002: Flipped on its Head II

My house isn't located all that far from the school, so we arrived home withing ten minutes.

"What took you guys so long? I had a perfect plan, and you ruined it."

My mom said to us.

My mom is an absolutely wonderful woman, but like everyone, she is not without her faults.

She's a perfectionist.

If things don't go according to her plan, then she'll flip out.

"Hurry up and go get your stuff ready, Dad already got our stuff packed up."

Zephyros and Medusa sprinted to their rooms and began to pack.

"Wait, what exactly are we doing?"

I asked my mom.

"You don't remember?"

She replied.

"We agreed last week that we would go camping together for a family weekend."

Oh yeah.

I forgot about that.

Not because I didn't care, it was because…

Well…

Yeah, I guess I didn't really care.

"Now hurry up and pack, your father and I are waiting for you."

She said while pushing me towards my room.

My dad was sitting on the couch waiting.

He seemed out of it.

His focus was elsewhere.

My dad spaces out more than your average person.

He's always thinking of new ideas, and his brain is always working.

Sadly, sometimes his brain is working so much that he neglects to realize what is happening in reality.

Together with my mom they make one incredible duo.

My dad comes up with the ideas, and my mom sees them to a perfect completion.

Their roles complement one another perfectly.

That's exactly why they are so successful.

I eventually gave in to my mom's pushing and went to pack my stuff.

With a little bit of force and loads of struggle, we packed all of our things into one giant backpack.

It weighed more than me.

My parents opened the door and we hurried outside.

"Here, Yuhven, you should take the bag."

Zephyros said as he pushed the bag in my direction.

"HELL NO! You're much stronger than I am, you should take it."

I replied while pushing it back towards him.

"Come on, it'll be good training on your body."

He shoved it back to me.

"But wouldn't you need more training than me?"

I shoved it back to him.

"Come now, I'm your elder. If I have to carry something that heavy my back might break from the pressure. I'm not young enough to carry it anymore."

The bag came back to me.

"But you're only a year older than me."

"So, who's taking the bag?"

My mom called out to us.

"We're working on it."

I replied.

"Both of you shut up."

Medusa said to us gloomily.

"Zephyros took the bags last time, the time before that, and the time before that. Maybe you ought to take it this time, Yuhven."

She finished as she walked past us.

Zephyros flashed me a snarky wink.

*GROAN*

"Whatever, I'll take it."

I said.

I threw it over my shoulders and almost collapsed under its weight.

Our car was parked a few blocks away, so we had to walk for a little bit.

The bag heavily weighed me down, but I pushed forward nonetheless.

Eventually, we were just across the street from where our car was parked.

The city was quiet, almost nothing was going on.

Besides us, there was only one other person waiting to cross the street.

It was an old lady.

She was hunched forward, and without a cane, she seemed like she might topple over any second.

My family didn't notice she was there.

Being the wonderful gentleman I am, I approached her to ask for help.

"Would you like me to help you across?"

I asked her.

"Oh yes, dearie, that would be a great help."

She responded joyfully.

She seemed like a very sweet old lady.

She was carrying a purse with her, so I offered to carry it across the street for her.

She responded by handing me the purse and grabbing onto my arm.

When it was time to cross, my family went on ahead without me.

In fact, they didn't even notice that I was helping the old lady.

I expected my dad to miss it.

He was probably thinking about the best way to integrate cheese into the cereal business, or something stupid like that.

Zephyros isn't the most aware person out there, so he might have also missed me.

But my mom, she's extremely aware of the world around her.

How did she miss it?

And Medusa, she always knows what's happening, yet she too didn't notice.

"Thank you sweetie, I don't know what I would do without you."

The old lady said to me.

"Don't sweat it."

I replied.

"But do be careful sweetie, that purse has a lot of things in it and I would hate for any of them to fall out."

*chuckle*

I gazed down at the bag, and my entire world imploded on itself.

The heavy backpack?

Gone.

The old lady?

Gone.

The only thing running through my head at that moment was the name sprawled across her purse.

"Libert"

That's my last name.

But that's not possible.

I know all my relatives, and I've searched it up on the internet, but no one besides our family has that last name.

So could she be a long lost relative of mine?

No.

That's not possible.

There's no way.

We approached the end of the crosswalk, but so many questions still circled through my head.

Who is she?

Why is she here?

What is her connection to me?

What the fuck is happening?

I'm too confused.

I can't think straight.

We stepped onto the sidewalk.

"Thank you, sweetie, that was a great help."

She gratefully said to me.

I wasn't listening.

My eyes and mind were focused on the name written across her bag.

"Sweetie?"

I heard her that time.

I whipped around to face her.

As I did so, a ball of red string fell out of her bag.

"Sorry about that, I was spacing out a bit."

I said to her.

"Oh don't worry about it sweetie."

I returned the bag to her and knelt down to pick up the ball of red string.

It was soft in my hands.

It felt so familiar.

As if I had seen it every day of my life.

"Here you go…"

I said as I stood back up again.

She was gone.

The old lady disappeared.

She couldn't have gone far, yet I didn't see her anywhere.

Then her voice rang in my head.

"Follow the red string, it will guide you."

Her voice said in the back of my head.

What the hell?

What's happening?

I looked down at the red string to make sure I didn't make it all up in my head.

The red string was in fact in my hand, but it didn't stay there for long.

It dissolved into my right hand, like foam when put into water.

Within seconds, it disappeared.

My eyes widened with fear and questions.

WHAT THE FUCK?!

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

WHAT IS THIS?!

I began to hyperventilate.

My body and mind just couldn't calm down.

IS THIS RED STRING SIMILAR TO THAT-…?

"Yuhven, hurry up."

My mom called me.

They were waiting for me by the car, and I was delaying them.

"DID YOU NOT SEE THAT?!"

I screamed at her.

"See what?"

With those simple words, my world returned to normal.

My breathing calmed to a steady deep repetition of breaths.

My mind became stable once again.

It became clear to me that it all must have been a dream.

"Never mind."

I replied.

I caught up to my family and we set off on our adventure, but I would never forget that occurrence, for that was the catalyst that sent my life spiraling out of control.