I found myself suspended in the deep blackness miles and miles above an indistinguishable ground. I flailed my arms and legs around desparately, searching for what was holding me up, but to no avail. It was as if by magic. I squinted my eyes and peered curiously into the unkown before me, my vision framed by and ethereal bluriness that I seemed not to notice, but was aware of nonetheless. Three figures were there that I was sure hadn't been there before, but hadn't seen approach. All three were wearing dark, hooded shrouds. "Who are you?" I asked in a voice that sounded most unlike my own.
"Who ARE you?" The figure to the far left asked. He had a throaty, deep voice. I thought it odd that he stressed the "are" and not the "you", but decided to answer anyway.
"I'm Hermione Jean Granger, and I'm top of my class at Eddsburg Primary."I said, very matter-of-fact with my hands on my hips, though I slouched slightly when I realized this was a rather lousy way of identifying one's self.
"Are you really?" said the first figure. I thought this a fairly strange reply.
"Of course I am, do I look daft?" I replied angrily.
"What do you know?" said the figure on the right, causing my head to swivel and face him. He seemed not to be acknowledging surprise, but rather seriously asking how much I knew.
"I know quite a bit!" I said smirking, and raising my posture even higher.
"Do you really?" asked the voice in the same drone. I was becoming frustrated now.
"Yes! I know Algebra, and Biology, and I can name all the monarchs of England, and-"
"What are you going to be?" the figure in the middle asked. I was fuming now at having been interrupted answering a question that they, themselves had asked, and they hadn't even introduced themselves! I cleared my throat.
"I'm going to be a dentist like my mum and dad!" I said sternly.
"Will you really?" said the figure, a smile in his voice. I felt all the anger leave me, as the mysterious man had prodded the one doubt in my mind. "Was I really?" I thought as my head drooped and I stared blankly into the abyss below. I felt small tears poking at my eyelids.
"You have not answered!" growled the three figures simultaneously. My head shot up, as their voices had sounded threatening and I wondered if there was to be some consequence. My thoughts were soon answered as I felt the invisible chains suspending me slip. My heart was pounding in panic, as I slipped further. I screamed as they let go and I sunk down…down….down…
I awoke spread eagle on my bed to the feeling of just having fallen. The springs of my mattress recoiled and rattled gradually more slowly and soflty. My throat burned. "A dream…" I thought. "Only a dream."
I swung my feet over the side of my bed and hopped off it, but stumbled, as the floor seemed closer than before. I turned to see that the four legs that had once supported my bed were now but four flowers of splinters surrounding its four corners. I looked down at my stomach, pushing through the bottom of my pajama top. I frowned hard, caressing it. Then my expression softened as realization hit. I scurried over towards my door frame, the rug slipping up into a bundle behind me. I flattened my back against the door frame, which held a ruler and many notches, each marking a milestone in my vertical development. (a couple were marked over several times, as I had refused to believe at the time that I hadn't grown). There was a pencil dangling at an angle on a string next to the door that I used to mark along the top of my head, smushing down my bedhead. I whirled around excitedly to see it. "141 cm!" I breathed, "that's five higher than last time!".
This was especially exciting considering I'd always been shorter than anyone in my class. I clambored into the hallway and approached my parents door stealthily. I pressed my ear to the wood carefully and heard my father's deep, rattling snores. My parents were still asleep. I thought about barging in to tell them the exciting news, but pushed the idea quickly aside. After all, that was kid stuff, and I was 11 now. Though I did puff my chest out a little higher than usual as I walked to the bathroom to prepare for the day of adventure my parents had promised me the day before.
After what seemed like hours of braving the forest that is my hair with a brush, I finally heard thechink of a coffee mug in the kitchen below and knew that my parents were awake. I well near flew down the stairs . and yelled "Goodmorning" before even entering the room, but stopped dead in my tracks when I did. My parents both look up at me from their respective sides of the table, dressed fully in their white lab coats with Granger Orthodontics written in blue lettering across the left breast.
"Er-goodmorning , sweetie!" My mom managed as my dad smiled faintly. "The dentists that were supposed to fill in for your father and I both seem to have caught the same had cold, imagine that." She chuckled softly.
"But we were supposed to go camping down at the glen today." I said, trying to sound as professional as possible. My dad looked as though he were going to say something father-like but my mother shot him a warning glance.
"I know sweetie, but there are some responsibilities we are obliged to carry out." She said soothingly. I scowled.
"Well, I would've thought it a courtesy not oblige others with your responsibilities!" I shouted and stormed upstairs before they could stop me. I swatted the dangling pencil loose from the door frame and threw myself onto my flattened bed in a volley of sobs. I'd never been so disappointed. I understood responsibility and what it meant to be somewhere, but they also had a responsibility to their promise to me. I felt so betrayed and hurt. I jumped up at the sound of car doors slamming. I looked out my window at them pulling out of the driveway. I wanted something, anything to bring them back. I watched hopelessly as the disappeared from sight. Just as soon as I had turned away, however, I heard the same engine noise coming closer. I spun on the spot and saw my parents' car approaching once again. In confusion and excitement, I sprinted back down the stair case.
"I know we had them last night" I heard my father say as he wrenched open the front door and lead my mom into the living room, apparently searching for something.
"What's going on?" I asked cautiously, still not having forgiven them completely.
"Your father and I seem to have misplaced our ID badges" my mom said, not paying me much mind as she flipped over couch cushions. For a moment a transient flicker of hope passed over my conciousness, but it was quickly extinguished.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to go," My father announced, "they have to let us in, right? I mean, our name's on the the bloody sign!" I watched helplessly as my parents once again deserted me. Resigned, I retrieved my new copy of Historical Persecutions: A Study on Injustice as a way to cope with my own. Seeing it was a beautiful summer day, I decided to retreat to the backyard. I found cozy spot under the old oak tree behind our house. It was old and decrepit looking, like one you'd see outside of a haunted house, it had a knot in the center and everything, but it was shady, so I chose there.
I was halfway between European Gyspies and Eastern American Witches when I felt something hard make contact with the back of my head. I held a circular object attached to a string up in front of my with one hand as I rubbed my head with the other. It took me a minute, but I recognized it as the yo-yo that Kate Tinny, my next door neighbor, had when we were children. I remembered being incredibly jealous of it, and soon thereafter, it going missing. Kate was convinced it had been me who had taken it, and hadn't talked to me since. I stood up, leaving my book on the ground, and examined the knot. Upon examination, it looked as though the space behind the knot was entirely hollow. Inside, were many objects I recognized: My mother's glass figurine, that I'd broken when I was younger and was never punished for, a test I'd gotten a 98% on(I gagged slightly when thinking of this) but never could find to show my parents, one particularly embarassing love letter I'd written a boy in my class only this year that I regretted sending immediately, and at the very back…my mum and dad's ID badges…