FULL SHORT STORY

4 0 0
                                    

I sat on my bed, filling my journal with intrusive thoughts while listening to pop music with the smell of dirty laundry and wet towels filling my bedroom. I wish I were never born. I repeated to myself over and again. I tucked away my journal in my nightstand and closed my eyes.

I woke up the following day. I felt different, but I shrugged it off and continued my usual morning routine. I walked downstairs so I could be ready for school. I grabbed a cup of fresh coffee from the coffee maker and noticed the newspaper on the counter. Nobody reads the newspaper in 2022, and we don't even get the newspaper. I suspiciously picked up the newspaper and read the date: The twentieth of June in 1996.

"Mom, Dad, Michael, Cody," I screamed, running throughout the house, opening and closing doors, finding nobody. "Where are you?" I yelped.

I was running through the streets of Northbrook, yelling and screaming for people but finding nobody. I turned the corner at Village Green Park, a place typically full of families, but instead of the bustling place it usually was, a woman was sitting in the gazebo in the park's center.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Can you tell me where everyone is? What's going on?" I said, rushing through my words, out of breath from running over to her.

"Do you not recognize me, Jamie?" She asked, standing up and putting her hand on my shoulder.

"No," I shrugged.

"I am Ruth, your great grandmother," She explained, "You wished you were never born, and your wish is my command."

"You're supposed to be dead. You died in 1983 of lung cancer," I exclaimed, glancing around the park.

"On a faithful day in June 1996. Your grandma and great aunt met at Sunset, where they decided to set up your parents," Ruth said, waving a blue wand in the air, mumbling what sounded like gibberish.

"Ruth... um... great-grandma?" I asked as Ruth circled me, waving her wand and magical blue dust came out. My eyes shut closed, and when they opened again, Ruth was nowhere in sight, and neither was the park.

I stood in front of a rustic white townhouse with a red fence bordering the property and a cobblestone path leading to the front door. I recognized it as the place my grandparents lived in when I was a child.

"Walter," A woman yelled, exiting the house and walking down the cobblestone path. Her flawless skin sparkled in the sunlight, and her short brown hair bounced as she headed toward her car.

"Delay her," I heard a voice say, but nobody else was anywhere in sight, "Delay her, and you would never be born."

"Excuse me," I said, walking towards her. I needed to think of a reason to approach her fast, "I'm...um...lost."

"You are so beautiful," she said, drawing me into a tender and tight hug. After squeezing me to death, she let go of the hug, "I am Ellie. What's your name, dear?"

"Jamie," I answered.

"I used to have hair just like yours," She informed me, running her hands through my long wavy blonde hair.

"I hope I am not bothering you," I replied, trying to pry information out of her.

"I am just on my way to Sunset. Come with me," She suggested, which is weird considering that in 2022, they tell you not to get in a car with strangers because you have a higher chance of getting kidnapped. I would say no, but Ellie is my grandma, and I am familiar with her.

"Sure," I replied. I walked around to the passenger side and got into her Volvo C70. As we drove to Sunset, the spice girls' new song hit single "Wannabe" played on the CD player. As Ellie was pulling out of her neighborhood, I noticed the quaint-looking Northbrook Houses were different from the modern Northbrook Houses I am more used to seeing.

If Ellie Never Went to SunsetWhere stories live. Discover now