As she followed her “dead” sister into the dark unknown,
Ellie thought about how weird her day
had become.
It
had started as a pretty normal morning.
The alarm rang at 6am. She
slapped the snooze one time before dragging herself out of the warm, comfy
covers. She ran a brush quickly through
her hair before pulling it back into a ponytail. Then she shrugged into a school tee and jeans
before heading downstairs. The kitchen
was empty, as usual, since her parents were up by 4am and gone by 5:30. Since she was in high school now, her parents
didn’t worry about her getting off to school on her own. They trusted her to be responsible and make
good choices. At first, she had wanted
to rebel but just couldn’t bring herself to misbehave. The closest she came was eating Sugar Smacks
for breakfast instead of Wheaties. She
smiled as she scooped up another spoonful of sugary goodness. “Mmmm…weekend cereal on a Tuesday. Soooo evil!”
Ellie crunched loudly. She let
her mind drift off.
She
finished her cereal, rinsed the bowl and put it in the dishwasher. As she slid the rack back in she heard a loud
boom. It was so loud she froze for a
moment. Was that a sonic boom? She didn’t really know what a sonic boom
sounded like but figured it must be super loud.
She closed the dishwasher door and straightened up. Ellie peeked through the curtains. Everything was quiet, no cars, no kids on
bikes, no dogs barking. It was strangely
silent. Then Ellie noticed the clock was flashing. That’s weird, she thought. Some kind of power outage. Ellie looked around but the kitchen lights
were on. She looked at her watch, swore
and rushed into the living room. She
only had 15 minutes to get to school.
Slinging her bag onto her back, she slammed the front door shut, jumped
on her bike and pedaled furiously.
One
math quiz, a science lab, an English essay and history worksheet later and
school was done. Next came soccer
practice. It was brutal but Ellie loved it!
She loved to run and kick and build up a solid sweat. When her heart was pumping so hard and her
muscles burning, that’s when she felt so energized. A quick wave to her teammates and she headed
home. This time the bike ride was much
more leisurely. Her mind drifted off
again leaving her legs on auto pilot.
She had ridden that route so many times, she didn’t need to pay
attention anymore. Her mind had just conjured
up an image of Shane, the cute boy in her math class. He also happened to be the captain of the
soccer team, tall, dark and handsome with the most amazing smile.
All
of a sudden, there was a loud boom. Just
like the one from this morning. Ellie
jerked causing her bike to swerve sharply to the right and directly at the old
Oak tree in her front yard. She wobbled
and turned the handlebars sharply to the left, too sharply. She slammed on her brakes and flipped over
her handlebars, but at least she missed the tree. She sat up and rubbed her elbow. Then she noticed how quiet it was. No one was around. No one on the streets, no one in the yards,
no one on the sidewalks. Totally silent. Just like this morning.
“Ellie,
are you ok?” A figure stepped out from
behind the Oak tree.
Ellie
squinted, still rubbing her elbow. “Who’s
there?”
The
figure walked over to Ellie and offered her a hand.
Ellie’s
eyes widened in shock. Mechanically, she
took the hand and let the girl help her up.
She tried to speak but her mouth wouldn’t work. She could only gape at the girl.
“Well,
so much for a happy reunion.” The girl
smiled.
“Wendy?” Ellie blurted out.
“Surprise!” Wendy said with a grin.
“But…how?” Ellie stared in disbelief.
“That’s
a long story.” The girl said, then
looked around quickly before turning back to Ellie. “But that’ll have to wait for another
time. Right now, we have to go.” Wendy waved her along.
As children,
Ellie had followed her big sister everywhere without question, without
fear. She trusted her completely. But now, Wendy was back from the dead
somehow, and asking her to follow. As
unreal as this all was, Ellie still trusted her. So she followed Wendy behind the Oak tree and
into the dark unknown,
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