Allan Sharp

Writer

Life is a story

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© Allan Sharp. All rights reserved.

A story

Noggin Boggin Rescues BreakfastBy Allan SharpThe little creature cautiously peeked around the leg of the nightstand.
His assignment was risky, but he knew that. Besides, he really had no choice.
Nobody bothered to turn off the light in the master bedroom. It was just as well since today, a tiny creature was getting very busy and would need the light. In this home that belonged to the Liberty family, Noggin Boggin, the world’s smallest boy, was on a mission.
Noggin cautiously peeked around the leg of the nightstand.
“He’s asleep…good,” Noggin said to himself in a soft tone that was barely above a whisper.
He didn’t want to wake up, dare not wake up, Lenny – the Liberty family’s dog. Lenny was sleeping at the foot of the queen-sized bed. The big, brown, flabby dog was snoring loudly. His sides inflated like a balloon when he inhaled and quickly deflated as he exhaled with a loud, sputtering snort.
Noggin was concerned about Lenny, but not afraid. He was not about to let anything stop him on his quest. He was a picture of absolute determination. Indeed, Noggin was a sight to behold under any circumstances. He was the world’s smallest boy at less than two inches tall. Noggin’s brown hair – a collection of cowlicks – was about as neat as he could keep it, considering he combed it with a bent staple. His shirt was made from a piece of facecloth stitched together by wishbone splinters and dental floss. His pants were “borrowed” from Tommy Liberty’s alien action figure, and his shoes were formed from aluminum foil. And today, for his mission, he had special equipment. A lasso was fastened to his belt by a bit of wire, which hung from a string; a red marble speckled with blue dots was strapped to his back by an elastic band that encircled his chest. Another piece of wire snugly held a bow and arrow to his thigh. The bow was made of a paper clip and a section of elastic bandage; the arrow was a Number Two Needle—all these things he would need.
Convinced that Lenny would not wake up soon, Noggin saw his chance and quietly tiptoed past the dog across the hardwood floor. In a moment, Noggin was out the bedroom door and plunged into the plush, shag carpeting of the second-floor hallway.
At first, Noggin pushed his way along, but he made little progress and soon became tired. Noggin quickly realized that wading through the lavish carpet was like going through a forest of woolly underwear.
Noggin scowled. “There must be a better way to get across,” he wondered aloud.
Suddenly a shadow loomed over his head, and Noggin could only think of Lenny. He dived for cover into the carpet.
“Noggin…is that you?” said a female voice with a definite Hungarian accent.
Noggin looked up, then stood and stared straight at the object hovering over him. “Oh, Eva, I wasn’t expecting you,” and a smile broke out across his face. “So, catch anything in your web recently?”
Dangling above Noggin, on a thin line of webbing, was a fuzzy, little blue-green spider. “Well, all I’ve been catching are flies.” A shiver of disgust swept across her body. “And as you know, I can’t stand flies. So I let them go. I think I’ll stick with jelly beans. The pink ones are not only delicious, but they’re cute, too. And what are you doing in that thick, old carpet, darling?” She called almost everyone darling.
“Getting nowhere,” said Noggin in a frustrated tone of voice. “I wish they’d never laid this rug. How do you get around on this floor?”
Eva adjusted her line to get a little closer to Noggin. “Oh, I just swing from place to place on my webbing. Or I crawl along the walls,” she chuckled.
Then Noggin noticed her webbing attached to the branch of a tall, potted ficus plant, which gave him an idea.
“Look out, Eva, I’m coming up.” Noggin placed the loop of his lasso around his waist, slipped the other end through the needle’s eye, and knotted it. Then, with a ta-wang, he fired the needle from his bow, and it raced up and bit into a branch of the potted plant.
“My goodness!” said Eva, watching the action as she hung from her web line.
Noggin quickly climbed up the cord and jumped in the pot with the ficus plant. Eva swung over and perched on the rim. “Now what, Noggin?” she asked with a burning curiosity.
“Just watch,” he said as he pulled his arrow from the branch. He climbed up the plant until he was three-quarters of the way to the top. He carefully climbed out onto a limb, going so far out that the limb began to sag under his weight—and Noggin didn’t weigh much.
Eva scurried partway up the stem of the plant. “Be careful, Noggin.”
Noggin looked back and gave her a smile; he wasn’t worried. Now, he was very close to the banister of the stairs. He jumped from the branch to the railing and slid almost all the way down. At the last moment, he jumped off and hopped down two steps to the ground floor.
Golden beams of sunlight penetrated the multi-sectioned, half-moon window and touched the floor below. At this moment, it was the kitchen’s only source of light. But that was about to change.
Noggin looked way up, pulled back hard on his bow, and took careful aim with his arrow. Seeing the light switch in the mostly darkened kitchen was hard, but that didn’t stop Noggin. He released his arrow, and the little needle sailed upward through the still air of the room until it pierced the light switch – flipping it up. The kitchen was instantly flooded with light.
“Yes!” exclaimed Noggin, doing a jubilant fist pump and sprouting an ear-to-ear grin.
Now that he had light to see, Noggin started across the big modern kitchen. “I know it’s up there,” mumbled Noggin to himself.
The next thing he knew, Eva was scurrying along beside him. “You never did tell me what you’re up to, darling.”
“I’m out of breakfast cereal, so I must get more. Luckily for me, Mr. Liberty’s a slob. Every morning when he puts away the Fruity Hoops cereal, he spills some pieces in that cupboard.” He pointed upwards. “I’m going to get one.”
“And you need that equipment?” Eva asked.
“Yup. Just watch.”
Noggin stopped by a mousetrap next to the refrigerator and beside a mouse hole and stood on the bar. He worked the marble loose from the elastic band and raised it high over his head in both hands.
He launched the marble from his fingertips, and it hit the release mechanism. The bar sprang forward, and Noggin rocketed into the air.
“Amazing!” exclaimed Eva as she watched him go.
Like a miniature human cannonball, Noggin sailed up to the cupboard and almost passed it by when he took action. He unfurled his lasso, whipped it out and caught the cupboard’s curved ornamental handle. The string pulled tautly, and Noggin dropped safely on top of the refrigerator.
Noggin quickly crawled into the cupboard, the door ajar, retrieved a Fruity Hoop, strapped it to his back with the elastic, and prepared to leave.
With one end of the string still attached to the cupboard’s handle, Noggin tossed the other over the fridge and started climbing down.
Then came a frantic warning.
“Watch out, Noggin!” yelled Eva.
Before Noggin could ask what for, a pair of snarling, snapping jaws appeared below him. It was Lenny – he had awakened from his slumber and headed to his food bowl in the kitchen when he saw Noggin.
“Yikes!” said Noggin, taking one look at the terror below. He started to climb back up, but there wasn’t enough time.
Lenny barked, growled, and jumped up and down, trying to snatch Noggin off the string. Each time, his jaws came closer, and the last time, they came so close that Noggin could smell his foul breath.
“I’ll save you, Noggin!” yelled Eva.
She jumped on Lenny’s back, dug in with all eight legs, and started to tickle him. Lenny stopped barking. He began to giggle, chortle, and snicker. Then he jumped and hopped all over the kitchen, trying to get Eva off his back, but most importantly, he moved away from Noggin.
Noggin saw his chance. He zipped down the string and sprinted for safety. But as he ran, he looked back for Eva and was horror-struck.
Lenny had tossed the little spider to the ground and intended to eat her. Eva was at Lenny’s mercy, and he had no pity.
Suddenly, Noggin appeared in front of Lenny’s snout. He jumped up and down, waved his arms and hollered. “Hey! Eat me. I taste better, you big bully!”
“Noggin, no!” whined Eva as she sprawled on the floor.
It was too late. Lenny galloped after Noggin, and Noggin ran as fast as he could. He charged back toward the refrigerator.
Noggin’s legs pumped hard, and his heart pounded even harder. And now he could feel the heat from Lenny’s breath on his neck while the dog’s vicious snarls hammered away at his ears. The beast was close.
But Noggin had managed to close the distance to his goal. He ran past the mousetrap and straight toward the mouse hole.
Then, he veered off to the right at the last possible second.
Seeing his tidbit escape, Lenny clamped his paws down hard, trying to slam on the brakes. But it didn’t work. His muzzle slid into the mouse hole, right up to the eyes. His face was stuck in the hole. Lenny tugged and kicked and pulled, but he couldn’t get out.
While a defeated Lenny whimpered and howled, Noggin jogged over to Eva and gave her a helping hand. “Come on,” he said, “let’s get out of here before Lenny gets loose.”
“Absolutely, darling,” Eva responded.
“By the way,” said Noggin, “you should try Fruity Hoops. They’re better for you than jelly beans.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And the hoops come in pink, too,” said Noggin.
“Oh, how wonderful!” gushed Eva.
“You bet it is!” Noggin smiled as the two scampered off.

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About

I grew up in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital of Canada, and I still live here, so this place is very much home to me.All of my life, I have enjoyed stories—reading them, listening to them, watching them. It didn't matter their form: books, comic books, movies, or television. I loved them all. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to bring stories to life. For me, the easiest way was writing. I have been writing stories since I was about nine years old, albeit the stories I wrote back then weren't very long or interesting. Still, it was fun for me.Although I worked at various jobs in my life, such as a janitor and a dishwasher, my career has mostly focused on information technology, which I studied in college. I spent years taking calls and writing chats and emails for various companies, including a major petroleum corporation and a major grocery retailer.Although technically, writing is my hobby, it is more of a way of life. I love creating fantastic worlds and populating them with amazing characters. I love to unleash my imagination and let it take me wherever it wants. It's essential to see the world as it is, but imagination can allow you to see what it could become. A long time ago, people looked up into the sky, saw birds flying, and imagined what it would be like if people could fly. Now we know. One hundred years ago, people looked at the moon and imagined what it would be like to travel there. Now we know. Probably somebody imagined what it would be like to remove the heart from a recently dead person and transplant it to someone alive who needed a new heart to survive. Now we know. Imagination can take you places, and I like to let it take me to beautiful places.

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