Mae I die

1999 - October

Mae searched her entire room for the journal.  However she didn't find it until she was cleaning her room and found it under her bed.  She didn't understand how it got there.  It seems she forgot the panic she was in when she threw it down there.
However, nostalgically, Mae began to write again.

Journal Entry 78
My apologies for not recording my events of the past two months, it seems that my notebook was misplaced...  I know the first three entries instructed me on how important recording my life was.  I know John was a forgetful person, maybe he thinks it runs in the family.  I think it does.

My mom never forgets anything important.  My dad is quite forgetful though.  He hits me a lot when I don't do what he says during homeschooling.  Discipline will get a dog to move forward.  Words to live by.  Sometimes he'd stop in the middle of teaching me science and hit me for not answering a math question that he never asked.  My mom calls me out on changing topics in the middle of sentences too.  But when ever I do it when dad is around also, he thinks that I was talking about the new topic too.  Maybe our minds are linked?  That would be weird.

I've learned how to catch myself changing things too.  In a few entries, there are a lot of erased marks because I'd start writing about something completely different.  Sometimes I'll just get lazy and cross it out. 

What even was the point of this entry?  The events I missed, that was it!  My birthday party was great.  None of the adults went missing, but three of my cousins were absent.  Rest in piece, Mason, Thomas, and Ben...  That's what my journal says they're names were.  I had no idea until I started rereading entries.  So many people have started disappearing in my family, but no one from my mom's side.  Maybe she's not important.  I know I am.  

Mae completed that day's entry before getting onto the other things that happened in the past two months.  She got up left her bedroom.  "Hey dad, I've been trying to figure something out..."

"What would that be?"

"I was looking at this map that I found in your room, and I found a local map.  That park that we used to go to when I was a kid isn't that far away."  

"Anything important there?

"I just wanna check it out.  See how it's changed..."

"First of all.  No.  Second of all.  Why the hell do you want to go to a park?!  You're 15.  Haven't you grown out of that kind of thing."

Mae muttered under her breath.  "Asshole...  I haven't been outside in five years..."  Her father heard what she said, but never got a chance to respond.  He had already forgotten  his answer and what his daughter said after it.  She made him forget.  What he thought just happened did not actually happen.  Mae changed his reality.  The rule of going outside no longer existed and neither did the reason for that  rule.  The conversation he recalled went like this:

("Hey, are you ready to go to the park again?"  Mae's father asked.

"Yeah, sorry for the wait .  I had to finish something quick.")

It was fairly simple.  Though what Mae attempted did succeed without difficulty or error.  The two left and went to the park as Mae had been waiting to do for so long.  

~ ~ ~

Once at the park.  She finally got to experience something farther out than windows and her front porch.  She finally felt alive.  Mae never wanted to go back again.  She ran around for hours and played on the swing-set and the merry-go-round.  Yet after hours of having so much fun.  The temperature began to drop and she quickly favored being inside again.  "I think I'm ready to leave now."

"Yeah, we've been here quite a while, so I guess it's probably time to go..."  The two began their walk to the car.  "Have fun?"

"More than I ever have before.  Thanks for bringing me here."

When they arrived home, they where greeted by a worried, now angry mother.  "Where the hell have you two been?!?  I get home from work and both of you-  Both of you were just!  Just gone!"

Mae's father was embarrassed by the situation.  "Brooke, I can explain..."

"Then tell me why the two most precious people to me would just disappear without letting me know?!?"

"We just went to the park to hang out for a while.  I just accidentally forgot to tell you we were going, and I planned on us getting back before you got home, we were just there longer than we planned on it, that's all."

"Oh really?  And how often do you two go to the park behind my back?"  Her tone was more calm now, more interrogative.

"Not very often."

Mae cut in, knowing that one side knew the truth and the other was speaking from what they know.  "This was the first time.  I swear."

"Why do you think we have these rules?  They're not there just so you can brake them."  She had begun to reason with them.  At the same time, trying to reason with herself to figure out why they would such a thing. 
"I hate staying inside.  You don't want me to go outside because you don't want me to disappear like everyone else!  But keeping me here makes me want to disappear!" 
"Mae..  You don't really mean that...  Do you..?"  Mae's mother was on the verge of tears, meanwhile her father didn't have a clue to what was going on.
"Umm...  Ladies...  What do you two want for dinner...?"
"Rigatoni."  Mae said before walking away into her room.