Alone

Oola Breen-Ryan Grade 6

October 13th, 8:00 AM, 1993

Janet woke with a start. She had a pounding headache, and absolutely no recollection of where or who she was.

She’d been having a gymnastics dream. She was about to land her front handspring, but her body twisted at the wrong moment and she came crashing down.

An advil, along with a glass of water, sat on her bedside table. She gratefully took it, cringing in pain.

She walked down the stairs. “Mom?” she called out. No answer, but Janet wasn’t worried. Her parents slept in all the time.

Janet groggily opened the fridge and reached for the milk. Her hand closed around empty air. Sighing, she headed upstairs to her parents bedroom. “We’re out of––” she started to say, but froze. Her mom and dad weren’t in there, either.

Janet checked all the bathrooms, the laundry room, her bedroom, their dining room, the living room, but to no avail. Her parents were no longer in the house.

She rushed out the door. There was nobody on the street, or in the storefronts, even though the glowing neon signs said “Open”. And although it was Sunday morning, no music came from the church.

The highway next to their town was deserted, too, which was especially strange. Cars were always speeding along it. Except for today, apparently.

Janet began to panic. “Mom! Dad!” she yelled, fghting back tears. “Where are you?”

Her headache was slowly worsening to a migraine. She felt dizzy and nauseous.

She had never felt so alone.

October 13th, 8:00 AM, 1993

Mrs. Flywell took a sip of her cofee. It was bitter, like a bad omen.

“So let’s discuss––” Mr. Flywell’s sentence was cut of by Janet running down the stairs.

“Mom?” she called.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Mrs. Flywell said, but Janet stared through her, like she was a ghost. Mr. and Mrs. Flywell exchanged a glance.

“It’s probably nothing, said Mr. Flywell.

Nowadays, when tourists visit the town of Oakridge, they always keep their necks craned and their cameras ready, in hopes that they will see the woman that wanders around the town like she can’t see anybody, the woman that sufered from an untreated gymnastics concussion thirty years ago, the woman who still hasn’t recovered.