Well, it started because my little brothers wanted to—
Hey! Don’t poke me, Carolina. I need to start with this morning, or else he won’t get it. And don’t call me stupid, either. I’m the one who screamed, so I need to explain it my way. And don’t sigh. You can sigh all you want if the manager doesn’t let us go back in, okay?
So, sir, I have to tell you about my brothers first, okay? Then I can explain why I screamed so loud—and hey! What if I had been an old lady instead of a teenager, and then she had a heart attack—
Ssshhh! Carolina, he already looks mad enough. Stop butting’ in!
Yes, sir. I can talk faster. Well, it’s because my little brothers wanted to swim in the motel pool today, but me and Carolina wanted to do something else. So Mom found this wax museum on a map downtown, and it was only three blocks from the motel. Dad walked us down here, and said he’d be back in two hours.
So we pay our twelve bucks each—and by the way, sir, that’s waayyy higher than any museum we saw on a field trip. Anyways, Carolina and I go in and wow! We saw some cool stuff inside. We wanted to jump those velvet ropes you got set up everywhere, but you got us girls, not our stupid little brothers, so you lucked out there. We didn’t go jump any rope or anything. We didn’t break any rules like that.
You have to admit it! I mean the wax dummies looked like the real Freddy Kruger and President Obama and Selena in her sparkling white dress and all …
“How do they make them so real?” I told my sister when I saw Selena. “Umm—you don’t think that’s a dead lady underneath there, do you?”
I saw House of Wax, the first one, you know. My Papa Grande loves us to watch old black and white movies. Papa Grande doesn’t believe in cable TV, but he loves showing us videos. Well, in the movie there’s this murderer who hides dead bodies under the layers of wax and nobody knows. There is this girl who’s about to get all waxed—and I mean it’s not like a hot wax you get at the car wash—because you can tell she’s naked, and you just wait to see if they will show her like they do on cable shows—
Stop it, Carolina! If you poke me again, I’m going to—
Sorry, what was I saying? Oh yeah about the girl and the wax. Well, just at the moment you could see her something, the guy rescues her. He tosses his jacket over her body right at the moment the movie camera could have shown her naked—what?
So you saw the movie too, huh?
Really? You sell the movie in the gift shop?
Okay, but here’s the truth. Ever since I saw that movie I’ve wanted to go to a wax museum. But we got nothing like this in Seguin. That’s why we begged Mom and Dad to let us come here.
Yes, sir, I am old enough to read the signs about dirt and body oils—and no touching—yes I read all that, but it doesn’t really matter because you got all the statues behind ropes, or up on roofs, or behind wooden fences. But you got to understand us—okay, me then—I am thinking about House of Wax and I’m seeing all these wax dummies that look like real people, and I’m wondering if there’s a real dead body inside—
And no, Carolina, you don’t need to tell the man I want to be a movie actress and I like to write down stories in my journal instead of doing math—because he doesn’t need to know it, that’s why!
Sir, I’m just trying to explain why I couldn’t stop myself. I saw a wax dummy that wasn’t blocked off by ropes and fences. It was all alone in the corner, and the dummy was dressed like a zombie. I was ready to explode.
How did these wax dead bodies feel?
I had to know.
So when I saw the zombie guy standing alone against one wall, I knew I had my chance!
I ran ahead of my sister, reaching out with one finger. Then I stopped. I could hear my sister breathing right behind me.
Admit it! You wanted to touch it too! Oh, well, whatever!
So okay, it was all me. It was all my fault. And yes, I’m the one who stepped up to the wax face. I mean he was all alone.
That’s when I held my breath. Slowly I got my little finger to his waxy nose. Just like this, see?
Suddenly the guy says, “Good morning, girls!”
I screamed, so did Carolina! Zombie guy started laughing at us. I’m telling you he was laughing, right, Carolina?
Then you show up, dressed like Zorro, but you’re really the manager. Then you pull us out to the lobby. But we didn’t do anything bad, we shouldn’t get thrown out.
Yeah, you’re right, Carolina. It’s not fair that all the people who work here wear costumes.
Mister Zorro, we paid our money, but we haven’t seen the Chamber of Secrets yet. It’s just zombie guy scared us, so we screamed. Even that zombie started laughing. He didn’t get mad like you.
So can my sister and I go back inside now? Wait, what? What did you just say?
Yeah, Carolina, I heard him. No zombies work at this museum.