It was a cold winter night. I just turned 9. I used to share a room with my elder brother. That night I was unable to sleep. I’ve tried counting numbers which usually works, but I had no luck that night. A light blinking far away caught my attention through the window. It was a small light that was clearly visible due to the pitch-black night. After staring at it continuously for about five minutes, the light started blinking rapidly as it dimmed. I tried to look at it with more concentration and I blinked. After closing my eyes and opening them, I realized that it was morning. I was still in the same position, but it was morning. But how? I didn’t sleep. I just blinked. Once. It was hard for me to comprehend what had happened. The next night, it was the same. My eyes were focused on that light, and soon after I blinked, it was morning again.
It was a holiday, so I decided to go to that location where the light might be located. Despite my attempts to tell my friends about the light, they never believed me. So I had to go alone. Several people were in the park, children were playing, and parents were accompanying their children. There were a few food trucks nearby. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I found a lamp post at a distance after searching everywhere. It was at the end of the park and was the tallest. My eyes were fixed on it as I approached it. As it was daytime, there was no light. So I decided to return home. The light flashed for a second right before I was about to turn back, or at least I thought it did. It felt weird. I came back home and the day passed. Each day after school, I spent a week staring at the lamp in the park.
I was in the park with my family one day. I had an elder brother and a younger sister. After eating a sandwich, we left our parents to play with the kids. While playing, I took the ball and threw it at THAT lamp post. I remember it, I definitely threw at it and I saw the bulb breaking. In a matter of microseconds, the ball hit my sister on the head. The lamp was nowhere near her. When I looked at the lamp again, it wasn’t broken. I saw my sister crying as she ran towards my parents. I threw the ball at her, she said. My brother said the same. But I didn’t, I tried to explain it to my parents but they wouldn’t believe me. I was angry at them so I ran away.
I reached the lamp and started kicking it. In an instant, the lamp post disappeared and I fell. It was pitch black, but I could see everything around me in some sort of limbo. I saw a lot of lamp posts around me. I walked towards one, but I was not getting closer to it. There were some weird sounds audible that weren’t clear, but they were oddly satisfying. I felt like I was in a dream. I felt a cold breeze touch my neck. As soon as I turned around, it went BLANK.
When I opened my eyes, I was not at the park or at home. I was in front of a diner. I wasn’t sure how I got there. On my way back to our home, I noticed a few changes in our neighborhood. I reached home. A new and different car was parked outside. There was no sign of our car. I knocked on the door because it was locked. The door opened after a while. As soon as the door opened a woman hugged me and started crying. I didn’t understand what was going on. She grabbed my hand and took me inside. She screamed, “Honey, he’s home!”. A man almost ran into the living room and hugged me. Weird. Thank goodness, you’re back, Mike. We were worried about you. Are you hurt? Are you okay? “, he asked me. I nodded. Two kids walked into the living room. The girl smiled. The boy gave me a toy car. My eyes caught sight of a photograph, a family picture. It was a picture of a man, a woman, two kids, and me. What? “Where’s mom?”, I asked the man. “Right here, Mikey”, the woman replied. I was terrified. “Go take a bath and then we’ll have dinner”, said the man. There were a few changes here and there, but it was our home. My room was the first place I went. Nothing has changed. I still have the bunk bed. Only that there was this kid instead of my brother. It didn’t make sense to me. We had dinner after I took a bath. I went back to bed. I was unable to sleep. My eyes searched through the window for that light, but it wasn’t there. After a few days, I asked mom (the woman) what happened the day I disappeared. She said that I had a fight with my brother and ran away from home. My thoughts turned to what really happened when I returned to my room.
I decided to go to the park the next day. After breakfast, I walked to the park with my brother. It turned out that there was no park at that location. My brother told me the park is near the diner. We went there. I checked the spot where I woke up. Nothing was there. I spent days trying to figure out what was going on. I started to get these dreams about my past. It took me a few months to give up. Although I was sad not to be able to find out what happened to me or where my family was, I accepted my new family.
Ten years later, I’m still not sure what happened. Not that I complain about the family I have right now, but I still miss my FAMILY. Every night, I hope that the lamp’s light will return. It might never happen. Now it’s time for me to go to bed, stare at the window in search of the light, and hope that everything will be back to normal when I wake up. Good night.