Sang the Stray (Completed)

1. Through the Looking Glass...or maybe a Portal?

Day 1:

Honestly, I have no idea how I got here or even where here is right now. I took two steps onto the pavement away from the driveway and suddenly I was no longer in the pouring rain...maybe I should back up a bit...

You see... I just had to escape for one night. My mother is...not normal. I am only allowed to go to school, then come home and do homework. She has creative punishments ready when she thinks I've disobeyed. Sometimes, I can leave for walks in the woods behind our house, but no talking to strangers, visiting neighbors, going shopping with friends...things I read about normal kids doing. I've heard story after story of girls being abducted, raped, murdered...

Today, after another lecture while I washed the floors...I decided I had to prove to myself that it wasn't true...not all people are bad. I planned to spend one night out at the partially built house down the street. I packed my worn backpack with a change of clothes, a couple books, and snacks. At the last minute, I included my journal that I write using Korean letters to prevent my mother or tattle-tale sister from reading. Rain was dripping down my face despite the poncho I wore as I stood at the end of the driveway, building the courage to take the first step into the street. I closed my eyes and forced myself to pick up my foot and move it forward. When my foot made contact, I was filled with euphoria and dread all at once. So, I took another step and that's when the rain stopped.

My eyes flew open. I gasped and stumbled back, turned in place and blinked my disbelieving eyes. I was no longer on Sunnyvale Drive. In fact, I was pretty sure I wasn't in the same time zone. It had been full dark only moments ago outside my house but now the foreign forest surrounding me was lit with gentle sunbeams that broke through the tree canopy and caressed the forest floor. I am sure I would have been in awe at the beauty of this place if I weren't in shock. My thoughts were a jumble of How? Where? Wha....?

That was a couple of hours ago. I pulled out the journal I brought along for my campout and decided to record what is happening. I walked a ways looking for a road or...something that looked like people lived here. There is nothing. I am just surrounded by trees and shrubs and rocks covered in moss. These aren't plants I have seen before though. The colors are off...closer to shades of blue than green on the leaves and branches. I climbed a tree to get a sense of direction since my usual innate knowledge of north was strangely missing. That's when I realized I certainly wasn't in South Carolina, or in the USA, or even on Earth...because there were two suns in the sky above me.

Day 2:

After coming out of the daze of shock from yesterday and a terrifying and very uncomfortable night wondering what or who might find me, I tried walking back to where I first came into this world. I couldn't find it or identify the exact spot because everything just looks the same. I am lost. If I ever do get back, I don't want to imagine what my mother might do to me. It wouldn't be the normal hours on a stool or kneeling in rice. No, it would be something far worse...maybe tying me up in the shower or locking me naked in the closet...

I decided to start looking for water and walk further in the direction I'm deeming West, since that's where the suns set about an hour and half apart, as best I can guess. Maybe I'll find a better place to sleep tonight.

Day 5:
It's been a rough couple of days and my feet are so sore, but I found a river! The water tasted so good and just in time since my bottled water had run out hours before. I am also still alive, so at least the water is good and I realized that I am really lucky I am not on a world that doesn't have breathable air. I've seen some wildlife too.

I've also had plenty of time to think. Mostly, I like to read classics, but sometimes my father would bring home other kind of books, including science fiction. I had a nightmare about aliens last night. I go back and forth between wanting to find some sort of people and fearing whether they are humanoid or not... the anxieties instilled by my mother make me very afraid to find someone. I won't run into an ax murderer, but maybe a laser wielding alien slaver.

Maybe I stumbled through some sort of portal to this world. Time travel might have been a possibility of it weren't for the second sun, which reminds me of a picture of a dwarf star I saw in science last year. There is only one moon but it has a big comma shaped crater...

I really wish I had some chocolate chip pancakes right now....the berries that I watched some birds eat weren't very filling.

Day ?:
I've lost count of the days. I should have started marking them, but too late now. I think it's been a week since I 'travelled' here. I followed the river for three days until it reached a large lake and on the shore was an abandoned village...of sorts. Perfectly square buildings, some two stories high and all made from some white stone, surround an amphitheater which makes up most of the central area.  Other buildings spread out from there, like spokes on a wheel. I made one of the residential seeming buildings closest to the river my shelter. There is plenty of evidence that people used to live here....pottery shards and tools that even look similar to the few my father kept in our shed. However, most things are broken and show a long time of decay. Whoever was here left long ago.

I worked hard the past few days collecting things like large leaves for bedding and a pot with only a crack at the rim. I've hoarded these all in the upstairs room of my shelter. I named it after myself...Camp Sang. Yes, as in "I sang a song". I was named after my grandmother Sangrida. Not sure why I am explaining that in my own journal... It can't really be loneliness bothering me. I never had friends, even back in Illinois before we moved for my father's job. At school, I was invisible. Reading or doing homework by myself at lunch or recess. No one in my home ever spoke or really looked at each other....just my mother yelling at me when she wasn't sedated by the pills she took for whatever sickness.

I just need to keep surviving.