Troll Invasion

I can remember the day so well. It was bright and sunny and unusually cool for that time of the year. I went into the village of Sharbot Lake to pick up my mail and to do some grocery shopping.

I was gone for two hours. When I returned, I put the groceries away. I felt a little chilly. A slight breeze came across the kitchen floor and I noticed that the blinds were moving. I went over to the window and saw that it was open.

“That’s funny,” I thought to myself. “I didn’t open that window.”

I closed it and looked down at the floor. There were tiny mud prints all over it!

“What is going on here?” I said. “I just finished washing the floor before I left.

“Following the mud prints, I went into my daughter, Jennifer’s room. Her bedroom was a mess. That’s when I noticed them. They were everywhere! They were hairy little creatures! There were thousands of them!

“Trolls!” I yelled. “My house is invaded by trolls.”

Trolls were hanging from Jenny’s blinds. They were jumping on her bed. Some were even throwing Jenny’s clothes all around her room. Stamping my feet, I ordered all of them to clean Jenny’s room up at once. I slammed her door shut. While standing in the hall, I heard a roar coming from my son, Ricky’s room. His door opened and a remote control truck came charging out of his room. It ran right over my foot!

Standing on top of the truck were two trolls. Following them, came another one. He was obviously the troll in control of the truck. He had the joystick in his hands.

“You!” I called. “You ran that truck over my foot. The least you could do, is watch where you are driving!”

That troll was a trouble-maker. He stood with a big smile on his face. I knew that he ran over my foot on purpose. I went to my broom closet to get my broom. A few knocks over the head would fix those nasty creatures. However, I didn’t realize that there were trolls in my broom closet, too. I had no idea where they were coming from. Wherever I looked, I saw them.

I saw what I thought was the king troll. He was taller than the rest of the them and he wore a long robe. I wanted to pick him up. However, just because he was taller, doesn’t mean that he was any better looking than the rest of them. They had wrinkled faces and the strangest hair colours.

“How could anything be so ugly?” I thought to myself as I bent over and picked the king troll up.

Despite their ugliness, I found that I kind of liked them. I decided that I would put the broom back in the closet. Hitting the trolls over the head wasn’t going to solve anything. Besides, I didn’t want to hurt them. At that precise moment, the king troll decided to bite my thumb!

“Am I crazy?” I asked. “Did I just saying something nice about you? I take back every nice word that I ever said. You are despicable!”

The more I tried to convince myself of that, the more it didn’t work. I found myself liking them all the more.

“Here King,” I said, lifting the king troll down onto the floor. “You can go play with your friends.”

I no sooner set the king troll on the floor when he kicked me in the shin. For a bare-footed little fellow, he sure had a mean kick.

“Now,” I said. “What did you go and do that for?”

“Because,” said the king troll. “That was my way of saying that I like you.”

“Oh!” I cried. “You waltz into my home, destroy everything, bite and kick me and then tell me that you like me! Yeah right! And I like you too!”

“Well thanks,” said the king. “Now that we like each other, I’m hungry!”

All the trolls marched down the hall, single file, at the mention of food.

“I’m glad to see that you’re so well mannered,” I said angrily.

The king jumped up onto my counter and found my cookie jar. Chocolate chip cookies went flying. Some of the trolls got into the fridge. They threw eggs and tomatoes. My house was a mess when Ricky and Jenny came home from school. They couldn’t believe their eyes!

“Gee Mom,” said Ricky. “Jenny and I don’t even make that much of a mess. What happened?”

“Oh!” I gasped. “I was invaded by trolls. Thousands of them! They were so bad. They got into everything.”

“Trolls!” said Jenny. “I don’t see any trolls.”

“They’re right there,” I said, pointing toward the kitchen.

“Well,” said Ricky. “That’s funny. I don’t see them.”

I went into the kitchen and sure enough, they were gone.

“All right!” I screamed. “Where are you little devils?”

“Now she’s talking to them,” said Jenny. “I think you’d better go and lay down, Mom.”

Jenny and Ricky were both laughing at me.

“Yes,” I said, feeling very foolish and very tired. I laid down. Those trolls were here today. I know they were. I’m not sure what kind of tricks they were playing. It wasn’t me that jumped up on everything and I certainly didn’t throw food all over the kitchen, either.”

The trolls never did come back to visit me. I never saw them again. However, one day, a parcel arrived in the mail for Jenny’s birthday. Inside the parcel was a toy troll.

“Oh,” I said. “Get that troll out of here!”

“It’s only a doll,” Jenny reasoned.

Well, I couldn’t very well throw Jenny’s birthday present out. That wouldn’t be fair to her and besides, it was only a toy.

“Look,” I said to Jenny quite sternly. “The troll can stay, but if it dares to make any trouble, out it goes!”

Well, either Jenny’s troll was just a toy, or the little devil knew that I meant what I said, because that troll never caused an ounce of trouble.