We're+All+in+This+Together+-+Part+2


 * The briefcase had to open! It just had to! I tried one more combination, then sank to the ground. There were a gazillion combinations, and I was frustrated. Taking a few breaths was all I could do to keep myself from finding some scissors or a knife and gouging the bag open. Then I remembered what brought me here: some law case, and a few friends of a real estate agent. **
 * It was a beautiful, but fantasically average July morning, and my older brother Ben and I were picking raspberries in the backyard and tucking them back before they were even in the containers we were picking berries with. Well, those raspberries were our lunch, so no one could really tell us we were being pigs. Mum was at work, as usual. She was a judge. **
 * Dad was a pickpocket, which made things kind of awkward at home. Needless to say, they tried to keep work-related talk to a minimum. But they got along. Besides, Dad hadn't always been that way. He had gone to university for a year, and then got a job as a garbage collector. There's nothing wrong with being a garbage collector. It's just that things went downhill from there and our family would rather not share that with others. Dad was in prison again, for two months. This meant Mum would try to act normal at home, but fail terribly until around two weeks after Dad was out, and things were almost forgotten. **
 * This time, when Dad returned home, I was determined that things would be different. I pulled out all the old family photo albums, got out the popcorn maker, and starting warming milk on the stove for hot chocolate...I'm allowed to do this sort of thing, remember? Mom's hardly ever home...she's a judge. **
 * Just as I finished my preparations, I heard the door open softly behind me. This was it! Dad was home! I spun around to give him a kiss and a hug, but paused immediately. Dad was, well, different. **
 * He had snakes stuck on his head instead of hair, one hundred arms, an eye right in the middle of his forehead and a long cat tail. "Dad. What happened?" I inquired. "Ourf trghtuewu uiefhu uq efejka," he answered. He couldn't speak english. Oh no. I pinched myself really hard to see if it was a dream, but it hurt. It was real. I couldn't believe my dad turned into a monster. What would my mom say? What would my aunt and uncle say? What would my grandparents say? What would my siblings say? What would my friends say? Looking at my dad made me want to faint. **