Day 49

Day 49:

I had a very important mission.

It was a top-secret, highly classified, high-risk mission, that I had to carry out at night in order to have any remote chance of success. My objective was to capture my book of secret notes from underneath the dining room table, without my mum or dad seeing them, or even knowing that I had been there in the first place. I could not allow these top-secret notes to be compromised; their contents falling into the wrong hands could have simply catastrophic implications. My mission log, theories on where mum hid my birthday presents so I still couldn't find them every year, where the Mr. Kipling cakes kept disappearing to...

I waited until after it was bedtime, and I could hear my mum and dad watching telly and talking in the living room. I packed my essential mission gear (a torch to find the notes) and crouched at the top of the stairs, waiting for my opportunity. My main obstacle was the staircase; we had the loudest, creakiest staircase in the entire world! First, I tried to place a foot on the step, but I heard the staircase go 'ccccccrreee'. I heard the conversation stop.

...

Those horrible moments of silence, those near misses of discovery, they were the thrilling part of these missions. I had to change my strategy, so I decided to go forward down the staircase, on my belly. Shuffling slowly, I transferred my weight delicately over each step, so they hardly made any noise. After around 5 minutes, I was able to make it to the bottom of the stairs undetected. It was now time for one of the most high-risk parts of the operation; moving past the front room door. It was closed, but our front room door had class all throughout it, so I'd be completely visible as I past. What was even worse? My dad was sat directly opposite the door, facing it as he talked to my mum. I had to wait for a distraction, a window of opportunity. If it was the television, then I'd still be in view, out of the corner of his eye. If I went too fast, I'd surely be heard. I waited and listened very carefully to what they were saying, maybe it would give me some insight into a possible moment to move. Shuffled as close to the door as I could be, I put my ear to the crack in the frame. 

"Have you not had your tea yet?" My mum asked my dad.

"No," he replied. "I might just have something light."

"You best get it now, before it gets too late," said mum.

My dad got up, and was coming right towards me! He was surely going to turn into the kitchen, and pass right by the location of my secret notes! In a panic, I moved back towards the staircase and lent myself against them. I waited, face buried in the carpet. Dum, dum, dum, DUm, Dum, Dum, dum, dum, dum. My dad's footsteps had moved past. He was in the kitchen now, I couldn't go that way without being caught. But I hatched a really clever plan. I would wait until he came back past with his dinner, and while his back was turned to the door, I'd quickly rush past! 

So I waited. 

And waited.

I didn't have any idea what time it was. I must have been doing this for hours, it must have been almost 2am by now. My dad must have been taking ages to get this 'light' meal. Then, I heard a voice, and I went stone cold. 

"I'll just nip upstairs to the bathroom..." said my dad.

'OH NO, UPSTAIRS? I'M UPSTAIRS, I'M ON THE STAIRS!' I screamed internally. I could already hear the footsteps coming, so I moved at full speed. I shuffled and shuffled my belly back up the staircase, getting carpet burn on my elbows as I redistributed my weight. dum, dum, Dum, Dum, DUM, DUM. The footsteps got closer and closer. As I contorted myself around the corner at the top of the stairs, I threw my legs up and over the rest of my body, hiding me from view in my room. I listened, from behind my door, as my dad crossed the landing into the bathroom.

My secret notes would have to wait until morning.