Lost Again

• Abbi Higgins, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2022

I sit on the soft green grass watching the sun slowly disappear. I feel the same as always, but
today also feels different. It was a nice different. The birds chirped and sang, for the first time in
ages, it felt calming. A calming feeling I haven’t felt in years.
I watch as a plane moves in front of the sun causing a shadow upon me. I glance up at the
clouds as I lay on my back to watch them go by. Magnificent. I pull my sketch book out and sit
back up. Sketching the view before I lost it.
While sketching a leaf fell onto my book. It had a heart shape missing from it. I pull out a piece
of paper and fold it up to place the leaf into it. As I place the leaf down next to me, I feel a
presence come up from behind me.
“Hey,”
It’s him.
“I thought-” Before I could finish, he hugs me. I feel my heart drop with the sound of his voice.
“I’m here now,” he says.
He’s supposed to be gone?
“How are you even here?” I ask, shaking a little bit.
“Don’t worry about it, alright,” he smiles while saying it.
As I place my book down I turn around and look over his shoulder. All I can see is clouds.
“Wait a second,” I pause looking around, “Are we in the sky?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that if we were standing on solid ground but around us is sky, so. Yes”
This feels like a dream. But it doesn’t matter right now. I look back at his face admiring it, since
the last time I saw his face was in his casket.
I let go and sit back down to continue drawing as he sits down behind me, looking over my
shoulder. I reach behind me to touch his hair but to my surprise I can’t feel anything. I turn
around, he’s not there. I turn back and continue to draw thinking he climbed the tree because
we always used to do that as kids. Life without him was difficult but he’s back. Somehow and in
this somewhat of a universe.
I go to pull out my phone from my pocket but it’s not there. My pants have lost their pockets. I
look down at my pants, different to what I was wearing a couple of minutes ago. Now this is
getting weird. I look back at my sketchbook and then back at the tree. I hop up and head
towards the tree to go talk to my brother. Luckily enough, he is up there making something with
all of the leaves he’s holding. He sees me climbing up the tree and quickly hides it behind his back. I was about to jump up and look behind him but then I felt myself jolting up and I opened my eyes. I was back in bed, home. I had lost him, again.