(12 years ago)

It had just turned 10:00 pm. Momma thought she had put me and my little bubba to bed on hour before. I had asked her if we could read our virtual reality book about pirates and cool stuff like that but she told us no. What she didn't know is that we gotten the book from the shelf above Jimmy's bed. I let him hold the book open as the person in the book started to read to us. "You think we'll get caught Jamie?" Jimmy asks in holding the book. I scoff at him as I lay on my belly with my little feet lifted up. "I don't think so Jimmy. Besides, I can't sleep without my favorite story. You know that." I answer him. My little brother smiles at me before opening the book so that we would read some more of this story.

The first thing we see is space as the story started again. "On the clearest of nights when the winds of the Etherium were calm and peaceful," After that, a ship with 12 engines passed by our eyes, "the great merchant ships with their cargoes of Arcturian sura crystals felt safe and secure. Little did they suspect that they were pursued by... pirates." Then, a pirate ship with a ripped red sail flew towards the luxury ship. I knew what was gonna happen next. I was excited to see it again. "And the most feared of all these pirates was the notorious Captain Nathaniel Flint." The snake like captain was reintroduced. I repeated his name along with the person speaking through the book.

The pirate ship started to fire at the luxury ship relentlessly, getting the lights on it to go out. All Captain Flint wanted was the treasure that was on it. "Like a Candarian zap-wing ovetaking its prey-" Suddenly our bedroom door creaks open and Jimmy quickly closes the book. "James Pleiades Hawkins! Jamie Sparrow Hawkins!" the voice of momma echoed through the room as Jimmy closed the book. I rest my head on my right hand and tried to act casual when she walks in. "I thought you two were asleep an hour ago." momma scolds us. I sigh and grab the book with both hands. "Aw momma we were just getting to the best part." I whined. I hug the book to my tiny 5 year old body. "Please?" Jimmy begs. We gave her our world famous puppy-dog eyes. "Oh can those eyes get any bigger with you two?" she grins at us. That seemed to do the trick. She walks over to us and joins on the bed with Jimmy on her left side and me on her right side. She held the book this time.

She opens the book so it starts off where it was last left off. "Like a Candarian zap-wing ovetaking its prey, Flint and his band of renegades swooped in out of nowhere." I leaned in my momma's chest as the story continued. The pirates started to attack the luxury ship and everybody on it. Needless to say, Flint had gotten his treasure from the ship then. "And then. gathering up their spoils vanished without a trace." the person in the book says as Flint's ship disappears into thin air. The three of us 'oohed' at the sight before momma turned it to the next page. "Flint's secret trove was never found but stories have persisted that it remains hidden somewhere at the fathest reaches of the galaxy stowed with riches beyond imagination- the loot of a thousand worlds... Treasure Planet." Jimmy and I repeated the last two words before momma closed the book.

"Okay, blow your noses." Mom tells us. Needless to say, we did so. "Hey, Momma? How did Captain Flint do it?" I say as I stand up on the bed and stood in a kung fu stance. "Yeah, how he'd swoop in out of no where and vanish without a trace?" Jimmy says, jumping off the head board and crawling underneath his blankets. "I have no idea." momma answers us. "Come here you two!" she playfully says as she grabs us. "I'm gonna get-" she says before she blows zurberts on our bellies. That always made me and Jimmy laugh.

"Okay, it's time for these spacers to go to sleep." she says as she tucks my little brother in his bed. "You think somebody'll find Treasure Planet, momma?" I wonder, tugging at my momma's nightgown sleeve. "Honey, I think it's more... like a legend of some sort." momma answers me as she set's a pirate squeak toy on Jimmy's side table. "Jamie and I know it's real." Jimmy says. "Yeah! It's gotta be real." I agree with him. "You two win. It's real." Momma says as she eskimo kisses the two of us. "You missy, off to your bed." she shooes me off to my bed. To which I go there and crawl underneath my comfy blankets.

Momma was standing at the door with her hand on the door handle. "I love you guys." she tells us. "Love you too momma..." Jimmy and I say to her as she closes the door. The second she closes the door to our bedroom, I quickly bound from my bed and go over to Jimmy's. He crawls underneath the blankets with me with the book in hand. The books light illuminated the darkness underneath the blankets. "There are nights when the winds of the Etherium so inviting in their promise of flight and freedom made two spirit's soar!"

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