It was a hot and humid day, the sun was shining bright above our heads, the heat was slowly talking away all of our energy but the dry moisture was the true killer. It was so humid, that the sweat falling off my neck was gluing the clothes to my sticky back; it was so uncomfortable and so unbearable. It was a waste of time having to be out in this heat; instead I should have been in my room, with the AC on full blast. Maybe none of this would have happened in the first place. But, at the time, I guess that's just what a typical, Friday afternoon was like in Florida. Even after being there for a good solid 5 years, I'm still not used to that heat. I never had to go through that in Spain, well yet again. Florida is nothing like my beautiful Spain.
Anyways, back to my point, my friend, Emma and I were walking down 8th street that day after school. The scorching heat was just brutal on our feet, especially since we had to walk all the way back home. We had just come back from the public library where we were doing a power point for English class regarding the ethnic groups in Afghanistan, something that I knew much about. It was a simple assignment for me and I'm glad that I got to choose my partner, Emma. She is smart and very dependable; she made sure that I actually finished the work, something I often don't bother to do because I can be a bit lazy. It's not that I don't like school; it's just that I can't find myself to be motivated. Perhaps if my school wasn't so awful, I could maybe try harder.
Once we had finished our project, which I say looked amazing, we decided to look up some funny memes, both of us didn't want to go home so soon, not that I ever wanted to go home at all, and had a couple of hours of pure fun. And that was what we were discussing at the moment, walking slowly down the street, the Harry Potter memes that we had been checking out on the computer. We both love Harry Potter and shared a few laughs, something we do fairly often at school.
In fact it was that love of Harry Potter that brought me and Emma together to become best friends. We shared other things, but that was our most common interest.
Unfortunately our fun was soon to be over and soon we would be returning back to our boring lives at home. I realized that when we began to pass a short canal near Emma's house.
It was a small canal next to a gas station; it was pretty scenic with its small patch of dark grass and its rocky cobblestone walkway. The sunlight made the emerald green water sparkled softly. I told Emma that I wanted to sit next to the grass. It was really hot and I was tired and it would be a nice time to relax since I still had a long way to walk till I got to the bus stop to go home. Unfortunately, Emma's mom was working till late at night so I had to take the bus home instead of just going to her house and her mom taking me home and that was a real bummer.
Emma protested at first, she didn't think it was very safe, she never wants to do anything fun but she followed me anyway, not that I gave her much of a choice. We sat on grass for a while, soaking in the warm sun on our back, when I noticed that the still river was slowly churning. Like someone was mixing it with a giant enormous invisible spoon. I leaned in, peering into the water. That was something you don't see every day, Emma told me to get back. Then an unknown force began to push me towards the water's edge. I tried to grab hold of the grass beneath me but it was no use, the grass was moist from the water and it was too slippery to hold on to. I looked to my right and saw that Emma was having the same problem.
The water began to turn faster. It was turning into a formidable black hole that was sucking everything in. The force was too great; Emma, who had less upper body strength then me, was quickly sucked up by the black hole. I screamed her name but got no response from the hole. I couldn't keep holding on for much longer. My fingers lost their grip and I was swallowed by the abyss.
I was being consumed by the inky black water and mist. There was no sense of time within the hole. Did I exist? Was I dead? There was no way of telling. I was stuck, fading. Fading into a world I never thought I would be a part of.
I woke up later in a dingy alley. I wonder how long I had been out for. It was so dark and cold; I felt a shiver in my arms like goose bumps. A stark contrast to the warm afternoon I was experiencing earlier. There was an unknown presence next to me. I turned my head and saw that it was Emma...but it wasn't really her. She was lying down, front faced on the stony concrete. She was smaller, her dark brown hair reached to her waist instead of her shoulders; something that I had gotten used to since the last 2 years I've known her for. It was almost like looking at a picture of her when she was eleven or so.
I tried getting up when I slipped on a puddle to my left. I shifted my body just enough so I could look at my reflection in the muddy puddle. I gasped. I was staring into the eyes on of my eleven year old self. I've always had short hair so that was no surprise, but my current incarnation was sporting the same short bob I used to have. I was paler, thinner and smaller then then when I was eighteen. I couldn't believe it. How was this possible? My head was hurting and throbbing like crazy but I knew I had to get up.
I got up and walked over to Emma. I began to shake her lightly. "Wake up Emma."
She stayed down for a while so I had to keep shaking her until she woke up groggy and asked: "What? What happened? Where are we? How long were we out for?"
"I don't know." I responded, I was worried that my face would give way what I was feeling. Out of the both of us, I'll admit it, I'm the stronger. "But come on and walk with me to that puddle so you take a look at this yourself."
She stoops up slowly, not really understanding why i wanted her to do what I had said. She looked down at her body, a puzzled look crossing her features. Then she looked at her hands. She looked up at me then walked to the puddle and saw her reflection. She got startled and whipped around and REALLY looked at me.
"Oh my god! Look at us. We've been turned into some small, little kids. How is this possible? What in the world just happened?" she asked so confused. I was too but then I thought of something.
"I really have no idea. It must be because of that vortex we went through." I said.
"What?" Emma said, not understanding. "You mean that swirling thing in the water?"
"Yeah, I saw it on the history channel once. Scientist have stated that our world is littered filled with portals and vortexes. They are gate ways into other dimensions or worlds. Sort of like the Bermuda Triangle. Sometimes people unknowingly or deliberately walk into them and are transported to these different worlds or dimensions. That is what must have happened to us with the canal." I explained.
"This isn't funny, Ashely." She said, she was angry at me, she probably thought I was kidding or making jokes but I wasn't for once. "This isn't one of your history channel documentaries!" She yelled. She was upset, but I couldn't do anything about it. I was upset as well.
Suddenly we heard a noise coming from the other end of the alley. It sounded like a person coming out way. It was dark but I could barely make out a dim light from that direction.
"Quickly" I whispered to Emma.
"Let's hide behind those trash cans before they spot us." I grabbed her arm and pulled her with me. I wasn't sure what to do, but if my father thought me anything is that the police only make things worse.
We ran to some large bins of trash cans and hid behind them. It was smelly and filled with spoiled food that was slipping from the tip of the bins, barely toughing my arms.
"What? Ashely what are we doing?" Emma asked me. Emma was completely pure and I'm sure she would try to ask the police man things and how were we supposed to answer them how we got here?
"Shhhh.." I whispered to her.
Soon the person came into view. It was a man. Wearing a police officer's uniform but he didn't look like your average police officer that we had in South Florida. He looked like those British policeman from the 1920's that you would see in old movies. He was moving slowly towards us and swinging his flashlight back and forth. I grabbed Emma's arm and pushed her down to the ground.
After a couple of minutes, the light started to dim and I figured the police officer was going back to where he came from when out of nowhere a giant black cat jumped out of the shadows and landed on a nearby trash can lid. And I, being the klutz that I am, screamed and jumped to the side, knocking a trash can in the process.
"Damn it! Why the fuck does this happen to me? Stupid cat' I thought.
"Who goes there?!" the policeman screamed from the other side of the alley.
I was planning on running away when Emma stepped out and said, "Hey! It's ok. It's just us. Can you please help us? We are lost and we don't know where we are."
The police officer turned around and came towards us. He was tall and had a mean, hard look in his eyes, he reminded me of my father a lot.
The policeman looked from Emma to me and narrowed his blue eyes. "What's going on here? Why where you two doing hiding behind those trash bins just now?" He had British accent which I thought was pretty weird. But I wasn't going to point that out just yet.
"We hid because we were scared. We didn't know who was coming and it could have been anybody. Maybe a robber or something and I were just trying to protect us." I said with a stony face. I had to think of something, some sort of lie.
"Why are you two in this alley? Where are your parents?" He asked, obviously still suspicious of us.
"We don't have any." I lied. God what am I saying?
"They were killed several years ago by some man who was trying to steal from our house. We don't have any living relatives so we've been living on the streets ever since. Emma and I am sister, see?"
At this point I stepped next to Emma so that the police officer could see our similarity. Yes we weren't sisters, but we both had darkish hair, although hers was light and we had chocolate eyes that looked very alike, enough to mistakes us for sisters, well hopefully. I took hold of Emma's hand in my on and said: "We didn't mean any harm officer. We were just trying to get some from food from the garbage when you came by."
Emma was staring at me like I was crazy, which I am, but I needed to get control of the situation for now. The policeman still had a look of doubt.
He turned towards Emma: "Is it true what your sister just told me?"
Emma looked from the police officer to me and back. Out of the two of us Emma looked a lot more innocent then I was. She had the face of a kind and sweet girl, which she was. In school I had a bit of a reputation for bull shitting everything so we were quite opposite but if Emma agreed with me then it must be true. I squeezed her head and nodded my head.
"Y-yes, it true." she said. She seemed to be on the verge of tears. Not believing what was happening.
The policeman's expressions changed into one of pity, his blue eyes softened and he had a warm look in his eyes.
"Well alright then, you two are very brave young girls to be here all alone "He said with sympathy. "Now let's get you guys down to the station and give your something warm to eat." And what seemed as an afterthought he said: "And give you some proper clothes. You guys be freezing."
I guess it was to be noticed. I was wearing my school khaki pants with a white undershirt, I had my blue school shirt in my backpack which I noticed wasn't around, something that I really didn't care right now. Emma, on the other hand, was wearing khaki shorts and a light blue shirt but she was wearing a violet jacket that she loved so much, so she wasn't that cold but in this windy place, wherever we are, she was still shivering.
He turned around and started walking down the alley; Emma and I are in tow. Emma let go of my hand, having relaxed a little. She turned her head to me and whispered.
"What do we do now?" I shook my shoulders, not having a clue. All we could do now is follow the police officer and see what is going too happened.