With July 4th just days away I started to really hate fireworks. I could hear them going off in my neighborhood at all hours: pop, sizzle, BOOM! Couldn’t these people go into the woods to do that? Why did they have to practically be in MY backyard to do it? Ugh; I never wanted to hear another firework as long as I lived.

I decided to put on my own show, in competition with theirs. I dressed in my finest sports apparel and went into my front yard, carrying a baseball bat and a pom pom I’d stolen from my sister. As soon as I got outside, I started chanting and jumping up and down: “Rah Rah, please stop all your booming. I can envision a police car looming. I am sick of all your noise. Fireworks are not toys!”

I knew it would annoy the bejesus out of them, so I just yelled it louder and louder, attracting the attention of several of my neighbors. All of a sudden, the booming and noise stopped. It had worked! I won! Maybe they wouldn’t even set them off on the 4th of July. A boy could always hope.

© 2009 Melissa Linardos. Original for CCF. Linardos grants CCF first electronic rights for one month; CCF may archive the material indefinitely and include it in an eBook anthology.