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An Unforgetful Challenge
The rain pattered on the window and wind streaked threw the roof on the small cottage out in the woods.
“How much longer do you think it’ll take?” Lisa asked John who was sitting in the oversized couch reading a book.
John looked up, clearly annoyed at his companion’s disturbance, “I don’t know, Lisa. God, why do you have to be so annoying?”
Lisa stiffened, “Well, excuse me for wanting to go outside.”
John shut his book and stood up, “If you want to go outside so badly just go then, but don’t come crying to me when you get a cold.”
Lisa slumped down onto the floor.
“Yeah, I thought so.” Murmured John.
Lisa sighed, “I can’t believe this.”
John sat back on the couch and asked, “What is it that you can’t believe, Lisa?”
“That dad and mom haven’t come yet.”
John laughed and gave a pitiful smile to his younger sister, “Oh come on Lisa. No one’s that stupid. You should’ve known from the beginning that this was all a set up. This was just another make believe game of theirs.”
“John?”
“What Lisa?”
“Do you think it’s my fault? I mean I haven’t been getting good grades, but it’s just that school isn’t my thing and-”
“First off, we all know that you have a distinctive hatred for school Lisa. Secondly, we’ve gone over this a million times, it is not your fault. Say it with me.”
“It is not my fault.”
“Now just try and get that through your thick skull.” John snickered, grabbed his book and kept on reading.
Lisa sighed and laid a hand on her temple. Maybe John’s right. Mom is always busy with her designs in France and dad is always off doing his modern architectural buildings. But still, don’t they want us to be a untied family or is it impossible since we’re always miles apart?
Lisa looked around the cottage. The first floor was cramped with comfortable chairs and overstuffed couches and bookshelves rounding each wall. When you went down the hall it looked as though it was a different cottage. Down the hall were the modern kitchen and a large glass table with a view through the sliding doors that held their back yard, the forest. Once up the creaking wooden stairs there were four bedrooms: Once for Lisa, John, her parents, and then an office. The office which was always locked, because Lisa’s parents had learned that their kids would do anything to get them off of work, even if it meant burning the fabrics, sketch pads, and blue prints.
Lisa reached over for a board game and took out the pieces. She looked up at her black haired, blue eyed brother and asked, “Do you want to play with me?”
“I wonder how many times I’ve been asked that and yet you still have hope of me giving you the reply that you-”
“Forget it; I’ll just play by myself.” Lisa set the pieces and looked out on the oak floors.
John sighed and said, “Fine, I’ll play.”
Lisa shot her head up and smiled, “Oh your the best brother a girl can have!”
John and Lisa had played the game for about fifteen minutes before they noticed that the thumping of nature’s tears had ended.
“Hey, the rain stopped!” Lisa stood and ran upstairs to get dressed.
Lisa closed the door behind her and stripped off her pajamas and slippers and put on her jeans, white long-sleeved shirt, and black coat with four buttons as big as her palm. When Lisa got downstairs her brother was already waiting by the door.
“Wow, where’s the witch who magically enchanted my brother to go outside today?” Lisa asked with a laugh.
“Would you shut up? If you don’t want me to go I won’t.”
Lisa shook her head, her pony tail swishing back and forth behind her, “Of course I want you to come!”
John opened the door and they were out in the forbidding world.
Lisa ran through the green scenery. Mingling flower scents spiraled through her body as she stared up at the setting Sun through the tall trees.
Where’s John? I could have sworn he was after me less than a second ago. Maybe I should turn back or maybe he just went back to the cottage.
Lisa shed her coat and spun around, feeling the wings of moths and butterflies set forth up to the sky for one last look at the promising light. Lisa fell down on the grass and let the stars captivate her. After a couple of minutes of staring at the twinkling entertainers Lisa felt a drop of water fall on her forehead then a clap of thunder from nearby. Lisa grabbed her coat and headed back for the cottage. She trudged under walls of thorn bushes and as she got into the clearing, she heard a distant yell.
Was that my imagination? Maybe it was the thunder or the wind. But I could have sworn that it sounded like John’s voice.
Lisa took no chances and turned back, thorns scratched her frail face, but nothing would get in her way if her brother was in trouble.
“John? John is that you?” Lisa yelled as another thunder let its power heard.
“Lisa! Lisa help me! Lisa!”
Lisa scurried to where the voice trailed, to where she felt her brother’s presence. She swatted away bugs and leaves and kept running, waiting for her brother to magically appear in front of her. Instead she almost fell into a deep hole.
“Lisa, for God’s sake, pay attention. You almost fell on top of me you dimwit.” Lisa got off the ground and looked down at her brother who hanged on a limb by the wet dirt.
Lisa gasped and screamed, “Give me your hand!”
John swung his hand into his sister’s wet palm and was lifted out of the dirt hole in seconds. Lisa squeezed her brother so tight she could hear him gasping for air.
“Oh my God, John I almost lost you.” Lisa buried her head into her brother’s warm chest and let her stress come out as tears.
John rubbed her back and said, “Its fine, Lisa! I’m ok and it’s all because you saved me!”
Lisa hugged her brother once more before they escaped out of the rain and into safety.
“Lisa and John Mellows where have you been?” Lisa’s mother was sitting on the couch, her legs crossed, and a pillow tucked under her arm when John and Lisa entered the warm cottage. “Michael, honey, their here do not call the police.”
John locked the door and sat down. “Wow, great timing mom for you two to get here, huh? What were you guys doing…no let me guess. Was it work?” John snickered but received a scolding look from his mother.
Lisa sat down on the overstuffed couch as her mother let her lecture begin, “Now listen to me you two. Your father and I got here just a couple of minutes ago because there was traffic in the highway, ok? Let me tell you something, John, your father and I work very hard to support this family. It is not that we go partying until dawn across Europe and then go and settle down for work. Have some respect for us, ok? Oh and another thing, you both should know better than to hang out in the rain in the woods.”
Lisa’s father entered the loud room and sat down next to his wife. “Now sweetie, calm down. Kids what your mother is saying is all true. We were very worried of where you both were. No one answered the cells, you guys were out of eye sight, and you didn’t leave us a written note of where you both were.”
Lisa sighed and said, “We thought you guys wouldn’t come. We’re sorry that this happened and it won’t happen again, ok?”
Lisa’s mother smiled at her twelve year old daughter and said “Thank you my baby flower for explaining. By the way why are you guys so dirty?”
John stood up, walked upstairs, and slammed his bedroom door.
“I wonder what’s up with him.” Lisa’s father whispered.
Lisa stood up and turned to her parents, God I want to tell you everything. All the things that run through my mind about you guys though I know you wouldn’t understand. I know that you would forget the issue in a month. Why isn’t that you don’t understand? Will you ever? I just know tonight is not the time.
“What is it my baby flower?” Lisa’s mother snapped her daughter back into reality.
“Oh nothing, I just wanted to say thanks for coming, but I’m tired and I just want to get some sleep. Goodnight dad and mom.” Lisa kissed her parent’s on the cheek and scrambled up the stairs.
Before Lisa went to sleep that night she could hear her parents downstairs taking their luggage’s out the door. She peered out the window and saw them escape into their car, run the engine, and leave their children behind.
That morning Lisa ran down the stairs and went down the family photographed walls and into the white marbled kitchen.
“Good morning, sis. How did you sleep?” John sat on the counter, drinking a glass of orange juice. Lisa took out a carton of milk and her chocolate cereal. She washed a spoon and a bowl, poured herself some breakfast and ate. “They left.”
“Oh trust me I noticed that. The first clue was when their siren alarm clocks didn’t disturb my sleep, but the most reassuring hint was when they left this little typed note for us on the kitchen table.” Lisa put down her bowl and walked over to the glitter table,
“Dear Children:
It was a pleasure to have spent some time with you, though your father and I were given new job opportunities that we can not turn down. I hope you both understand how demanding our jobs are but you both are the light in our lives. Your father and I plan to get together with you both soon, though if anything we’ll call you.
With so much love, your mother.”
“I can’t stand it anymore, John. It’s as if the only right thing they ever did was have you and me so we wouldn’t be lonely. How is it that they don’t care? I mean their not buffoons, that’s for sure. I mean if mom can work with the most renown designers in the world and dad can plan out the largest buildings in the world they have to know that were miserable with how their treating us is wrong.”
John shook his head, “Their buffoons, Lisa. If they don’t care about what we feel their stupid, because no matter what we’ll be successful in our own lives. No matter what we’ll always have each other and in the end they’ll be the ones to cry since they didn’t want to participate in their own kids’ lives.”
Lisa nodded her head, understanding her brother’s point. She crept back to her cereal and finished eating her breakfast.
When the siblings were alone in the living room and the grandfather clock rang 12:00 p.m. John looked at his sister and said, “Lisa, I need to tell you something.”
Lisa poked out of her board game and asked, “What is it, John? You look so serious.” She giggled but stopped when she noticed the urgency in her brother’s eyes.
“You remember yesterday when you saved me from falling into that pit hole?”
She nodded and shivered at the thought.
“Before you grabbed my hand did you notice my legs didn’t show?”
Lisa thought and gasped, “Oh my goodness, your right. When I looked at your body I didn’t notice your legs but I must have been too focused on getting you out to even say anything.”
“The reason why I didn’t keep on following you was because I noticed that ditch. I thought something could have been lost there, like a treasure or something, but when I put my hand through the dark shadows of the hole I knew it wasn’t any ordinary ditch. Lisa, when my hand went into the hole it had to go some where else because I felt ice.”
Lisa gasped. How could John feel ice if we’ve never seen snow in the forest?
“Lisa, I know what it is. It’s a portal.”
Lisa’s face dropped. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. A portal? But aren’t those things only said in fairytales and fables?
“Lisa, I’m going through the portal. I already packed my things and I’m heading out now before it gets dark.”
“Are you insane? John you can’t, you don’t know where it leads, or if something evil is waiting at the other end.” Lisa screamed at her brother, while the thought of him leaving her forever crossed her mind.
John sighed, “Lisa, what do you expect me to do? Live my life here forever? I’m sixteen; I think I can take care of myself.”
John stood up and grabbed a large backpack behind his chair. He walked up to the door and turned to his sister, “Lisa, my little sister, I love you. I want you to know that no matter what happens. I will always be with you.”
He grabbed the knob and Lisa ran to his side, “John, don’t do this to me.” She wailed, “I have no one else in this planet, but you. You can’t leave me here all alone. John, don’t leave me.” She held onto her brother for strength.
“Lisa, come with me. Come and we can live our lives how we want it. Just you and me out on an adventure forever.”
Lisa looked up at her brother. His eyes promised a life of bold moves but peace as well.
Before thinking it over Lisa’s head nodded and she went upstairs and packed everything she could into her brown, leather backpack.
When she came downstairs her brother stood by the door. “Are you ready?”
Lisa nodded, took one good look at the cottage, and they were out the door never to return.
After one hour of searching for the portal John found it by once again tripping into its hollow ditch.
“Hold on.” Lisa whispered to her brother as she knelt down next to the hole. Her hand trembled but she let it fall through the velvet darkness. A minute after she felt something cold and wet. Her hand searched for something to hold on to but all there was to touch was a thick patch of ice.
Lisa brought out her hand and nodded to her brother, “Let’s go.”
“Lisa, take a breath in, ok?”
Lisa breathed in the mingling scents for the last time and a tear seeped out her eye. She would never see the forest or the cottage, her home, again. Though she knew she wanted to do this, deep down this is what she yearned for, adrenaline.
Lisa took her brother’s hand and they both counted, “One…Two…Three….” They jumped into the portal and into a new life.
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