Tessa

• Romana Sutherland, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2016

The cold. The first thing Tessa noticed was the cold. She opened her eyes and saw a classic Central Park winter scene above her. Birds chirping as they flew back to their nests to avoid the cold, squirrels running around with armfuls of nuts, all the while snow coating trees and speckling her face with little white dots. She sat up, and let her eyes adjust to the light. She had to think for a little bit, but then she remembered. Tessa had been here with her parents, what was it, a few hours ago? She wasn’t entirely sure, but based on the position of the sun, she figured it was a good guess.
Tessa looked around. The park was eerily deserted, except for the wildlife. As she made her way out of the park, she realised what was so eerie about the situation. It was like the whole city was deserted. There was no sound of cars honking their horns, no sound of commuters and pedestrians making their way home after work, no sound at all.
Tessa walked back to her apartment, and when she reached it, she rang her mother. When it went to her Mum’s message bank, Tessa started to panic. Okay, she’s probably doing something else right now, Tessa hoped, I’ll just call Dad. So, she did. When her father didn’t pick up either, Tessa went into panic overdrive. WHAT WAS GOING ON!? She tried calling all of her friends, but none of them picked up. Tessa just managed to stumble to the couch before she passed out.
Tessa woke up, again, in a deserted Central Park, again. What the...? She rolled over and buried her face in the snow. Once again, she stood up and walked to her apartment. This time she went straight to the bathroom, rather than the phone. Tessa splashed water on her face, and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was auburn, on the verge of chocolate brown, and was tumbling down to her shoulders in a mass of curls from under a light purple, hand knitted beanie. Her freckle spotted nose sat ever so slightly off centre to the left, under her big brown, innocent looking eyes. People had always told Tessa that she had a pretty face, but she had not believed it until that moment. As she made her way out to the lounge room, Tessa wondered why she had ended up back in Central Park. After some thought, Tessa concluded that she had either gone crazy or had been sucked through a portal into another dimension. So, basically, she had gone crazy. She plonked down on the couch, and had a sudden sensation of falling. Wait. She was falling! Falling through the apartment building! Tessa screamed as she fell to her doom.
Scream was the only thing Tessa could do as she abruptly sat up in her bed at two am in the morning. Just a dream, Tessa thought, just a dream.