The Viper
by San Miguel Oquendo Jr

Once there lived an old lady, who stayed by herself in an apartment. She was watching the news as usual one night when a bulletin was flashed: "Alert! There is a man on the loose who goes by the name of the viper. He likes to go after rich old ladies."

Hearing this, the lady SCREAMS: "I am an old rich lady. What if he’s coming here!" So saying, she runs to the door and locks it. Just then, the phone rings. "AH!" The lady’s hands begin to shake as she picks up the receiver. "Hello," a man’s voice says at the other end, "I’m the viper you called for and I’m going to be there wery soon!"

The lady almost faints. "AH! He is coming after me! I must call the cops," she tells herself. With trembling hands she somehow makes the call. "We’ll be there in 20 minutes," the cops tell her.

Just then, the phone rings again, and this time the old lady’s legs are shaking as she picks up the phone: "Hello?" "Yes, it’s me, the Viper, and I am almost there."

Hearing this, the old lady screams even louder! "AAHHH!!!" Once more she tries the cops but they are not answering. She panics. Someone knocks on the door. Praying and hoping that it’s the cops, she opens the door. A small man holding a bag in his hand is standing there. "Hello," he says. "I am the Viper…" The lady does not hear the rest of the sentence. Clutching her chest she sinks to the floor. She has had a heart attack from sheer fright!

The small man looks at her in shock. "… And I had come to vish and vash your vindows," he finally completes his sentence. Not knowing what to do, and not wanting to get into trouble, he simply walks away.

The next morning, the milkman found the old lady dead on her doorstep.

"She died from heart attack," the doctor was to say later, but no one quite understood how or why.

A few days later, the same small man who had called upon the old lady and announced himself as the 'viper', was walking in the streets with his dog. One of his neighbors saw him and asked him where he was going. "I am taking my dog to the wet," he replied with a smile. "He vas out in the rain last night and has got fewer."

(with inputs from his ELA teacher)