Penelope Rose and TANK

In case I write a children's book, these are some characters swimming in my mind...

Penelope Rose King

TANK: Theodore Andrew Nicholas King

Leopard-sized grasshoppers leaped and growled all over The Big Hill. A fireball of volcanic lava blazed in the sky in a slow descent toward earth. Penelope Rose sat safe in a hemlock’s shade to write a poem while TANK, dressed in his best camouflaged outfit, hunted the giant hopping beasts with his magnifying glass sword and smashed them with his rain boots.

“TANK, it’s almost time for lunch!” Penelope shouted after she checked her new red wristwatch. “We can’t be late!”

Penelope had gotten the watch after she promised her mother that she and TANK could go to the Big Hill themselves if they returned home on time for meals.

TANK was mid-swing. “You’re mine, Lightening Hopper!” He cried. But he missed.

“Come on, TANK!”

Penelope had already packed her faux leather backpack with her notebook, pencil, pencil sharpener and Indian woven blanket she used as a seat. The backpack had been a gift from her grandma Tish for her last birthday.

TANK aimed again. He put his swimming goggles over his eyes for a better view, reached up his arm and…

“TANK!” Penelope put her face between the grasshopper and her brother’s goggles and grabbed his hand. “We’re going home for lunch.”

“You’re hurting me!” TANK yelped as he wriggled free of his sister’s grasp and grabbed his hermit crab cage. Inside the cage was Ole’ Looker, a one-eyed green tree frog that he found on the family's last camping trip to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.

TANK swung the cage as he walked, which caused Ole’ Looker to slide back and forth like the pirate ship ride at the seashore amusement park.

“I hope your frog doesn’t throw up!” shouted Penelope and she tried to keep up with her little brother.

TANK opened the cage, held the frog in his hand instead and said, “Race ya!”

He didn’t wait for his sister to respond as he ran all the way home.