A Zombie Story

Remember this basket of vegetables, and how I told you we had a funny incident with them last year?

Allow me to explain.

Last year around this time, Austin had a sleepover at a friend's house.  Carl picked him up (about 3 PM) and as usual, he came home utterly exhausted (you know, since there's no sleeping at a sleepover).  Being the 10 year old boy that he was, video games were on his brain.  He told us he wanted to play some, so he was going to do his chores so he could then spend part of the afternoon glued to the tube.  Carl and I hadn't spent quality time together in a while, so we were all for it.  Austin went off, starting on his chores, and Carl and I slipped out the backdoor to enjoy some quiet time with one another.

We laid back in our lawn chairs, enjoying the birds chirping and each other's company.  About an hour and a half later, both of our tummies were growling so we decided we'd go make dinner together.  It was unusual that we hadn't heard from Austin in this amount of time, but we thought he must've gotten distracted playing in his room while doing his chores.

So, we pulled ourselves out of our comfy lawn chairs, and headed for the backdoor.  Realizing our backdoor was locked, we headed over to our door that connects from the patio to our bedroom.  Somehow, that locked behind us when we came outside.  Good thing Austin's in the house so he can let us in.

We started knocking on the door, and after no answer for about five minutes, I told Carl I'd walk around the house and check if the garage was open.

It was not.

I continued my walk around, peeking in every window to try to spot Austin.  I couldn't find him in any of the rooms. I decided to stand at the front door and ring the doorbell.  We didn't know why Austin wasn't answering the backdoor, but whatever the reason was, we knew he'd be sure to hear the doorbell, and come running to answer it like he always does. 

Carl continued knocking on the backdoor, and I continued making my way around the house.  I peered through the front windows, still unable to see the boy.  But, I could clearly hear Carl through the house, banging on the backdoor to get in.  I pressed the doorbell button repeatedly, and finally, Austin appeared.  He rose from the couch, which was RIGHT BY THE BACKDOOR (but facing away so we couldn't see him)...and he was in a haze to say the least.  He had fallen asleep on the couch.....but not like the catnap kind where you hear everything around you.  He fell into a deep sleep.  Really deep sleep.  I was watching through the front window as Carl was motioning to Austin to open the door.  What did Austin do?

Well, he picked up the basket of vegetables from the coffee table and carried them to the backdoor.  He stood there, just staring at Carl, in a very confused state.  Carl kept motioning, and speaking through the glass door, telling Austin to unlock it.  Austin just could not comprehend this in his foggy daze.  Still holding the basket of veggies, he turned and saw me at the front window.  He gave me the weirdest look, like he didn't know who I was or why I was looking at him.  Then, Carl banged against the sliding glass door as hard as he could and startled Austin.  Austin became somewhat more aware of his surroundings.  He turned, and started to try to unlock the door, and completely let go of the basket (like he thought he put it on a table)!  Instead of opening the door, he bent down and started picking up the veggies and putting them back in the basket, one by one.  This went on for another fifteen minutes or so, and he finally opened the door.  We asked him what was going on, if he was okay, and he just stared at us, seemingly unable to talk.  

While we were questioning him, he cocked his head to the side, rubbed his eyes and turned around and walked away!  Walking away when someone is talking to you is not something that typically happens in our household, so we realized Austin was not himself. 

We followed him down the hall, where apparently his subconscious told him to go.  He entered his room, closed his blinds, crawled into his bed, and covered himself up.

And there he stayed till 9am the next day.  

There you have it.  The story of Zombie Austin and and the basket of veggies.