Yearning For Yesterday

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

The five year old girl snuggled into her sleeping bag and watched the flames of the campfire make dancing shadows on the walls of her tent. She pulled out a book and began reading out loud slowly, sounding out the words she didn’t know. Soon she was enthralled in the book and, although tired, kept reading until she finished the very last sentence. The book fell from her hands and her eyes closed.
Voices sounded outside but she didn’t wake up. Harsh rain beat against the tent and the wind howled outside. She stirred and pulled the sleeping bag over her ears to block out the noise.
Six hours later, the storm stopped. The girl clambered out of her sleeping bag and unzipped the tent, yawning loudly. What she saw made her stop in her tracks. The undergrowth was trampled and ravaged and every last crumb of the food was gone. There was an air of stillness about the place. The dirty dishes and cutlery were still there, as if her parents had not had the chance to pack up. The fire was out, and in its place was a heap of smoky ash. It was a scene of devastation. But the worst was yet to come. As she crawled into her parent’s tent to inform them of the state of their campsite, she discovered something that was to change her life forever. The two large sleeping bags were empty. It looked as if there had been a struggle. Every last piece of the luggage was gone, except for one thing. Her mother had left a tube of lipstick. When the girl opened it, it contained not lipstick, but a hastily scribbled note. She read it slowly and painfully, and when she had finished, her eyes stung with salty tears.
Dear darling Theresa,
We are writing this note with tears in our eyes. We doubt we will ever see you again. Find a house; find somewhere to live. We love you.
Love
Your parents
The girl called Theresa cried and cried until she could cry no more. Yesterday she had had everything she could ever want; today all the life had been drained out of her.
Theresa stopped crying, pocketed the lipstick tube, and got ready to fulfil her parent’s last wish; starting the hunt that might bring about her demise, or perhaps start a new life, a lonely life without the two precious things that were her parents.
Theresa found herself yearning for yesterday.

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