Peter Carrot-top by Yolanda Jackson (ebook audio reader txt) 📖

tug on Peter's shirt.
"Down, boy," said Peter, but Dingo kept on until Peter finally paid him some attention.
When Peter knelt down to Dingo to see what was the matter, Dingo stuck his fingers out pointing in the direction of the noise. The Goonies were hiding behind a great big bunch of trees.
Peter sensed something was wrong and put his hands to the floor. Suddenly the earth began to shake, and his orange hair began to blow back and forth like a whirlwind. His eyes were fixed on the target. Holes started appearing out of nowhere, big ones and small ones. One by one, the Goonies began to scream as they fell deep into the holes. The adults came running.
"What's the matter, Peter?" Sam asked.
Peter explained that they were being watched and he had caught the perpetrators in the hole. Sam pushed Peter aside and held an oil lamp above the hole. A creature jumped toward Sam and startled him, but the hole was too deep for the creature to escape. Everyone started to gather around the rim, watching the creature's every move.
"These creatures are from a dark side,” said Grandpa David.
Sam reached out, grabbed the creature, and it began to shiver and turned into a ball. "Who are you?" Sam asked the creature.
"We are your brother's keepers," the creature replied.
Sam knew then that his brother was up to no good and they had to hurry. He told his son to close up the hole with the creatures inside, and so Peter did. With the power in his hands, he conjured up the dirt, and buried the creatures inside. The people were amazed once again by Peter's powers, but there were also a few jealous ones in the crowd. Some people clapped, and some snickered in disbelief.
As the group continued to walk on, Sam and his father had a long talk. David told Sam that his brother was way beyond help and the evil had total possession of him. David described to his son the pain he and Dorothy had gone through at the hands of Marcus. They went from living like royalty to the pigpen, at the hands of their own son. Sam told his father he was very sorry and assured him everything would be all right soon.
The group continued to walk toward home. Peter was excited to see his new home fully. Dorothy and Jane sat quietly in the back of the wagon. Suddenly, it began to shake violently. Dorothy looked out, and she was in the air. Sam had used his powers to levitate everyone into the air. The people were now flying; this was the only way to get home quickly before nightfall.
Through the sky they went. The children were having the most fun touching the clouds. The birds moved out of the way, and the long trees shrunk to make way for the herd of people.
"Wheeeeee!" said they kids.
Up and down they moved and chased each other. This was the first time many of them had been completely free. The adults were placed in the back. Many of the older ones were afraid, but Sam put their fears to rest assuring them now that he would not drop them. Faster and faster Sam flew them through the air, going in and out of trees, flying over vast stretches of land. People on the ground were pointing and shouting with surprise. One kid on a bike rolled into a patch of hay when he saw the crowd in the air. People were running, trying to catch up with the flying people. Some were running to neighbors, telling them what they had seen.
The fresh air did Jane a whole lot of good; she woke up smiling, asking for her family, until Dorothy filled her in on what was going on. Jane pushed her hair back and looked out of the wagon window, and smiled at her family to show she was okay. This gave Sam more strength to move the wagon even more quickly. Suddenly, the wagon and the people came falling down slowly from the sky.
"We are home," said Sam.
The Carrot-Tops' home had arrived in one piece, safe and secure. It was no longer frozen in time. The house was like a castle -- there must have been hundreds or even thousands of rooms. It was like the Carrot-Tops were kings and queens of Baja. The home was fit for royalty. The crowd of people stared at the enormous house and wondered how was it that Sam kept all of this when their homes were either destroyed or taken away. Some people in the crowd were happy to have a warm place to bathe and sleep, while others were becoming very jealous of the Carrot-Tops.
The people went through the house feeling and touching things. It had been years since they had even seen or in fact been in a house as luxurious as this. The people were like kids in a candy store -- they wanted to feel and touch everything in sight. Some people were even trying to steal little knick-knacks outside in the garden, before they even went into the house.
"There will be none of that. Anything you want is free. There is no need to steal," said Sam.
Peter ran up to the door and waited on his father to open it. One deep breath and Sam gave the door a turn, and swung it open. Everything was just like they had left it, only this time, nothing was in an altered state. The cats were running around the house and everything seemed to fit in place. Sam went and lifted his wife out of the wagon and brought her into the house. With Jane resting comfortably on the sofa, Sam invited everyone in for a hot meal and a fresh bath.
Some people began to grumble, they were upset that Sam still had all of his wealth and they had nothing. He tried to ease the tension in the crowd, but no one wanted to listen. They were all jealous of the luxury Sam and his family had.
"All of you have been loyal to me, and I will see that you also get all that you left behind," said Sam.
But, no one wanted to hear that. They were upset. They had lost everything because they were Sam's followers.
"Why should we trust you?" one man asked.
"Because we all have suffered," intervened Sam's father.
But the pep talk did no good, and off went the crowd, grumbling and complaining. Only two people stayed behind, Red Fox and Samantha Grey. Red Fox was half-man half-fox. He was one of Sam's loyal friends and commander of his army. Red had grown old and worn; his fox fur was matted and his demeanor was that of hopelessness.
He looked Sam in the eyes and asked him, "Will you make me like I once was?"
Tears began to fill Sam's eyes and he let Red Fox know that he would do everything in his powers to make things right.
Then Samantha Grey stepped forward. She was a young woman, no more than twenty. Her gifts of being a ninja had served Sam's army very well. Samantha was of Asian descent; her long body and jet black hair made her stand out in a crowd. She had taught thousands of Sam's soldiers how to fight and how to respect the art of becoming a ninja, and her army was unstoppable.
Samantha explained to Sam that she had had to hide in the Black Forest when the elders kicked him out of Baja, and she did not want to get killed like the others. Sam went over and gave her a big hug, and told Samantha everything would be all right.
"Don't blame yourself for running,” he said. “It was the right thing to do.”
But Samantha still felt like a coward, since she could not protect Sam's family from being punished at the hands of the elders. But Sam never held it against her. He understood that at the time, she had to fight for her own life.
Red and Samantha were the only people in the crowd who stayed, the rest left, intent on trying to reunite with their families that they hadn't seen in ten plus years. Sam understood that they were angry with him, so he let them go, knowing that most of them would be back once they were rejected by their families and friends.
The remaining guests made themselves at home while Peter and Dingo were having a blast running through the house. Up and down the staircase they ran. Jane was pleased to see her son finally finding a place to call home. It was kinda strange to the Carrot-Tops to be back in their house that had been vacant for years.
That night was so strange for the family that they couldn't sleep, so the night was filled with stories by the fireplace. Deep down inside, everyone was wondering what tomorrow would bring. Jane began to tell Peter of a great primary school, the great Waldorf Academy School. She told him it was a school of possibilities, and that whatever his dreams were, the school could make them come true.
"Oh boy, I can't wait!" said Peter.
Jane told her son that he would fit right in with all the other kids, unlike back in Georgia. For a moment, Georgia seemed strange. They seemed to have been gone from there for so long already. So, they put thoughts of the human world in the back of their heads and continued on with the stories by the fireplace.
Red Fox slowly came down the stairs; his fur was all wet and shaggy. "Oooh, that was a great bath!" he shouted. "It has been so long since I had a good hot bath like that.”
The family just laughed and welcomed him to sit by the fireplace. Jane noticed that her mother-in-law was missing and went up the stairs to find her. Dorothy was in her old room stroking the pillowcase.
She heard Jane coming and said, "It has been years since I slept on a bed, it seems so strange to me."
Jane sat on the edge of the bed with Dorothy and gave her a big hug, promising that Sam would make everything the way it was. Dorothy put her feet in the bed and crawled up into a ball.
Jane went down and told Sam about his mother. He rushed right up to her bedside to make sure that she was okay. Sam saw the state his mother was in, and ran to the phone and called a doctor. David ran to his wife's side and comforted her.
"It's the years of digging in those nasty tunnels that has her sick," said David.
At the same time, Sam was on the phone talking to the doctor, asking him to get there right away. Within a few seconds, he appeared out of thin air. It startled everyone for a moment. Sam went over and tried to shake the doctor's hand, but it was only a hologram of the doctor that told the patient and their family what to do to help their loved ones.
The hologram of Dr. Doo came on with a computer-generated voice telling the family to boil hot water with lotus leaves and place them on Dorothy's chest. The family was stunned for a while, but did what the hologram told them to do. Dorothy went in and out of a coma. Sam was very sad, and he begged his mother to hold on just a while longer.
Before anyone could say another word, the medicine worked. Dorothy was still ill, but was feeling much better. She leaned over to her son and asked him to bring Peter forward.
Peter went forward to hear what his