Yeti in the Basement
by Dolores

Mom and Dad brought home the monster in early September. They’d left earlier that day talking about a tip they’d received a while ago. A few hours later, the van had pulled into the garage and Mom had come upstairs to tell me to stay in my room and not look out the window. I’d done as I was told, but I could still hear them pushing something heavy and loud through the garage-basement door. They never said it was a monster, but I heard Mom tell Dad that the neighbors would freak out if they saw the ‘specimen’, so it had to be.
They’d brought home plants and animals and stuff before, but this was the first time it was something alive. They were really excited. Dad had said that it would make them rich and famous and that they’d be the first ones to prove it existed.
“Remember, Lolo, do not go into the basement for any reason,” Mom had said. I’d known the rules about the basement, but this time, she’d sounded really, extra serious. Maybe even a little scared. “No matter what you hear, don’t even open the door. Understand?”
The basement doors all had keypad locks on them, so I didn’t know why Mom was worried. But I’d promised not to go near the door.
That was months ago. Like Mom said, they are muffled noises coming from the basement door: zaps and hums from all the machines they bring down there and roars from the monster. The basement’s soundproofed, but I can still hear it when I’m in the kitchen. It’s scary and sometimes I feel sad for whatever’s down there, but Mom and Dad told me that they’re being as nice as possible to the monster and their work will help a lot of people. So I guess it’s okay, even if the roars sound like crying sometimes. It’ll all be worth it in the end.
They’ve both been working so hard on the specimen, that I don’t see them a lot. When I do see them, they’re a little grouchy. While I’m eating lunch in the kitchen, Dad stomps up the stairs and out of the basement, slamming the door behind him. He looks angry, so I guess whatever experiments he’s running didn’t work. He doesn’t even look at me as he goes to the fridge for a beer.
When he notices me, he asks, “Dolores, where’s your mother? Did she go to the store?”
“I think she went to get more equipment,” I say. I don’t actually know where she went, but their lab in the city is the only place they’ve gone in weeks.
Dad grumbles and sits down to drink. He doesn’t ask me how school’s going or why I has bruises on my arm or anything, they can get a little serious when they’re working, but for a while now they’ve been a little mean. I’m afraid to talk to him, but I try anyway.
“How are the experiments going, Daddy?”
His eyes narrow and he makes a sound like a growl. “Why do you want to know? Have you been spying on us?” His voice starts getting louder and he stands up.
“No, I was just curious,” I say quickly. “I wasn’t spying, I swear.”
“Good! Just stay out of this! Understand?” Dad storms down to the basement. I can hear him through the open door a little. “What are you laughing at? How about I get some of the big toys? Maybe you’ll think that’s funny, too!” He runs back upstairs, gets his coat, and heads for the door. “Your mom and I will be back late,” he says before leaving.
I should be sad that my parents spend so much time gone, but I’m actually relieved. They’ve been jerks for months now, everyone’s been. I was so happy to start third grade, but most of my classmates are bullies and I’ve got the bruises and stolen homework to prove it. Mrs. Buchannon’s no help, she either ignores us or is just as awful. The neighbor kids throw rocks and their parents threaten to call the police on me just for walking by their houses, so going for a walk is out. It’s gross outside anyway, it’s freezing cold, the sky’s solid gray like it’s trying to rain, the plants are all dying, and there’s roadkill everywhere. It’s like the whole world just decided to be trash all at once. I keep telling myself that it’ll all be worth it when my parents’ discovery makes us rich, but I’m not sure that I believe it anymore.
“This sucks. What is going on with people?” I mutter to myself. I don’t let myself cry, but I kind of want to. “I wish at least one person could stop acting like crap and just be a human being.”
“Dolores?” a soft voice whispers. It’s so quiet, I’m surprised I can hear it, but it feels like it’s right in my ear. “Dolores? Do you want to come down here?” Suddenly, I realize that Dad never closed the basement door. “It’s okay, Dolores. You don’t have to answer now. The code for the keypad is 559345 in case you change your mind later.”
I don’t answer or close the door, I just run upstairs and lock myself in my room. How did it know my name? It probably overheard Dad when he was in the kitchen, I tell myself. But the door wasn’t open then. Had my parents just said it while they were down there? That was probably it. The rational explanation calmed me down a little. Even if it does know my name, it’s probably locked in a cage so it can’t hurt me.
“So I guess I can go down there. For a bit.” The idea gives me chills. I’ve never had a chance to see their lab before and after them being pubes for so long, breaking their number one rule would be pretty sweet.
“Just a little peek,” I say as I go back to the kitchen. I’m whispering and tiptoeing as if there’s anyone to catch me. It makes everything feel more fun, like sneaking down for a late-night snack and hoping Mom and Dad don’t hear me.
I hold my breath as I open the basement door further and creep down the steps. The walls and ceiling are covered with metal and those zigzaggy tiles that Freddy’s dad has in his recording studio. There are hazmat suits and gas masks hanging on the stairway wall. The basement itself is full of machines that I can’t even guess the purpose of hooked up to the walls or to large computers. There are beakers full of foul smelling chemicals and a fridge cabinet with even more. Papers and folders are thrown around everywhere. All the grief they used to give me about keeping my room clean and they work in a pigsty. Then I hear the whispering again.
“That didn’t take very long, naughty girl. What would your parents think of you being here?” Uh oh. If the monster decides to tattle on me, Mom and Dad will kill me. But then the creature laughed, not a mean or sinister laugh, a friendly one. “Don’t worry, Lolo, I won’t tell. There’s nothing wrong with a little rule-breaking now and then, right? Now come closer and let me see you.”
I’m scared, but I came this far. Behind a row of the large computers is a big glass tube hooked up to a buzzing antenna. At first, I think the monster in the tube is just a blob of flesh, but when it shuffles around to see me, I can see that it’s human-shaped. Its head and the entire back of it are almost skeletal, with bones visible under tight skin and patchy white fur. But its neck, chest, stomach, and even the front-facing side of its bony limbs hang down in jelly-like droops like in those weight loss shows Mom likes. It lowers its ape-like face to me and stretches its mostly lipless mouth into a smile.
“Hello, Dolores.” Its mouth barely moves but I can hear it perfectly.
“Hi, Mr. Monster,” I say as bravely as I can. I’m not sure what else to say so I just ask the question that’s been on my mind. “What are you, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“What do you think I am?” it asks, cocking its head. “I’m sure you’ve heard of me. Your parents found me near the mountains and captured me while I was sleeping. I was too weak in the summer to fight them off and they’ve used that to keep me weak ever since.” It points to the antenna, giving off a heat haze as it buzzes noisily. “Any ideas?”
I think for a minute. A large, white furred mountain creature that doesn’t like heat and was already well-known? Then it hits me. “You’re a Yeti! You were hibernating in the summer just like bears hibernate in the winter! Am I right?” The monster smiles. “Everyone thinks you’re a myth. No wonder Mom and Dad were so excited to find you.” The Yeti fidgets and his gray eyes narrow. Of course, they didn’t just find him, they kidnapped him and have been holding him here for months. “I’m sure they’ll let you go once they finish their tests and prove you exist.”
“Sweet Dolores,” the Yeti says softly. “Your parents are trying to vivisect me. They’ve tried scanning me with every machine they have and they haven’t found what they’re after. Now they’re starving me hoping that my body will become fragile enough for them to cut open.” Vivisect is starting to sound like a bad thing.
“I’m really sorry, Mr. Yeti,” I say as nicely as I can. What else do you say to someone your parents are torturing? “Everyone’s been acting like monsters lately, but I didn’t think they’d hurt another person.”
The Yeti smiles again. “You still see me as a person? You’re such a good girl, Dolores. You don’t deserve the way your parents treat you any more than I do. And please, call me Nick.”
After being ignored and snapped at for so long, it feels nice to hear that. “You’re a good person, too, Nick. And you shouldn’t be locked up here.”
I try and fail to open the tube or shut down the antenna, and after that, I promise to visit him whenever I can until I can set him free. With Mom and Dad out of the house a lot and Nick’s sharp ears and nose to tell me when they were coming back, I have plenty of chances. Mrs. Buchannon lets us out early a lot and doesn’t show up almost as much, so school’s not much of an issue, either. My parents sometimes leave money for pizza or takeout, but sometimes I go to the store to buy the sweets Nick likes.
“You went to the store today? I thought it was too dangerous to go outside,” the Yeti says as I open the little hatch at the base of the tube and slide a cookie in.
“I’ll be fine. The neighbor kids have pretty bad aim,” I say, hiding a new bruise on my arm. “And it’s nothing compared to being stuck in a tube for months. I can handle a few bullies.”
And I do. I start riding my bike faster and dodging rocks better and, if I get cornered by older kids who want what’s in my shopping bag, hitting and biting harder, too. It doesn’t always work; I still get hit or have my groceries stolen sometimes. But each time, I do a little better and I feel a little prouder. I feel like I found a part of me that’s been missing for months. I didn’t realize that the weird gloominess was affecting me, too, but now I feel like a fog is lifting.
And it’s not just my fog, either.
“Mrs. Buchannon actually assigned some homework today,” I tell Nick after the first full day of school I’ve had in a while. “And one of the bullies on the way home told his friend that I wasn’t worth it. That’s what jerks say when they want an excuse not to be jerks. It’s like people are getting back to normal.”
“Goodness is contagious, Dolores,” Nick says happily. “The braver and kinder you are, even when it’s hard, the easier it will be for you and everyone else to do.” He’s gotten a lot better in the week and a half we’ve known each other. He can stand up a little straighter, his fur is starting to grow, and his rolls are filling out.
The world outside the basement seems a little brighter, too. The sky’s still gray and the trees are still bare, but something about it seems less scary and creepy. Maybe it’s the neighbors being a bit nicer or maybe it’s just that missing piece thatI’d found.
Unfortunately, Mom and Dad’s gloominess seems to still be in place. They barely talk to me and spend all of their time at the lab downstairs or the one in the city. They’re still crabby and they haven’t given up on chopping up Nick.
“Are we sure the scrambler’s working?” I overhear Dad say one night. He and Mom are in the living room, too focused on their work to notice me on the stairs. “He’s getting stronger.”
“I can see that,” Mom snaps. “If he breaks out, he’ll kill us. But if we just knock him out and release him in the mountains, maybe he won’t remember the way back. He’ll go back to his life–”
“And our funding and credibility goes down the drain. We need to get something out of this. I say we take him to the main lab. Even if they can’t break him, at least we’ll still get the credit for finding him so this’ll all have been worth something.”
After a minute, Mom agrees. “Maybe we can even find a way to let him escape. He’ll kill all the other scientists while we sneak out the back. Then we’ll definitely get all the credit.”
They start laughing like supervillains, sending chills up my spine. They’re talking about tricking Nick into murdering people like it’s a game they’re winning. I go back up to my room and start planning. I need to get Nick out of here before they do.
By the next day, the only idea I can think of is to just get an ax from the garage and cut the antenna’s cable. The cable’s bolted to the wall and I don’t think I can break the tube or the antenna with the ax, so cutting it’s my best shot. Then he’ll be strong enough to break out on his own and I can replace the broken cable with an unbroken one from the storage closet, so Mom and Dad won’t know I did anything.
When it’s time for me to go to school, I sneak back into the garage to swipe the ax, then I wait by the basement back door for Mom and Dad to leave. But the front door doesn’t open and the cars never start. I’d gotten so used to my parents leaving every day, I didn’t think that they’d stick around. I wait for almost a half-hour before I hear something in the garage. I peek in through the garage window and see Mom and Dad doing something in the back of the van. There are large gas tubes by the basement door.
They’re going to bring Nick to the main lab today! If he’s asleep then breaking the cable won’t matter. I have to hurry!
My nerves start jangling as I punch in the code for the basement back door. If I do this, there’s no way that I’d get away with it. Mom and Dad will be furious and I don’t know what they’ll do to me. I hesitate, but then I remember what Nick told me. Being brave and kind even when it was hard made the world a little better. I just need to be really brave.
“I can do this. I’m coming, Nick!”
I burst through the door just as Mom and Dad come in through the garage. I go straight for the cable and swing the ax. Either the cable’s too tough, the ax is too blunt, or I’m too weak because the first hit isn’t enough. Mom and Dad drop the tubes and run for me.
“Dolores, what the hell are you doing?”
“Put that ax down and step away!”
“No, you get away!” I shout, brandishing the ax. I don’t know if I’d be able to actually use it on my own parents, but I had to keep them away. “I’m helping Nick get out of here! And you can’t stop me!”
“Nick? Dolores, this thing is–” Mom pauses and realizes something. “You’ve been feeding him, haven’t you?”
“Dolores, this creature is tricking you,” Dad says, inching closer. “He’s manipulating your mind. The scrambler stops him but not at close range. Whatever he told you, he’s just trying to get out.”
“And once he gets out, he’ll hurt you and everyone else,” Mom adds, also tiptoeing forward. “Sweetheart, trust us. We’re your parents.”
Could they be right? They seemed to think that he’d kill the other scientists and there are many stories of Yetis becoming very violent. But Mom and Dad were willing to kill people, too. So which one do I trust? I look at Nick, but he doesn’t say anything. He just looks back at me and waits for me to make a decision. As Mom and Dad lunge, I make it.
Again I swing the ax and again the cable doesn’t break. Mom grabs me around the waist and Dad wrestles the ax from my hands. I failed. I tried to do the right thing and I failed. Now they’re going to take Nick to the lab and starve him all over again until they can kill him.
“Dolores, I know it doesn’t seem like it, but this is for everyone’s good!” Mom shouts as I try to get free.
“‘Everyone’s good’? How nice of you!” Nick booms, louder than I’d ever heard him. We all stop struggling and look at his tube and the rapidly growing Yeti inside. “And I thought you were just interested in your own good. I’ll have to update my list.”
Nick’s flabby body quickly fills with muscle, but mostly fat. His bony ape-like face plumps out to a warm, friendly, bearded human appearance. He shoves out his arms and the glass tube shatters in a burst of frigid wind. Mom covers me with her body as frosted shards of glass rain down.
I hear Nick’s footsteps as he makes his way over to one of the cabinets, but I barely notice. Those missing pieces that I’ve been rediscovering suddenly come back in full force. They feel like gingerbread and peppermint and snowmen. I can feel wrapping paper tearing in my hands and see evergreen trees filled with lights and hear hoofbeats landing in the snow. I don’t think I forgot any of this, really, I just couldn’t…feel it. But now it’s all back and when I pull myself away from Mom, I can completely see who’s pulling on the big red coat from inside the cabinet.
“Santa?”
Nick looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. Mom steps in front of me and Dad holds up the ax, but Santa Claus just smiles and holds out his hand. He squeezes his fist like he’s crushing a can and then something cracks loudly behind us. We turn and see the antenna lying broken and frosted on the ground.
“Kindness, bravery, and the faith that it will all be worth it in the end,” Santa says. “That’s what I give to the world and that’s what I receive in return. Especially at this time of year. But that scrambler stopped it from reaching me.” He takes a deep breath like a man who almost drowned and his body and beard fill out even more. The twinkle in his eye grew as he looked directly at me. “But you, my sweet Lolo, were willing to stand up to your parents to do what you knew was right. You have my thanks.” Then his eyes and voice turn icy as he turns his gaze to Mom and Dad. “You two will have my boot in your—”
“Santa, wait!” I shout. My parents cringe back a bit, but still try to put themselves in between me and him. “Please, don’t hurt my parents. It wasn’t their fault. The scrambler stopped them from feeling your kindness and stuff. You said so yourself.”
“They set the scrambler up, dear,” Santa says gently. “And someone has to pay for the three months I spent in that tube. You think I want to explain to Mrs. Claus how I disappeared on our vacation?”
“It wasn’t personal,” Dad rasps, clenching the ax so tightly his knuckles are bone-white. “We got a tip about the resort, but we didn’t know it’d be you until—” Dad’s words catch in his throat and nothing but white frost comes out of his mouth.
“I’ll be having a talk with Krampus about his pranks, believe me,” Santa says sternly. “As for the two of you… I suppose I can’t leave your little girl orphaned. She doesn’t deserve that.” He scratches his beard for a second. Then he gets another twinkle in his eye, a darker one. “How do you two feel about working off your debt?”

That was a week ago. Christmas break starts tomorrow and Nick (he still wants me to call him that) says I can stay at the mountain resort he and Mrs. Claus go to every summer until school starts again. Mrs. Buchannon tried to make this week as fun and educational as possible to make up for the last few months, but I think a few weeks off will do everyone some good.
I see a few scant decorations on my way home as people suddenly start caring about Christmas again. I can smell gingerbread and hear a few Christmas songs and just feel the holiday spirit in the air. I think by New Years, everything will be back to normal.
When I get home, Miss Judy, the elf Nick sends over some days, has made me some cookies to eat as we wait for Santa to come pick me up for the resort.
“Do you think Mr. Nick would let me visit the North Pole?” I ask Miss Judy. I’m careful not to mention Dad, since I’m sure she and all the other elves are still mad at him, but she sees through me.
“Don’t worry about your father, dear,” she says with just a hint of wickedness. “The other elves will be sure he has plenty of work to do in the factory. Ah, here comes your mother and Mr. Claus now.”
In a flurry of snow, a sleigh towed by a team of reindeer lands in my backyard. I’m not sure which one is Mom, so I say hi to all of them as I run to Nick for a hug.
“I know Christmas without your parents will be a little rough, Lolo,” Nick says as we take off. One of the reindeer moos irritably but doesn’t break ranks. “But don’t worry. Mrs. Claus will be at the resort if you need anything and I’ll swing by on Christmas. And maybe your parents, too, if they’ve worked hard enough.”
“I’m not worried, Nick,” I say, trying to be brave. It’s a little scary and I know Mom and Dad have a lot of hard work to do making up for the next few Christmases they almost ruined, but I know it’ll be worth it in the end.