Albert Papersworth lived at 510 Starry Hill Lane in a red-bricked house on top of a hill with his parents Mr. Papersworth an Mrs. Papersworth. He was eight years old. Albert didn’t know much in life, but he did know a few things. He did not like his name, and preferred to be called Albie. He did like his house for two main reasons: 1) He liked the number five quite a bit and smiled every time he saw address: 510 Starry Hill Lane. The second reason was that he liked the color red and even though the exposed brick of his house did not match the color of red from his box of crayons, he thought it was close enough and Albie was not a stickler for such things. Albie did not like his parents.
One day, Albie was standing outside of his house of top of the hill when he noticed an apple tree growing behind the fence that separated his house from his neighbor’s down the hill. Mrs. Papersworth had planted the tree there a week earlier hoping to have fresh apples in the summer so she could enter an apple pie backing contest that was held in town every year.
“Oh boy,” Albie thought. “I sure hope those apples are red and not green.”
To his glee, they were indeed red. Albie got down on his knees and prepared to get down on the hill the way he usually did: by rolling. This was far much more fun than a walking. Albie rolled down the hill and counted to five and when he opened them, he was under the apple tree.
Unfortunately, the apple tree was quite tall and Albie was only four feet, four inches tall (he hoped to be at least five feet, five inches tall one day) and looked around hoping to find something that would help him reach the nearest branch. He found a jumprope nearby and made a lasso. The previous summer, Mr. Papersworth had taken him to a rodeo and one of the rodeo clowns had taught him how to tie one when Mr. Papersworth had gone to check out a bull.
Albie was able to lasso onto the nearest bough and climb the rope up into the tree. He picked five red apples and before he climbed down the rope, Albie made a mental note to ask his parents, who he did not like, if he could build a tree house in it.
When it was 5 p.m., Mr. and Mrs. Papersworth arrived at the house at 510 Starry Hill Lane in a taxicab. Mr. Papersworth was in a bad mood because his car was in the shop and was still not ready to be picked up.
“Hello Mother, hello Father,” Albie greeted his parents.
His father grunted. His mother nodded and said, “Hello Albert,” and walked into the kitchen. This is why Albie did not like his parents. His father grunted too much and his mother called him Albert. They also left him home alone too often and never hugged him. Albie decided he would not ask his parents for a tree house and would not tell his mother that he had picked five apples from her tree because he decided she would be too angry with him. So five minutes before 9 p.m., he bid his parents goodnight, brushed his teeth with his red toothbrush, said goodnight to his five stuffed animals and went to sleep.
At 3 a.m., Albie woke up because he thought he heard a loud noise coming from downstairs. He rolled out of bed and tiptoed down into the living room. Two men wearing black masks were looking through some drawers. Albie remembered that men wearing black masks usually meant they were burglars so he gasped. The two men turned suddenly and looked at the little boy and laughed.
Albie did not like being laughed at so he picked up the nearest thing to him, which was the bag of apples he had picked earlier and threw them at the men. One hit one of the men’s shoulders, which caused him to drop the gun. The gun fired after dropping, hitting the other man in the leg, which caused him to drop his gun as well.
A few minutes later, the police arrived because the neighbor down the hill had heard the men break into the Papersworth house and was suspicious. After the men were taken away, Mrs. Papersworth hugged her son and said, “Thank you Albie, I love you.” Mr. Papersworth asked Albie if he wanted anything for saving the day and Albie nodded and said “a tree house.” The next week, Mr. Papersworth helped Albie build a treehouse in the apple tree and Mrs. Papersworth helped Albie paint it red.
After, that Albie no longer disliked his parents.
The End.
