That day started it all. When I encountered that magical house I did not intend to find some that would change my life but only something that I lost; my cat. Yuki was always an adventurer. The day I got her, she spent hours exploring my house as if it was some kind of lost jungle begging to be discovered.
When I lost Yuki, a group of neighborhood kids that she was hiding in the haunted house suggested it. I went to the haunted house and realized that it was not a haunted house…. It was a beautiful house. The things I saw….I could not even describe what was going on. It was as if no gravity affected the house at all. If you jumped into the air, you could float around as if you were some cloud in the sky. The phenomena defied the law of gravity and that is when I knew that there was a bigger story. After coming back to the house after the exterminaters arrived, I began to question. I questioned everything and anything to the point where I could not pull truth from false. I would spend hours locked in my room asking myself silly questions such as, "What is real life?" "What is my purpose?" "Is this a dream?"
My mom would say that I "started hanging with the wrong crowd" but it was not the crowd that changed me, it was my own doing. I chose to lose the name Yoko Hamisoka because I was no longer young and sweet little Yoko. I did not care about who was dating whom or having the best dress at the dance anymore. It was the bigger picture the counted.
My name is Star. And this is my story.
It was Thursday afternoon and I sat in front of my computer as as usual. I could hear my mother and father fighting about something…. Like they always do. I was typing an essay about how the great depression affected the many countries when I began to listen to my surroundings. With droning out the loud voices from outside my room, I could hear birds chirp outside. I could hear the gentle wind hit the outside of my windows, making a quiet tapping noise. My cat was purring on my bed, which I could also hear. The sounds all seemed to be quiet, relaxing sounds, that is except for my computer's fan but even that was muffled.
I continued typing my idiotic essay but then I stopped in mid sentence when something came to my mind. It was a question that I had been fighting for a while now and I couldn't help typing out. It was like one of those instances when you don't know why you act way you do…. It just happens. Acting on impulse, what some may call it is not usually a thing of mine but this was different. I typed the sentence: "Why do I feel like I'm living in a dream? Something isn't right."
At that instant, my door flung open and I was so startled that I deleted the sentence immediately. My mother barged in and began picking up my clothes that were on the floor.
"Mom, what are you doing? That's clean"
"Then why is it on floor?"
I did not answer her. I knew this would turn into some silly argument of ours and then by the end of it she would be screaming at the top of her lungs, telling me to be more responsible. It has occurred before. Before she left my room, she looked up and smiled, "Why don't you come out to dinner with the family tonight?"
"I don't do family dinners, mom"
"Yes but I think it's time you spend time with us"
I ignored looking at her I just stared at my computer screen and continued typing my essay
"Fine. I will"
"Good. Wear something nice"
As my mom left my room and tiny info box popped up on my screen. But it was nothing like a regular notification that warned you that you had viruses attacking your computer or that your free trial of online computers was gone but this more different… it was more personal. It read:
"You ask yourself, 'Why do I feel like I'm living in a dream?' Have you ever stopped to think that maybe you are right, maybe this is all a dream?"
Chills ran down my spine as I read it. Since when could computers talk back? There was no way that a computer could talk to me. I shook it off and pretended it did not happen and clicked the X button watching the box disappear in an instant.
That evening was torture. I sat in the fancy restraint with my family and luckily, our booth was by a window because there would be no way to entertain myself. I gazed out the window watching people pass by. They were normal people, it seemed like. I bet they just were going about their day maybe walking home from work. Maybe they had a wife or husband? Oh and maybe kids too.
"So, Yoko, how has school been going?"
A little annoyed that the fact that my dad interrupted my people watching, I waited a couple seconds to answer.
"It's fine."
Then my dad went at it again…. Typical.
"What about that guy? What was his name? The one you dated? Kai?"
"Dad, I broke up with him 3 months ago"
"Oh right."
I kept my eyes on the window, still watching the normal people but then something was not normal. Across the street, I could see a woman and a man. They were so different from everyone else passing that they instant grabbed my gaze. They were so different and yet the ordinary people passing them didn't stop to stare at them for looking so strange.
The woman was beautiful. Long blonde hair, so rich and yellow, it almost looked unreal. She was tall but in comparison to the man, she stood up to his neck. She wore a red coat with what looked like a white tank top and her pants were red as well and tight latex material. Her black combat boots came up to her knee. Her face seemed very proportional despite the fact that truly all humans' face are not proportional. Her eyes I could not see because black sunglasses concealed them. Why she was wearing sunglasses at night I did not know.
The man was a little bit taller that the woman. He wore all black; a black coat, a black shirt, black skinny jeans. His boots were black as well. He too wore sunglasses, similar to the woman's. They got on motorbikes and sped away and as they passed, the woman looked straight at me and smiled. For a second I figured I was imagining her looking at me but I could not deny it. She looked straight at me and smiled. It was a weird feeling.