The Lost Summer

• Jasmir Imran, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2022

The sunlight shined on my face, I opened my eyes and saw that my beach umbrella had been stolen by my little brothers. I sighed and covered my face with my arm. Then a big shadow covered me. It was Lily, a school friend of mine. She is nice and really kind; if I was honest, I like her. I told her thanks for giving me shade, but she instead threw sand on my face. It went in my mouth. I spat it out, it was so dry and crunchy. She then told me to follow her to the cave on the hill. I followed her until she started running. I started running too. That is until she went inside the cave, I stopped before it. A strange aura came off it. My heart told me not to go inside. But I couldn’t just leave Lily to be inside. So, without hesitation, I ran inside. As I ran deeper inside the cave, the darkness surrounded me until it was completely dark. I kept on running though, I knew that I would bump into Lily, but I never did. I couldn’t move my body. I woke up, I was in my bed, I looked around and saw that it was dark outside. I must have been dreaming, I got up and checked my phone, it was 10 in the morning. But why so dark outside, confused me? I headed downstairs, everyone was there, my brothers watching tv, my mum and dad having breakfast. I went over to them and just looked weirdly, what is wrong with everyone, who changed the time on my phone, and why is everyone still awake? My dad then noticed me and said that he was glad that I was awake and looking healthy. I asked him what was going on, and he responded, that the other day we were all at the cool-down park, enjoying the snow when I headed off to a cave on the hill, no one knew why I had gone in there, but the police found you unconscious in the cave. I looked at them in shock and then told them that I was following Lily. They both then looked at each other and then looked at me. That’s when they asked the question that broke me. ‘Whose Lily?’, I stepped back, had they forgotten who she is? No, they couldn’t have, Lily has been around since primary. Something was wrong. I took one more step when I noticed snow outside, why was it snowing, in the middle of Summer? I asked that question from Mum, and she responded, ‘Oh, Summer doesn’t exist anymore, looks like you forgot, honey’. I couldn’t believe it, I quickly ran out of the house, it was cold outside, and I was just wearing my pj’s. I ran and ran; I need to get back to that cave. I made it, I took one last breath, and ran inside.