A Jump in Time

I’m running. A bright gold cloak billows out behind me in giant waves. I’m in the forest, dodging trees. Dodging arrows and spears too, unfortunately. Why did I have to point to the picture of battle ready natives? Why couldn’t I have chosen the picture of a boat filled with pilgrims? Sigh. Currently, I, Anonette, am being chased by crazy, armed natives. All because I make bad decisions and have a grandma who makes very weird and funky clothes.

Suddenly, I appear in front of my desk in my bedroom. I sit back in my wheely chair and groan. Man, am I exhausted! Those natives are fast! I sit up and look at the open history textbook in front of me. The picture of the natives seemed to be changing. Suddenly the picture focusses to show the armed natives chasing a ghostly gold blur through the forest. I look at the cloak and think, is that me? I look back at the picture. Weird. The caption under the photo reads, Natives chase ghost. How obvious, I think.

I sit back in my wheely chair and close my eyes. Soon I drift into dreaming. As usual, my mind goes over the events of the day before I slip into the dream realm. So I think this is what happened this morning ...

When I woke up, it was like any other morning. Except for the fact that we had to visit grandma! Duh duh duh duh! And cue the screaming. Sometimes I swear my parents are criminal masterminds in disguise.

It wasn’t like I didn’t like grandma or anything. I mean, she was sweet and spoiled my sister and me like crazy, but she made the weirdest bewitched clothing. And I don’t mean the horrible bunny sweater that your parents make you wear to school. It’s more like the bunny sweater of doom that makes you eat carrots when you wear it! Ugh! I’m afraid there is such a sweater. It’s sitting in my closet right now, silently haunting me.

But today’s mysterious article of clothing was the Temporal Quantum Materialization cloak . When my grandmother handed it to me, it felt so old, but the flowing gold silk, that sparkled and glowed, felt, and smelled, brand new. Freaky. Surprisingly, I didn’t believe her when she told me it could take you anywhere in history with a thought. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have 101 other things that did exactly what she said they would, I thought sarcastically.

So, as soon as I got home, I had to try it out. I walked right into my room, pulled the cloak tight around my shoulders, flipped the hood over my head, whipped open my history textbook and pointed at the natives. Sometimes I am so stupid.
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! A scream came from the room next door.

I had heard that scream before. It was my sister, Luna. I rushed into her bedroom, only to find her floating outside her window in the arms of what I think is a sorcerer. You can never really tell these days. Yet, when I walked into the room, the sorcerer gasped and started twirling this really ugly stick above his head. He started to chant the most peculiar of spells.
“Tick back the clock, to the death of Pompeii. Take Dastardly Dwayne, and his maiden, away!” the sorcerer called. As my sister screamed, there was a faint Pop! and they vanished from sight.

Now, what’s really odd is that the first thing I thought was, Dastardly Dwayne? What kind of name is that? It was after, that I thought, where is Pompeii, and remembered a painting of these people in what I think is a store from my history text. It wasn’t until my hands started to fade that I remembered I still had my cloak on. Just great.

Soon I appeared in the time tunnel. Everything in the tunnel was blue, except for my cloak for some reason, and as I was pulled toward my destination, I felt as though I was being sucked through a drinking straw.

Suddenly I appeared in the store from the painting. Apparently, the painting was as factual as a photograph because all the people there looked pretty damned real. And they were all staring at me. Don’t move, my instinct told me. They could have weapons like the natives. Slowly, one by one, the people looked back to what they had been doing before. It’s as if a person who suddenly appears out of no where isn’t strange.

Then, the evil laughter started. I swear, it was so loud, you could hear it in China! Where was it coming from? Well, Dwayne the sorcerer of course, and when I looked up, I met his dark, cold eyes and he began to chant a ghastly spell from the top of Mt. Vesuvius, Luna by his side.
“In three feet of ash, you’ll all be covered up. May this ancient volcano, finally, erupt!” With that, the sorcerer raised one of his arms and ash soared out of the volcano. I screeched as loud as I ever had then, and I reached my hands up to cover my face. But the cloak must’ve had a mind of it’s own because my hands suddenly reached up towards the approaching ash instead, and started glowing bright orange. They continued to glow until they glowed so bright, it appeared as though the glow was covering the store in a kind of shell. Suddenly, the ash hit the shell and flowed over top of it. Wow, a force field, I thought. Cool!

Soon the ash stopped falling and the force field disappeared.
“WHAT!” screamed Dastardly Dwayne and he came sailing through the open skylight in the roof with my sister. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he flung Luna into a bunch of flour sacks and jumped at me. But before he could even lay a finger on me, the people in the building clobbered him and brought him to the ground, pinning him there like rugby players. Suddenly, Dwayne said something so quiet, no one heard it. In a flash of white light, the people flew off of Dwayne.
“Hah!” he screeched.
“We’ll handle him!” yelled some girls from the vegetable section of the store. Three of them started throwing broccoli at Dwayne.
“No!” screeched the sorcerer. “Broccoli is the only thing that makes me weak! NO! I’m shrinking!” When Dwayne was no bigger than a mouse, the girls stopped throwing broccoli and someone scooped Dwayne up in their hands.
“What shall we do with this demon, oh mighty one?” one of the people asked me.
“Uh, um. Do you have a jail?” I asked.
“Most certainly, mighty one.” answered the person.
“Then, um, lock him up for a few thousand years.” I replied.
“Excuse me,” said one of the bystanders. “I don’t mean to be rude, saviour, but isn’t that a bit harsh?”
“Perhaps only 100 years then?” inquired Luna.
“100 years then!” I exclaimed and rushed over to my sister as Dwayne was taken away.
“Oh, Anonette! You can’t believe how happy I am to see you! But I was so scared and...” I put my finger over Luna’s mouth.
“Can we go home first?” I moaned. Luna laughed and nodded. With a smile, I wrapped part of the cloak around her shoulder, so we were both in the cloak together.
“Home!” I said and we both began to drift back into the present.

I woke up to find my sister huddled next to me, part of the cloak draped around her shoulders. Just like in the dream. Creepy!