by P K Stadnyk
“Shouldn’t we go to the police, TV, or something?” asked Tom
“We’ll think about that, since they were never very helpful to us,” said my dad. “If we don’t hear anything on the news by the morning, I’ll try to call them. My idea is to go and live in a city with a lot of people like London perhaps. If something like this were to happen there, it wouldn't go unnoticed by the rest of the world like our little, nice, quiet village. Like… at home. We could go to America too. Thanks for pulling us out of that hole, Tom. I thought that was the end.” I thought I saw a tear in the corner of my dad’s eye.
I noticed someone sitting in the corner of that room, watching us with great interest. I pointed him out to my dad. “Excuse me, can I help you somehow?” my dad asked him. The person just stood up and walked out giving me a long nasty smile on the way.
“Don’t worry. This place is full of weirdoes. I suggest we should all lock and bolt the doors before going to sleep. Who knows what we would find in the middle of the night in our rooms if we don’t?”
The desserts were served, and we went to our rooms. Stairs were squeaky and I noticed some were missing. It was almost dark on the stairs. There was only one lamp above us swinging from side to side with the draft. A second lamp was in the corner where the owner was sleeping in his armchair. The newspaper he had been reading was on the floor. He was snoring loudly, and his t-shirt uncovered his very fat belly. Was this place even legal?
We didn’t have to use the key. As soon as we touched the door, it fell down inside the room.
“Great,” said Dad. Mom looked even more terrified when she looked inside the room. It was worse than the restaurant. It was smaller and had two beds and a sofa. I looked around. Brown curtains covered the windows. Once, they may have been white. Disgusting. I went to sit on a bed. It was noisy and the dirt on it was indescribable. Mom took all the blankets off. I noticed seven spiders in the room and I wasn’t in there for more than five minutes. Every corner had a good size web.
“Looks like they don’t have guests very often,” Tom said as he put the door in its frame and lay down on the sofa. Bella didn’t waiting and was already sleeping on one of the beds. “Right, goodnight everybody. Hope we’ll wake up alive in the morning.”
“Tom!”
I went to the bed occupied by Bella. I wondered what else was in that bed. Lots of spiders and little creepy crawlies fell off when Mom tried to clean it. I tried to remember what actually happened to us, but it was all behind the fog. Who was that man downstairs? He looked familiar somehow.
I had a bad nightmare. I was falling down that chasm with my friends. We were laughing about it. When we finally reached the bottom, fire was all around us and hundreds of men dressed in black came out of the fire. They started chasing us, but we couldn’t run away. Fire was everywhere. They all looked almost the same with dark glasses and a nasty smile. I woke up covered in a cold sweat. What was that all about? I guess too much was going on in the last few days. I remembered the way they smiled in my dream. Could that guy yesterday be one of them? Maybe I was just getting paranoid.
When I got up, everybody was gone. I went downstairs, hoping not to find them waiting for a breakfast. They were. Ew! What was that thing on my plate? It looked a bit like scrambled eggs, but it wasn’t exactly scrambled. It was very runny. I only ate the toast with butter. Safe choice of stale bread. There was no way I could swallow something else.
“Max go and play with the rest outside,” my mom said. “We adults need to talk. Dad is going to police in few minutes. You can go with him if you want.” I was angry that I couldn’t stay and listen, but what could I do. When I went outside, I found my friends sitting on the grass and discussing something very lively. When walked to them, I noticed something different. The sky was blue and clear with a few little clouds. It was nice and sunny outside. I loved it!
“Shall we ask Max what he thinks about it” Maybe you should tell him yourself, Oliver,” said William.
“What did you do now, Oliver?” I asked
“Well...I took all that money from the plane that night, and I was thinking of giving it to my mom or somebody. Maybe your dad?” I guessed he came up with that just then, so I wouldn’t get mad at him.
“You did what? Where is it?”
“In my bag under my bed”
“You put all the money in your bag? What if your mom finds it?”
“Don’t worry. It’s under my books.”
“You took your books? When did you pack?”
“Same time as you.”
“What else did you take?”
“Just clothes.”
“Wow! You must have a big bag then. How many books did you take?”
“Almost all of them.”
“What?!” I couldn’t believe it. I had a lot of books in my room too, but in that dangerous moment, when every second was important, I wasn’t thinking about books, yet he took almost all of his. Impressive or stupid? I couldn’t decide.
“Keep the money for now. We’ll decide later what to do with it. What have you heard from your parents?”
“Not much. I heard them saying they all want to stick together. I’m happy. You’re the only friends I ever had,” said Alvin.
“Nothing,” said William and Joe together.
“They say it was an earthquake.” I said what I heard yesterday at the dinner.
“I know it was, but there never was one so strong in England before,” added Oliver.
“Maybe it’s global warming like Cedric was saying before. I heard it on TV once,” Joe remembered.
“By the way, did you see what happened to Cedric?” William asked
“Yes, he fell down with his house. Poor old man,” I said, remembering him standing there and waiting fearlessly for what was coming.
“No, not that. There was a car next to his house when we were leaving. A black car.” William said.
“I didn’t see it. Did you both see it? Did you tell your parents?” I asked.
“They didn’t listen to anything I said then. They wouldn’t stop if I told them the police were behind us.”
“Speaking of which, my dad’s going to the police.”
“Are you going, Max? asked Alvin. Mom told me you might want to go. Tom’s going too.
“Go. Tell us what happened when you come back,” whispered Joe to my ear.
“Okay.”
“Wait. Take this in case you forget something.” Oliver pushed a voice recorder in my hand. I wondered where he was getting all this stuff from and how big his bag must have been, since his book collection was impressive.
We drove to the local police station. I was in one only once on a school trip. My dad asked to make a report and, after half an hour, we were asked to enter a room where a yawning policeman was waiting for us.
“Do you want to make a report?” asked the policeman.
“Yes, we do,” my dad said.
“Is this a burglary, murder, or accident?
“None of these, sir. Not exactly. You see... our little town disappeared last night.”
“Heh, disappeared you said? Are you sure? Was there an alien invasion, maybe? Is this some kind of a joke? I’m pretty sure if it disappeared as you said, we would all have heard about it on the news; don’t you think?
“YOU DONT UNDERSTAND! WE LOST OUR HOMES YESTERDAY. IT’S YOUR JOB TO HELP PEOPLE!” my dad yelled.
“Or at least listen to us and write a report,” added Tom. Did Tom ever get angry? I never saw it.
“Okay, then. I’ll just get a coffee. Looks like you have a lot to say. Cookie?” He lazily got a cup of coffee, sat back down, took a paper out, took a deep breath, and said, “So, who’s going to start? And please start from the beginning.”
He looked tired and probably didn’t shave for weeks. The only thing missing for a typical movie cop was a doughnut. He was bald on the top of his head and had a thick impressive moustache.
My dad started to tell our story not quite f
rom the beginning. “So, few weeks ago, a plane fell on our street… just in front of our house, actually. It might have been because of the cloud that had been hovering for weeks or the tornadoes…and there was nobody on that plane…” The policeman just yawned and rolled his eyes. He probably thought we had lost our minds. “I know it sounds unreal…you see…we’ve had weather paradoxes like seafood and snail rains, and some dangerous flowers grew in our garden and tried to eat my son, and—”
“Hold on a second. Is this some kind of joke? Because if it is, I have more important jobs to do and I can issue you a fine.”
“I assure you, sir, it’s not a joke. The plant tried to kill me. It bit my head.” I tried to say this as normal as I could, which was hard, as I imagined it happening and started to relive the terror.
“Are you writing all this down?” my dad asked. “Will you ask questions after you finish writing? Good.” I noticed that when my dad was telling all this, he probably realized how ridiculous it all sounded and he might have wondered if it really happened. “You remember the hot Christmas, right?” The policeman just shook his head. Maybe because he just wanted to finish this and go home. I could see a little smile hidden under his moustache. We probably were his best visitors in weeks if not months. “And yesterday was the earthquake… Do you realize your pen is empty? Here, take mine.” He tried to protest, but my dad literally pushed a pen into his hand. I don’t think he wrote everything down. “So, there was a strong earthquake. There was a crack going through the middle of the street, getting bigger with every second. It took a plane, our gardens, Cedric, homes, all that we worked and lived for… It wasn’t supposed to go that far…” Dad broke down. He looked very upset. It was as if he had just realized what happened. Some people realize something long after it happened. When I got Bella, I was happy, but I only started to think of her as my dog after a week.
“Er…Hmmm…I don’t know what to say. Did you report these events somewhere before?” He looked confused, shocked, and maybe sorry for us.
“Yes. Local police and TV.”
“What did they do?”
“Nothing.”
“I’m sorry, sir, but what did you mean by saying, ‘It wasn’t supposed to go that far’?”
“Nothing! Did you write it all? What are you going to do now?” Dad was really angry now, but even I didn’t know why.
“John, I’ll take care of it,” said Tom.
“What’s your name and who are you? I need it for a report. Are you sure it’s not a joke? Because I started to believe it, and if you think it’s funny or it’s some kind of a bet, you got me and you can stop now.
“My name is Tom Mercer and I’m his friend and neighbor. I assure you, it’s not a joke.”
“For a start, we had really cold winter and couldn’t get rid of the snow. Were you abroad or something for your hot Christmas?
“Listen, enough of this,” said Tom. “I have a friend in the police, higher than you are. I know that you keep a record of all reports on your computer database. So why don’t you take a look in there and find something about our town, Somerfield?”
He turned to his computer. He looked upset that Tom mentioned his status in such a way. After few minutes, he hit Enter and called Tom over.
“As you can see, there’s nothing on our system.
“Are you sure? Maybe you should try again?”
“I’m really trying to help you, but there’s nothing on the file. No such place.
Tom pounded his fist on the desk. “Check again, please.”
“There is nothing in there, and I must ask you to leave if you don’t want me to write a report about offending a policeman. Anyway, I never heard such a story and I don’t know if I believe it or not, but I have your phone number, and if I find something, I’ll give you a call.”
“Thank you, sir,” I said.
“Bye, kid.”
When we left, I looked back. The officer we talked to was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands but that’s not what was worrying me. I noticed that two other men were watching us. They even went outside when we were driving away.
As we drove back to the inn, Tom said, “John, there was nothing he could do for us.”
“He lied.”
“You don’t know that. We have to think about the future now. We’ll come back to it and find out what happened, I promise. I have an idea. How about we go later and see what’s left from our homes?
The rest of the drive, they talked about where we could move to. I wondered why they didn’t go back to our street now while I was with them. They probably won’t take me there later.
When we got back, I found my friends where I left them. They waited in excitement for me to tell them something special but I didn’t have anything special to tell them.
“Is that it? Oh…”
“I believe that it’s more than you think,” said Oliver.
“What do you mean, Mr. Smart?” Alvin mocked.
“I mean that our situation might be more serious than we thought.”
“Having no home is serious enough. Stop keeping things so mysterious. You just want us to ask you questions,” I said.
“Not only that! Do you have your book?”
“In our room. I’m worrying about something else. Where do you think we’ll go now? If you heard them right, we won’t separate. That’s one problem less.”
“I hope not. I’m hungry.” Alvin looked upset and nearly attacked Oliver.
“Are you thinking of eating that food again?”
“Better than nothing.”
When we got to the restaurant, we found that our parents weren’t there. We found them in one of the rooms we rented. They were sitting on the floor around a map of the world!
“Mom, I’m hungry,” Oliver said.
“Mom, I’m bored,” Alvin said.
“Dad, are we going to separate? I don’t want to lose my friends.” I couldn’t hold it inside anymore. “And I don’t want you to lose your friends.” I thought it was kind of me to add that.
“Don’t worry, boy. We decided long ago that we’ll try to stay together. Why don’t you take a look at the map with us?”
We were satisfied, glad, and, most of all, honored to be asked and considered for such an important job, and soon forgot about hunger or boredom. We joined them around the map.
“Can we go there?” asked Alvin’s sister. “Look how clean it is! All white! It was the middle of Alaska, great! Only she could say something like that.
“Errr…no, sweetheart,” said her mom.
“How about there?” Now she was pointing at Africa.
“No… a bit too hot.”
To avoid more crazy destinations, my dad folded the map until only Great Britain and part of America were visible. This didn’t leave much of a choice. It all looked pretty much the same, at least to me.
“Anybody want some cookies?” Matt asked. “I managed to take them from home. Nancy makes the best cookies in the world, and I can never get enough of them. Or you can go downstairs and eat.” I could see the disgust in everybody’s faces, and we ate all their cookies. They really were great. I wondered what else he packed in those short last minutes. I noticed everybody took different things, something personal. It was different for all. For him, it was his wife’s cookies.
Suddenly, the owner came inside the room without even knocking.
“If you’re staying for another night you have to pay for it or leave in 15 minutes. If you leave later than that, you still have to pay.
“No! I mean thank you, but we’ll go.” That energetic reaction came from Tom.
“Yes, we’ll be all be gone in less than 15 minutes,” Mary agreed.
“It’s 13 minutes now.” I guess he really wanted to make some money, eh?
We were outside in less than 10 minutes. The owner was standing outside looking at his watch all the time. He looked a bit disappointed that we made it on time.
“So, where are we goi
ng now?” asked Nancy.
“Just drive and we should find a hotel or a good inn in no time,” said Tom. So we did, and in less than an hour, we found a little family hotel on a side road with a strange name in a different language. It looked good from outside already, and the interior was hundred times better than that horrible dirty inn.
CHAPTER 20 - BETTER PLACE AND ANOTHER TRIP
The reception was right in front when we got in. It was very light, the people were clean and friendly, and it even smelled nice. Plush blue carpets were everywhere with matching curtains and decorations. When we got to our room, I found that it was bigger than before. It even had its own balcony. Tom didn’t have to share with us because they had enough rooms but Dad insisted he should. I sat down on my bed. It was so comfortable, soft, and warm with large new pillows and quilt that I felt a little sleepy. They even gave us a bed for the baby.
“I guess we can eat something here?” my mom asked.
“I can’t wait to see what they have on the menu!” my dad said. “After the food last night, I’d be happy for a simple loaf of fresh bread! Did you try their beer? It didn’t have a head, and there was something at the bottom of the glass that didn’t look very nice.
Somehow, we all were in a good mood. It had to be this place, which helped us forget about our problems.
The delicious smell was so strong that we didn’t have to ask where the restaurant was. We just followed our noses.
“Wow. This is like a five-star hotel,” I said. “It’s funny to think that we paid the same money for the Horror Inn yesterday. Honestly, I was scared to fall asleep in case he or his creepy wife would kill us in our sleep.
“You have to stop watching so many horror movies,” my dad said. “By the way, this place is slightly cheaper.”
“Hey, there’s a big table. It should be good enough for us.”
Even the chairs were more comfortable.
“Heh, exactly as many chairs as needed for us.” Said Tom. “Do you think they often get big groups like ours? Look, there are two baby chairs, too.”
“We prepared this table for you, sir,” said a nice young ginger waitress.
