Blurb: This story is about a girl who simply misses her brother and will do anything to get him back.
“Lydia, it’s time to get up for school!”
I slowly touch my feet to the cold ground and make my way downstairs. I wake up at seven every day, no matter what. I get up, get dressed, brush my teeth, grab my bag and run out the door. I have to walk a mile to the bus stop every morning, which gives me a good fifteen minutes of alone time because I don’t get much of that around the house. My mom is always dealing with my baby sister and my brother has what he likes to call a band, but in my opinion, it’s just a bunch of smelly teenage boys screaming into microphones.
Anyways, it’s pretty dull in the dome. The sky is always the same. Same clear blue sunny skies, but the artificial sun feels nice on my back. The same little town. The same people, the same everything.
I live on Doris Street. All of the houses have the exact same floor plan, the exact same plants in the garden, the exact same front door, the exact same everything. There are only three stores where I live, a grocery store, a clothing store, and a drug store. There's only one restaurant, a hair salon, and a bookstore. That’s all that’s in my tiny town.
Now that you know everything in my town, imagine that everything is squashed into the center of the dome. So that everything outside of this little circle is off limits for everyone. I think that’s because the mayor is trying to hide something outside the little circle we call a town.
On my bus ride to school, I sit with my best friend Sydney. She tells me all about her morning and how annoying her little brother is and I just listen. After school, I walk outside where my brother usually meets me to bring me home, but he isn’t there. So I decide to just walk home with Sydney.
“I’m so glad today was a half day!”
“I know, I wonder why Oliver wasn’t at school to pick us up.”
“He probably just skipped, it isn’t the first time he didn’t show up,” Sydney says, trying to make me feel better.
“I guess, but something just doesn’t feel right. It’s probably nothing though.”
We walk the rest of the way home without talking. When we get there I storm upstairs to my brother's room ready to scream at him.
“REALly….” I slowly look around his room, but nobody is there.
“Where are you?” I said to myself.
I decided to check the basement next, then the back yard. After about ten minutes I had gone looking through the entire house. I wasn’t mad now, I was worried. I decided to go to the skate park, then to the lake down the road.
He didn’t really have any friends and our dad lived out of state, so I didn’t have any other houses to look for him at. He definitely didn’t go to my aunt’s or grandparents, he hates family events. When I get back to the house my mom is finally home with my annoying baby sister.
“Mom do you know where Oliver is? I have looked all over town and I can’t find him.”
“I’m not sure honey. He wasn’t at school?”
I almost answer with a smart aleck response, but I decide to take a deep breath and just walk away.
“Honey? Where are you going now?”
“I’m gonna go to Sydney's house, is it okay if I spend a night or two at her place?”
“Lydia, it’s a school night!”
“I know, but we have a school project we have to work on and we don’t have any other time to work on it!”
“I guess that would be okay then. You have to be home by Wednesday night for Charlotte's first birthday! That gives you tonight and tomorrow night. Deal or no deal?”
“Deal! Thank you so much, Mom!”
Now all of that was a total lie. I wasn’t going to Sydney's house or anyone's house for that matter. I was going to look for my brother, but now I had a strict time frame. But that didn’t scare me, in fact. I think it made me more determined to have Ollie home for Charlotte's first birthday.
So I run upstairs and grab my old backpack, throw in my hidden stash of food I had in my room, my water bottle, my bunny, an extra outfit, and a picture of me and my brother. After that, I run back downstairs, hug my mom and sister and I was off, with no real idea of where to look. All I know is that when I come home it will be with my brother.
A little bit more about my family- my parents got divorced four years ago. I was only nine. My brother was twelve. Honestly everyone took it pretty hard, especially my brother.
Oliver hasn’t been the same since. Sneaking out, skipping school, et cetera. Before that he was a straight A student! I took it pretty hard, but I eventually got used to it. About a year and a half after my parents split my mom met this guy, they eventually started dating, then another year after that my mom got pregnant with my now almost one year old sister Charlotte.
I decide to walk on the back roads so nobody will see me, because in my town everyone knows everyone. I head to the back roads, then walk, and walk, and walk.
After about two hours of walking the sun was almost completely down.
“Keep walking or sleep?” I say to myself, not knowing if I have enough time to sleep.
I decide to keep walking, which is my first mistake. After about another hour of walking, and looking at the same boring path ahead of me, it starts to rain. Rain like I had never seen before, wind stronger than ever before. I try to fight the storm but it has other plans. I decide to cut off into the woods in hopes the trees would slow the wind, but it’s no better.
I try to take cover before the wind takes me but the storm is so much stronger than me. Every plant I hide under, every tree I climb, practically everything in the forest was being torn to shreds. I can’t find a sturdy enough tree to take cover in, so I run.
As I run, the wind picks up even more than it already was. The wind blows me off my feet and throws me to the ground. As soon as I stand back up to keep fighting I am thrown right down again, but this time into a rock. I struggle to stand. At this point, I have lost all of my energy. I look down and my knee is gushing blood.
Oh god. I gotta get this covered, I think to myself.
I’m determined to find something to bandage my knee and take cover from the howling wind. I stand up, fighting the wind, and try to find my backpack.
“There you are!”
It’s stuck in a tree. Somehow it managed to get to the top of another one in the distance. I make my way over to the tree and start climbing, but I fall on my already wounded knee.
“Damn it!”
I take a minute to breathe, then I start up the tree again. This time I make it halfway up with no issues.
So this is what gym class was preparing me for, I think.
I grab the next branch, pull myself up and to my surprise, there is a brown tree snake waiting for me! My first mistake was screaming, causing the snake to bite me on the hand.
“SON OF A…”
Before I can even finish my sentence I fall out of the tree and everything goes dark.
…..
I wake up maybe a few hours later with the worst head, back, and knee pain I have ever felt. I quickly remember that I was just bitten by a snake. My hand doesn’t look too bad. A little swollen, but that's about it. I hope it’s not poisonous, because there’s nothing I can do about it.
“I’ve never seen a storm like this before, in fact I’ve never seen a storm at all.” I say to myself as I slowly stand and look at the disaster around me.
The dome has never had rain like that, it never really rained at all. I lived in the center of the dome, and had never been this close to the walls, so this must be what it’s like out here.
With a pounding headache, I trudged on. After about another two hours of walking, the sky turns a color I had never seen before.
“Well, I guess I will just keep walking and ignore it,” I say quietly, hoping that everything will go back to normal soon.
As I continue to walk the wind picks up again, and the trees start swaying. Then five minutes later, little flakes of white stuff start falling from the sky, I think I’ve read about this in books. They call it snow.
“I’ve never been near snow before.”
It never got below 70 degrees where I live. Now the wind is racing and snow is falling heavily. After probably another half mile the snow stops and the sun shined. The weather changes like I had never seen before out here. My body can’t handle it.
I start to shiver, then I quickly lose control of my body as everything goes numb. I can’t move. I try so hard just to twitch a finger but nothing. I fall into the snow and eventually become able to crawl. Barely able to move, I find a spot where I can wait until my body adjusts to the weather. I have no energy, so I quickly fall asleep.
….
When I woke up it was still snowing, but I could feel heat coming from somewhere. I slowly sat up and saw a fire, with food cooking over it. I slowly rise to my feet, noting the hunger in my stomach, and grab the food like an idiot, burning my hand. I jump back and hit something quite unexpected.
“Oliver!” I say as I jump into his arms.
“Hi, Little Sis.”
“Where have you been? Why did you leave? What's wrong with you?” I say, slowly getting less excited and more angry.
“I’m sorry I left.”
“I know, but you could have warned me! You know I wouldn’t tell anyone!”
“Yeah, but I didn’t tell anyone else, so I just figured that you just wouldn’t care.”
“Of course I would care! You’re my older brother! My ride to school, the only person I can talk to other then Sydney! Which, by the way, neither of us were too happy when you made us walk home on Monday!”
“Well when you go back home tell Mom and Charlotte I’m okay. You know I hate the dome. This was my only escape.”
“What do you mean your only escape? We’re still in the dome aren’t we?”
“You really didn’t know? We’re so far out of the dome. That’s why the weather changed so much so quickly. My body did the same thing yours did before it adjusted. But it adjusted fast, if it didn’t I probably would have not been able to survive out here. Now let's fix that hand of yours.”
“I can’t believe I left the dome!” I cry.
After about a half hour later my hand was wrapped, treated and almost felt as good as new. “Alright. Let's eat, then head home!”
“Lydia, there’s no way I can go home.”
“What do you mean? We have to go home right now! We only have like twelve hours to get home in time for Charlotte's birthday!” I say, tears welling in my eyes.
“Now don’t cry. You know I can’t go back there. This is where I belong. I love it here!”
Without saying another word I decide to just run. Forget about him, he obviously would have just forgotten about me.
“Why did I even try to find him? AlI I did was waste my time.”
I run faster than I ever have before. My legs are burning so hot they feel like they’re on fire, but I couldn’t stop. I had to get as far away as possible from him. Little did I know I wasn’t far at all.
I come to a jolting stop when suddenly the last person I wanted to see was 20 feet ahead of me and getting closer. I try to run back the other way but before I could he grabs my arms so I can’t.
“Please hear me out, Lydia.”
“I don’t even want to be near you so what makes you think I should even consider listening to you.” I say while trying to break free.
“Why don’t you stay out here? We could make a a tree house and we would live there. After we get everything settled then you could get mom, and Charlotte, and maybe even Sydney! What do you say little sister.”
“I say...Let me go!”
I finally break free and start running again, but yet again he catches up faster than you could imagine.
“Why did you have to do track?” I say to myself.
“Please Lydia! You were the only one I was gonna miss when I left!” Oliver says pleading me to stay.
“No, I’ve wanted to go home since I left. Did you know I lied to mom? She doesn’t know I’m out here trying to bring you home. She thinks I’m at Sydney's! I wanna go see Mom, and Charlotte, and Sydney, and aunt Lisa and Uncle Frank tonight! I wanna sleep in my bed not out here in a pile of dirt! If you really missed me you wouldn’t have left, or you would’ve at least warned me.
”So no, I will not stay here with you. At this point all you’ve done is wasted my time!” I shouted.
I start to cry at the thought of my family. I guess I missed them more than I thought. Oliver lets go of me and we just stand there for a few minutes.
“I gotta get home. Charlotte's birthday is tonight and I only have like ten hours until it starts and Mom wants me home for that.”
I start to walk past when I get pulled back.
“At least wait for me to get my stuff!”
“YES!” I say, running in circles because I’m so excited.
About ten minutes later Oliver returns with everything he brought, which is practically nothing.
“Ready?”
“Ready!” I say as I start walking back the way I came.
“I really didn’t think you were gonna come with me!”
“Well neither did I. I honestly really don't like it very much at home. But I decided it would be pretty lonely out here, and as you said I didn’t want to waste your time!” he mumbles.
“What was that last part?” I demand.
“Oh nothing...”
We walk, and we walk, and we walk. Hours went by, hours of endless talking, and laughing, and just walking in silence. I’m so ready to get home, and we only have seven hours to do so.
“Oliver, do you think we’re gonna get home in time?”
“Probably, we might just have to pick it up a notch. Did Mom really give you a strict time frame you could be gone?”
“Uh, yeah. It’s our sister’s birthday today, and her party is tonight!”
“Okay, then we really better get moving!”
We eventually make it out of the woods and back onto that old dirt road. The sun starts to shine again too!
“We’re back in the dome!” I said as my spirit suddenly lifts.
“You know it!”
We walk for another maybe two hours, then get into town, but things aren’t right.
“Wow, things have changed a lot since I was in town, and it’s only been a few days!” Oliver says.
“Yeah... I don't recognize anyone, and the buildings are all different. That doesn’t just happen overnight.”
“Let’s just try and find Mom and Charlotte, then we will go from there.”
We look around that sad excuse for a town for a while before we come up with a verdict. We aren’t in our town at all, and now we only have four hours to get home. We immediately get back on that dirt road and start walking.
“I bet we just got off the road at the wrong time!” he says optimistically.
“Hopefully,” I say
We walk and walk as the time slowly goes from four hours, to three, to two, and soon enough we had one hour and we were still on that stupid dirt road. We have barely any time and I honestly don’t know if we will make it back at all.
“I don’t even know where we are anymore. I just wish I was home with Mom and Charlotte, “ I say, hoping we find our way home soon.
“Just keep walking, we’ll be home soon enough.”
After about twenty more minutes of walking I start to recognize my surroundings. The people, the buildings, everything suddenly becomes familiar to me.
“Yes! We’re home!” I say practically jumping up and down.
I run to the house but quickly realize that if I was supposedly with Sydney for the last three days I should probably show up to the party with her.
“You go in, make up some story about where you have been so mom doesn’t get suspicious. If she asks where I am act like you don’t know. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Oliver walks in the house and I can hear everyone excited to see him. Not wanting to get caught, I quickly run out of sight towards Sydney's house. I arrive and knock on the door, but there’s no answer. I knock again but still no answer. I grab the key above the door and walk in the house.
“Syd? Sydney? Mr. and Mrs. Rufer?”
Since I’m practically family I run up to Syd’s room. No one.
“Crap”
I decide to just go to the party without her. I know I would get questions from my mom because Sydney promised that she would come with me after school that day. I leave the house and lock it back up. While panicking, I head back towards my house, hoping that my mom would think nothing of that fact that it’s eight o’clock at night and I’m just coming home, without Sydney. I return home and as soon as I walked in the door all eyes were on me.
“Sydney… what are you doing here?”
“Lydia, I decided to come without you because I haven't seen you in three days.”
I try to laugh it off but that doesn’t stop my mom from staring me down.
“We’ll talk later,” she said.
I keep to myself the rest of the night, only talking to Oliver and Syd. Mainly just avoiding my mom.
“Where have you been the last few days?”
“I’ll explain later. It’s a crazy story, Syd.”
“It better be. When I showed up without you, your mom’s face went whiter than a ghost.”
“Oh god. Oliver, if I get in trouble for this I’m blaming it all on you.”
We stay together for the rest of the night. Even though I was only gone a few days I sure seemed to miss a lot. At the end of the party, when everyone is gone, I settle in and sink into my bed. It feels like my body is melting into the bed. It’s pure heaven. My head is finally at ease. My back finally decompresses. I’ve never been so happy.
The next day my mom makes me spill everything, and I mean everything. She actually isn’t very mad at all. In fact she seems quite happy I went after Oliver. Even though Mom isn’t mad at me, it doesn’t mean she isn’t mad at Oliver. After she talks to me, she goes up to Oliver's room. She isn’t as nice to him.
I try to listen but all I can understand was, “Are you out of your mind?” and, “What’s wrong with you!!”
After that everything goes quiet. I assume that she decided yelling wouldn’t make Oliver want to stay any more then he already does.
When she comes back down I try to ask what his punishment is, but all I can get out of her is, “Just be glad you aren’t him.”
I run upstairs to try and get it out of him but nothing.
“Just know I’ll be eighty before my punishment is over. Did she do anything to you?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“She's just glad I’m home.”
“Well aren’t you just so lucky.” he says as he drops onto his bed, covering his face with his hands.
Well, that’s the story of how I brought my brother back home. Might not be too exciting, but it brought my family back together. My mom eventually eased up on Oliver to. Probably just after a month she decided that was enough.
So as expected, everything went back to normal, but everyone was happier, Oliver’s grades went up, and we got along much better. We also told everyone that there is a world outside the dome. Nobody believed us, until we brought them. I know, the last trip wasn’t so amazing, but everyone was kinda sick of the sun.