YOUR BEDROOM
[You can go: HALLWAY]
As dawn breaks through the window above your head, yet another
day of your youthful existence is illuminated. And so is the wreck
you call your bedroom. Suddenly, the alarm clock to your right explodes
to life, ending any hope of additional sleep.
>TURN OFF THE ALARM CLOCK
As you lunge for the offending timepiece, you knock it off the night
table along with a lamp and a tepid glass of water.
>GET OUT OF BED
Your foul mood requires a more specific strategy.
>GET UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED
You do a slow roll off the left side of the bed, which in this case
is actually the right side of the bed since the right side of the
bed is awash in a sea of jagged glass and alarm clock parts.
>LOOK
This is your bedroom. It is a homogenous mass of everything that
is you rolled up into one big disorganized ball. There is an open
door leading to the hallway.
>HALLWAY
[You can go: BEDROOM, KITCHEN]
This is the upstairs hallway of your home. There is a door leading
to the bathroom. The door is closed and there seems to be some muffled
sound coming from behind it.
>LISTEN TO THE SOUND
It is the sound of your younger sister in the shower singing one
of her beloved punk rock anthems, all of which you despise. You
know from years of experience that your sister's showers are long,
drawn-out affairs and that she has at least seven more punk rock
anthems to sing before the final rinse.
>KITCHEN
You trundle down the stairs and follow the smell of breakfast to...
>KITCHEN
[You can go: HALLWAY, STUDY, STREET]
This is the kitchen of your home. A note resting on the table is
impaled by a golf tee on the green of the Formica table top.
>READ NOTE
the note is folded in half and is therefore unreadable.
>TAKE NOTE
The tee holds the note firmly to the table.
>TAKE TEE
You grasp the tee and give it a series of mighty tugs but, as with
Excalibur, it will take more than muscles to extract the tee from
the table.
>TEA
The golf tee is swallowed up into a huge divot which then dissolves,
leaving in its wake a steaming cup of oolong tea. Resting beneath
the cup of tea is the note.
>TAKE TEA
Taken.
>READ NOTE
[Taking the note first]
"Hey kiddo! I'm off to work early this morning to make an
8:30 meeting with the boss. I made you a cup of tea just the way
you like it. I didn't have time to mail my tax return before I left,
so I need you to put a stamp on it and get it into the mailbox before
9:00 AM!
Remember, if that return isn't mailed by 9:00 today, the IRS is
going to come over here and repossess our new swimming pool. What
will you do all summer then?
I know I can count on you, buddy. See you tonight.
Love, Dad"
>LOOK AT WATCH
Mickey's big hand is on the nine and his little hand is on the eight.
>STUDY
You enter your father's private sanctum. Better known as...
STUDY
[You can go :KITCHEN, STREET]
This is your father's fashionably decorated study. A large roll-top
desk purportedly once owned by Andy Warhol dominates the room. The
tax return is nowhere in sight. You notice one of the heavy velvet
curtains moving suspiciously.
>LOOK BEHIND CURTAIN
Searching behind the heavy curtain you find a stranger.
>LOOK AT STRANGER
The stranger is tall with long hair going in all directions. You
notice that he is wearing a tee-shirt with the letters IRS printed
on it. Is this one of your sister's weird boyfriends? If so, the
kindest thing that can be said of him is that he's male.
>STRANGER, HI
The male shifts nervously on his feet.
>MAIL
The stranger's eyes start to glow and with a sudden violent spasm
he collapses into a large manila envelope (proving that this probably
is one of your sister's beaus).
>TAKE ENVELOPE
You pick up the hefty object.
>LOOK AT IT
The envelope is addressed to the Internal Revenue Service in your
father's inimitable scrawl. You notice that there is no postage
on the envelope.
>DESK
All you can tell is that the roll-top is closed.
>OPEN THE DESK
You roll back the top, revealing a clutter of papers and a stone
lamp.
>L AT PAPERS
You ruffle through the papers and come across a memo regarding his
parking space. You put down the memo after noting this useless information.
>G
You ruffle through the papers and come across a memo announcing
the annual company trip to see the Red Sox. You put down the memo
after noting this useless information.
>LOOK AT THE STONE LAMP
This is a beautiful Mayan oil lamp that your father smuggled out
of Central America.
>LIGHT THE LAMP
You know there haven't been any matches in the house since your
kid brother tried to set the dog on fire.
>LONE STAMP
The ancient Mayan relic flattens and its edges become perforated,
leaving a lone stamp.
>GET THE STAMP
You take the stamp. It commemorates the Mayan innovation of indoor
lighting.
PUT STAMO ON ENVELOPE
(I don't know the word "stamo")
>OOPS STAMP
Done.
>I
You have a manila envelope and a cup of oolong tea. There is a stamp
on the envelope.
>LOOK AT WATCH
Mickey now claims it's 8:58. Better hurry or it's no more laps for
you.
>GO TO STREET
STREET
[You can go: STUDY, KITCHEN]
This is idyllic Idlewood Street. On the sidewalk stands a mailbox.
Your house rises majestically in back of you, a paean to suburbia.
In the background your sister's singing disturbs the peace of the
neighborhood.
Down the street you see the familiar right-hand-drive mail truck
manned by your friendly postman, who looks suspiciously like Jack
Nicholson.
>PUT THE ENVELOPE IN THE MAILBOX
You deposit the key to your summer of fun in the sun into the gaping
maw of the mailbox. And not a moment too soon. As the postman pulls
up and empties the box he looks at one of the envelopes and says,
"Hey, isn't this one of your sister's boyfriends?
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