Thirty
When I got home the house was dark. Mom and Aurora had long gone to bed. On the door was a note.
"Hope you're finished having your temper tantrum. Lock the door when you go to bed."
I sighed and crumpled the note. Whatever, I thought. It was actually the best-case scenario for me. I didn't have to deal with her screeching. I tossed the crumpled paper in my bathroom waste basket. I brushed my teeth and got ready for bed. I knew it would be a few minutes before I could get tired enough to fall asleep. I rested in bed and glanced at a book on the nightstand. I looked at the page for ten minutes and never saw a single word. Just then I heard footsteps in the hallway. Crap, I didn't get out of the shrieking lecture. My door slowly creaked open; surprisingly it was Aurora.
"Hey, you okay?" She asked, rubbing one of her eyes.
"What?" I was shocked. It was one of the first times she had ever asked me that.
"You okay?" She repeated. I sat there for a moment speechless.
"Umm, yeah. Just got a little lost on the walking trail in the park." I said.
"Oh, okay. Hey, I just wanted to tell you....I'm sorry about what Mom said. You know how she is."
I was thrown deeper into a state of shock. This was my little sister, my vain, self-interested little sister, apologizing to me. I blinked a couple of time and managed to utter, "Thanks" before she started to retreat.
"Yeah, well, I just wanted to tell you that. Better get back to bed before she wakes up." And, with that, my surprising little sister was gone. I sat there for the longest time mesmerized. What had gotten into her? Whatever it was, it made me feel a little better. For the first time in a long time, someone in this house had taken my side, had cared about what I was thinking or feeling. And, for the first time in a long time in this house, I smiled. I thought that life could probably be livable if I had someone on my side for once. I snuggled into my bed and let sleep overtake me.
Of course it didn't take long to wind up back in the forest. The sun was still hidden in the mist of the quiet morning, and there was no sign of the soldiers who had been chasing me. As a matter of fact, as glorious fate would have it, I was standing within visual distance of the junkyard. I could see masses of metallic mechanisms through the trees. I glanced around, making sure I was really alone. I thought it would take me hours tromping through the woods looking for the junkyard, yet here it was; perhaps not by fate, but by my own wishes and desires. Now it was time to get down to business. What could I do alone to save my friends?
Well, I had some abilities. Maybe it was time to figure out how to use them. And now that it was daytime, the junkyard would be a perfect place to hide, the perfect place to practice. No one ventured into the junkyard unless they had a damn good reason, and if they did by some chance I knew where to hide. I was also familiar with the creatures of the park graveyard, so I didn't fear it at all. It was the big creature that only showed up at night that anyone really had to worry about. The rest of it was just the whispers of ghosts long passed. As long as I was quiet, I was golden.
It took a few minutes of looking along the fence to find another hole to fit through. I carefully crawled between the space afforded me by the fence and the old popcorn machine leaning against it. I didn't want to topple the machine for fear that someone would hear and start investigating. Somehow I managed to get inside with as little noise as possible. This time I decided to take a leisurely stroll through this decrepit memorial of my Dream Land. After all, it wasn't very often one came across a landfill devoted completely to amusement park rides and broken attractions. It seemed like fun.
