing around, though, she saw that they weren’t on the edge of a cliff, but in the middle of Whoville. Whos of all shapes and sizes sled, skated, and rode various vehicles around them, fervently preparing for the holidays.

“Look out below!” yelled a Who boy. Breaking the death stare with Kieran to assess the danger, Lili spotted a giant snowman a head taller than herself, complete with two black eyes and a carrot nose, rolling down a hill towards them. She leaped backward, her brother momentarily forgotten. Turning her head, she stifled a giggle as the other Whos swerved wildly to dodge the abominable snow-head.

Remembering the lecture she had prepared, Lili tore her eyes away from the sights and back to Kieran—who wasn’t there. Heartbeat quickening, her eyes darted around the snowy street. “Kieran!” Her cry was swallowed up by the Whos’ caroling, advertising, and chatting. Her brother had run away.

The first step, logically, was to panic, which Lili accomplished with fervor. She spun in circles, examined every face, and even dug around in the snow for a few seconds before realizing the absurdity of such an endeavor. With that step completed, she could now properly start searching.

“If I were an eleven-year-old in Whoville who had just run away from my sister, where would I go?” she pondered aloud.

“Personally, I would go to the forest North of Whoville.”

Lili jumped and whirled around to see a Who girl near her age, holding the leash of a gray dog.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. My name’s Molly. Molly Who. Merry Christmas!” The brunette offered a smile, which Lili returned.

“Merry Christmas! I’m…” Recalling the importance of authentic-sounding names in Faraway Land, she took a page straight from the original Grinch book. “I’m Lili-Lou Who. My brother ran off, and I need to find him because we need to go home and help with, uh, Christmas decorating.”

Whos bought any Christmas related story without blinking, and Molly was no exception. “Oh no! Why would anyone want to miss Christmas decorating?”

“I know, right? He might’ve wanted to see some of the sights, though.” Lili suddenly realized the pug behind Molly looked awfully familiar. “By the way, is that your dog?”

Molly glanced down. “Oh, no! This is Mr. Bricklebaum’s dog, Mabel. I’m taking her for a walk so he can finish decorating his house. He always decks it up for the best season of the year. But since I’m not going anywhere in particular, I could help you find your brother.”

“Sure!” Excited at the chance to personally get to know a real live Who, she trekked with Molly to the Northern woods. Molly explained that most of the neighborhood kids had forts there, and Kieran was likely visiting his own fort–or spying on someone else’s. “Every Christmas, we have a competition to see whose fort is the most Christmassy. I bet he’s trying to steal decoration ideas from the other forts.”

Lili laughed, keeping up the charade of being a Who. “That sounds like Kieran.”

Once they entered the woods, the two grew quiet, the enchantment of the snow-covered forest with icicles sparkling on every branch hushing them. Where there are children, though, silence never lasts long. They soon heard the screams and laughter of a full-fledged snowball fight in the distance and broke into a run.

Bursting into a clearing, they saw kids pelting each other with snowballs and ducking behind snow drifts. In the flurry of activity, it was difficult to spot anyone in particular, but Lili thought she caught a glimpse of Kieran’s pink sweater—a hand-me-down from her. As they drew near, a Who turned and flung a snowball at Lili’s face.

“Hey!” Forming her own snowball, she got him back. At a shriek behind her, Lili spun around to see Molly wiping snow out of her eyes. Battle instincts took over, and she yanked Molly behind a tree. “Put your hood up, and make as many snowballs as you can carry. I think I saw Kieran over there. On three, we run for it.”

“Three…” The girls packed snowballs while Mabel shook snow from her fur.

“Two…” Lili frantically stacked her arms full.

“One…” Rising, she poised to run.

“Go!” They sprinted across the clearing, dodging enemy attacks and retaliating with their own fire. When they reached the other side, Lili soon located the pink sweater. She motioned for Molly to surround him, and they advanced slowly. Almost on top of him, Lili raised a snowball. “Kieran! We’ve got you cornered, and we’re armed. Give up, or be creamed.”

The boy looked up, and with a sigh of relief, she saw that it was indeed Kieran. He glared at her, and reached into the snow, but before his snowball was formed, Lili threw hers. Her aim was true–right in the face. “It’s time to go home, bud.”

Kieran rolled his eyes, but, reluctantly, he got up, following them around the clearing and out of the woods. Before long, the three were back on the street where it all began. “Here’s where we say goodbye, Molly. Thanks for all your help! Merry Christmas!”

“Merry Christmas!” Molly waved and led Mabel away.

Lili looked down at her brother. “Ready, Kier?” And with a wish, they vanished from Whoville.

 

 

Photo Credits: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=whoville%20grinch&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-34002-13078-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=102&keyword=whoville%20grinch&crlp=_5077&MT_ID=&geo_id=&rlsatarget=kwd-77378308549090:loc-96&adpos=&device=c&mktype=&loc=140031&poi=&abcId=&cmpgn=395410072&sitelnk=&adgroupid=1238050299939500&network=o&matchtype=p&msclkid=5ca48281dd981b60e9ade1fad2a77c24

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