Twice the Fun-Part 16

Ariana H. King 

 When I opened the door, the first thing I saw was our front yard. The newly trampled tulips, trampled probably one hour or so ago by multiple sets of feet-probably chasing Lila(our dog)through the yard. They pretty much did that everyday...

 I just knew I was going to be in so much trouble. Not coming home after school for 4 hours-big grounding. But I still stepped onto the front porch-my front porch-anyway. I wonder if they had walked into the world too, if they had seen the river, if they had seen the vegetable garden, if they-

 "Air?" I heard. I look to see who said that, even though I already know. I turn to my left, and on the swing set is Mia, Scott, and my older sister, Janie. Well, Janie wasn't on the swing set, but she was pushing Mia in the baby swing. Mia was giggling. Scott was looking at me. Janie was too.

 "Um, yeah?" I said to Janie.

 "Where's Roar? And you've been gone for two hours. How were you in the house? We looked everywhere for you. The door was unlocked when we got home, so we thought you were here. But we couldn't find you. Dad told me to come out here with Mia to watch for you guys." Janie said really fast. She always talked fast when she was confused. Weird, right?

 "I came with Janie and Mia." Scott said. Scott was only 7, so he got proud of stuff a lot. Like when he won a stuffed animal at the fair that year because he popped a balloon, he wouldn't stop talking about it. Finally, Mom said that if she heard him talk about it again, she would take the animal away.

 "Nobody cares, Scott." snapped Janie.

Then I noticed something. "We were only gone for two hours?"

 Janie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, duh. How long did you think you were gone for? Two days?"

 I always liked to say that Roar got her sarcastic way of words from Janie. After all, Janie was older than us by 3 years-making her 15.

I just ignored her, like I always do. If we really were gone for two hours, but were actually gone for four, that means that there is a time difference between the two places. So, one hour here is two hours there. Well, you don't need to love math to figure that one out...