|
|
The day started out like any other day: normal, average, nothing to get excited about. Little did I know how much my life would change.
I, Jade Ashton, was an average teen. I had an average family of one twin brother and two very average parents, or so I thought. I don't think my brother and I ever paid much attention to our parents. They were so normal that we never saw anything of interest in them. Some of our friends had really cool parents who did really cool things, but ours were just normal. I think, also, that being twins with my brother made us closer to each other than to our parents. But even though we weren't close with our parents they were always there. If we went away for the weekend with our friends they were always home in case we needed to talk to them. And then, one day, they weren't. I had gone to school that morning expecting to see my parents when I returned (their jobs let them work at home with a once-a-year trip to the office,) but they were gone.
We lived in an average house in a neighborhood (and I'll try not to use the word average again.) At least we thought our house was normal. But I'll get to that in a little while. I'm going to try to tell this story properly.
When we got home and we couldn't find our parents anywhere, we called the police. Of course the police didn't think it at all strange that our parents were not at home in the middle of the afternoon, but they sent someone over mainly, I think, because I sounded almost hysterical. My brother was trying to calm me and act calm himself, but it just wasn't working. This was just a little too much for both of us. It was a good thing our friend Bria was there. She talked to the 2 officers, explaining everything and validating our worries that something was wrong. The police listened to her and decided to search the house for clues, just in case. But they couldn't find anything. They left after talking to us again; they assured us that they would check back with us in the morning (tomorrow was Saturday.)
After closing the door on the retreating forms Bria said, "This is kinda weird. I thought stuff like this only happened on TV. Are you guys gonna be OK tonight? Maybe I should stay here."
"Oh, would you," I pleaded, desperate not to be left alone. With my parents gone the house felt a little barren.
"Sure. I'll just call the place and tell them where I am." The place was the orphanage where she stayed. It was one of those mansions donated by an old lady to the town for that purpose. It's a really nice place, one of the best in the country. The kids are treated just like other kids with families. They have chores, curfews, and as long as one of the caretakers knows where they are they are allowed to go anywhere. When Bria had finished her phone call she turned to us.
"I have to get some stuff for tonight. I'll be back in a little while. Can you last that long?" I nodded. "Good. I'll be as quick as I can." When she had gone I turned to my brother.
"What's happening, Jon? Where could our parents be?"
"I don't know, Jade. This is so not thought of. I can't begin to imagine what happened," he answered with a very confused look that probably mirrored my own.
"What will we do? What if they don't come back?"
"If they're not back by tomorrow we'll go look for them. If they can't come home it means they need our help. Right?"
"Right. Thanks, Jon." I hugged him and he returned it.
"It's gonna be all right, Jade. It will. I'll make sure of it."
After a moment we gathered our school stuff and took care of what needed to be taken care of. Since spring break had just started we didn't have any homework, which was very good. I don't think I would have gotten any work done. We fixed ourselves a snack and went to watch TV in the family room. Just as we sat down the front door opened.
"It's just me," we heard the voice travel down the hall.
"We're in here," I replied. A second later Bria appeared with a sleeping bag and a backpack. She sat them down at the end of the couch then sat next to me.
"So, what're we gonna do?"
"Watch TV till dinner time," Jon answered.
"Good idea," Bria replied. "Hey. Didn't that new movie just come out on Pay-per-view? Do you think we could watch that?"
"Yes, could we, Jon?"
"Sure. That's a great idea." So we watched the movie till dinnertime. Then we ordered pizza and watched another movie. By the time the second movie had ended I was feeling the effects of all the emotional stress I had suffered.
"Could we get ready for bed now," I asked.
"I was kinda thinking the same thing." Jon replied.
"Yeah. Me too," Bria said. We cleaned up the dinner mess, pushed the furniture away from the center of the room, and set down our sleeping bags. After getting ready for bed we crawled into our bags and the other two were soon sound asleep, but for some reason, I couldn't.
As I lay there I was so glad to have these two people, who lay on either side of me, here with me. I'm sure I would have fallen apart at the beginning if they hadn't been with me. And then a horrible thought hit me. What if my parents couldn't come home because they were hurt, or worse? The tears came then. I tried to cry quietly, but my brother must have heard because he put his arms around me and hugged me to him. It made me wonder if I would ever get to hug my parents again and that made me cry harder. My twin didn't say anything; he didn't have to. He only held me tight, as I built up my courage for the days to come.