Chapter 2--A Lone Star In Texas

 

The Dimension of Earth

 

            It was a cloudy Tuesday afternoon in the city of Arlington, Texas, but it was hot, and there was only a slight breeze. It was the 6^th of August and the leaves had not yet changed, but already some of the green leaves had fallen to be blown about in the streets by the gentle breeze. 

Today was one of those lazy afternoons. A few people were out in their yards, watering gardens and the yellowing grass of their lawns, while others sat on their porches, watching the cool water that poured from their neighbors’ hoses longingly as they awaited the return of their children.

            The school bus came, rolling slowly down each road and stopping every now and then to deposit its passengers at their designated spots. It turned the corner, started down a new block, and dropped off two children. 

Then, it passed by an elderly man who was mowing his lawn shirtless, and finally stopped in front of a white house with chipping paint and a black roof. 

As its yellow doors folded back, a teenage girl stepped out and made her way to the house.

            Her name was Meridith McCarthy, and she was the average 14-year-old girl. 

She wore a blue t-shirt with red lettering across it that pronounced her a student at “Shackleford,” a local Junior High School. The bottom of the shirt disappeared at her waist, hidden under the gray sweatshirt she kept tied there. Below the sweatshirt, blue jeans stretched down, covering her legs and most of her white tennis shoes.

            The sun peeked out above, reflecting the highlights in her dark brown, curly hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail with a large gray hair-tie, more out of an insecurity involving her hair than in an attempt the keep it out of her eyes. 

Those brown eyes were dimmed with boredom as she walked across the lawn to her house, but they brightened at the prospect of food as she gripped the doorknob and turned it, her stomach giving an audible growl. 

Her front door had no lock, so she had no need for a key. She quickly opened the door and stepped inside her house, closing the door behind her.

 

Meridith looked around the living room quickly, before yelling in the high-pitched, but deepening voice of a maturing young woman, “I’m ho-o-ome.”

 

            She tossed her backpack onto the large, ovular table to the right of the door and started walking for the kitchen, musing aloud that her parents must still be at work. 

Halfway there, she stopped, though, remembering in her musings that she had paperwork for her parents to sign. She turned and walked back to the table, unzipping her backpack, pulling out the stack of school papers, and setting them on the table beside her backpack so she wouldn’t forget them later. 

Only then did she finally walk back through the living room to the kitchen. Once there, she headed straight for the refrigerator, opened the door, and then glanced quickly over its contents out of habit before shutting it and looking around the kitchen.

 

“I’m in a fruit mood,” she murmured quietly as her eyes settled on an apple lying atop the island counter in the center of the kitchen.

 

She quickly strode over and grabbed it, rubbing it on her jeans before holding it to her lips for a moment and silently reflecting on how boring the day had been before she finally sighed and took a bite.

 

            Meridith suddenly glimpsed the curtains around the window beside the fridge as they ruffled for a moment, as if moved by a breeze; but the window was, to all appearances, closed. She frowned for a moment, but then jumped and looked around when a whispered voice reached her ears.

 

“Help me save my forest.”

 

Meridith wondered briefly if the television had been on when she came in, but a quick peek into the living room confirmed that it was not. She moved back into the kitchen, looking around the island counter for the source of the voice. 

Then, her head pulsed in pain and she clutched it with one hand, her other still holding onto the apple tightly; she stumbled forward towards the window as the voice came again, this time more urgent.

 

“Help me!”

 

Even though it was louder this time, she couldn’t tell who or where the person was that had uttered the words, or even what gender they were. 

Those thoughts soon left her mind as the usually faint light that shone through the window now became brighter by the second, the curtains around it billowing wildly.

 

“What the…” she uttered, squinting her eyes against the light and stepping forward as if drawn to it. “Help…”she mumbled to herself. “Somebody needs help?”

 

            If anyone else had actually been there, they would have seen a glowing, circular hole opening up in the floor mere inches in front of Meridith’s feet, but Meridith did not. 

She continued to move forward, trying to find the cause of the unnatural light and wind before her. When her feet suddenly met no surface, she had only a moment to register surprise before she was rapidly pulled down into the hole, which promptly sealed itself behind her.

 

            Once the portal closed—for that is what it was—the light in the window dimmed back to normal, and the curtains fluttered back into place. The sound of the front door opening and closing could be heard as Meridith’s mother came home from work.

 

“I’m home,” she called, looking at the backpack and papers lying on the table beside her. “Meridith?” She stood there, waiting for a moment, and then shrugged her shoulders upon receiving no answer.

 

“She must have gone to a friend’s house,” she mused aloud, before setting down her purse and heading into the kitchen herself. There was no evidence there to suggest that anything at all had gone amiss.

Author's Note

Intro Meridith. She's actually based on an old friend of mine, same name and everything. (I'm getting really annoyed with the posting format. I can't figure it out.)