MISSING IV

    How does one casually say, everyone I know is missing? Because clearly, there was somebody in front of me.
“Do you want to come over to my house?” she said noticing I was confused.
“Yes, please.” I said still in a daze.
    We trotted down the road a little way, then she turned down a path leading to a huge, pink, Victorian style house. We went inside and she handed me a plate of pancakes from the counter.
“Where are your parents?” I asked suspiciously.
    She told me, while she forked down pancakes, that her parents were on Cape Cod and that it was their anniversary. What miserable weather, I thought as I bit in to my first pancake.
It was sweet and wet with maple syrup. I liked them.
“This is their 15th year together.” She went on. I heard someone on the stairs. Soon, a boy rounded the corner into the kitchen. He looked about 14 or 15.
“What’s for breakfast?” He mumbled.
“Pancakes,” Rochelle retorted sounding exasperated. “This is Taylor, he is my older brother. Taylor's 15 and I make him breakfast.”
“Watch it squirt!” snapped Taylor. Rochelle instantly stood up and took one big stride to where Taylor stood. I turned away, knowing how messy a sibling arguments can get. Instead, she walked right by him.
“Lets go, Olive.” I obediently followed her. Rather than leaving she marched straight up the steep steps. She took a right and I found myself staring at the huge room that appeared to be her office. She sat down at the computer and said plainly,“Got a Facebook?”
“Yea.” I said shocked at her calm tone. I see her type in the search bar: Olive Smith. My profile popped up. She requested to be my friend and exited out. So that was it? We were friends? I asked her if she wanted to come over for a movie. Of course, she accepted and on our adventure back down the hill I tried to think of an excuse of why my family wasn’t home. I finally had a friend and I wasn’t going to risk losing her by creeping her out.
    I opened my front door and my mother rushed to my side. I nearly passed out at the sight of my family sitting around the table.
“You scared us! Where were you?!” She scolded.
    To this day, I have no idea what happened to me. Rochelle and me are tight buddies and we live down the road from each other. My family hasn’t disappeared again.

MISSING III

    I ran towards what looked like the approaching figure. Yes, there was someone there! I was certain I wasn’t seeing things now. This mystery girl had short blonde hair that appeared to be cut into a bob. She didn’t seem in much of a hurry. She was ambling along casually, as if she was just out for a stroll.
    I hurried up the hill. When I finally got to the top, I noticed that the girl had a low ponytail, not a bob. She had bangs the hung over her big hazel eyes.
“Is everything OK?” she asked, noticing that I had charged towards her and was now panting wildly. I was taken aback by her off-handedness.
“Well yes,” I mustered. “Are you?”
“Um, I think so.” Her eyes didn’t leave me for the long moment of silence while I thought up what to say back. Here was a stranger, who clearly was as cool as a cucumber about the fact that the world was missing. Suddenly my face began to burn. What if I had thought it all up and was scaring a random girl off the side of the road.
    Her gaze was steady, but didn’t make me feel in the slightest uncomfortable, which was weird. I was a shy person, and most of the time just being around other people made me uncomfortable. I thought some more; could that be why I didn’t have man friends? I stuck out my hand and offered it to her.
“Olive.” I stated firmly. “Olive Smith.”
“Rochelle Jonson,” s he said. “Why were you in such a hurry?”
“Oh, about that.” I croaked shakily.



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MISSING II

    I sat down on my couch and thought. If they had gone to do an errand, wouldn’t they have told me or at least left a note? And why had they left so early in the morning?  An errand was definitely out of the question. Could they all be outside? I stood up and walked over to the door. I stood staring at it for probably 5 minutes. I re-entered reality and uneasily unlocked the door. A cool breeze blew, and sand grains stung my face. I looked around, taking in my surroundings, which were of course the same surroundings I had seen everyday day since the day we moved in 4 years ago.
    I ran outside, and circled the house once or twice. It just couldn’t be true! My family was missing. The family that had come to all my dance recitals, given me advice, talked to me when I was lonely, my family. Could they be in danger? Or hurt? I decided to call the police station, and to be honest, I wasn’t surprised to find that nobody picked up. I decided to go there myself - it was only a mile or two away.
    I grabbed my water bottle, my cell phone and a family photo. I stuffed everything into my lime green bag with a smilie face on it. Brenda had given me that bag. And while I hate green, I was so happy to have a birthday present from somebody other than my parents that I loved it any way. I hadn’t had a birthday party that year, I didn’t have anyone to invite. I turned ten that year, and our “big celebration” was going to a movie as a family, then out to eat at California Pizza Kitchen in the mall.

     I snapped back to reality, suddenly recalling all that had been happening. My family and the rest of the world… were MISSING.
     I hopped down the first steps and onto the damp grass. I started up the huge hill that was my neighborhood. I could have sworn that somebody was just about to reach the top. I saw a tall, skinny figure that looked like a young girl. Maybe 12 or 13. Could it be that I was just seeing things?


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MISSING

     My head throbbed. I kicked back my covers and planted myself in my desk chair. On my desk was a beautiful mirror. My grandmother had given it to me. I peered into it even though I knew I had never been a morning person. I examined the pale, freckled face that stared back at me, and the big, red zit planted on her face. I placed the mirror face down, full of disgust.
     I swiftly typed in “FACEBOOK.COM”. Once there, I logged in. No friend requests yet. I exited out, a little disappointed. Nobody knew that I had an account, not even my best friend, Brenda. She had moved away, about a year ago, to Washington. Now, it seemed I had no friends offline either. I didn’t want to friend people, I had no idea why, but I felt more comfortable letting them find me.
    I trounced down the stairs at the usual time, moody because nobody had requested to be my friend. What’s for breakfast Mom?” I moaned. After no response, I huffed and made my way down the remaining steps. My mom wasn’t in the kitchen, which was rather odd for her. I wandered into the living room, which was empty too. A little concerned now, I scurried into my parent’s room, which lay empty as well. My younger sister, Elsie’s room was empty also, as was my older brother, Randy’s. Almost scared now, I picked up the house phone and called my mom’s cell. No answer. Then my dad. Still no answer.
     I flew down the stairs and grabbed my cell phone. I punched in Brenda’s number. After about 5 minutes of ringing without an answer, I hung up. What was happening to me?


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