Bleary-eyed, I went downstairs for breakfast. The house was empty, even the furniture had gone…

Story 1.

“Go to your room NOW!” my father shouted, and I furiously ran back into my room.  It was a long night, and I, cloaked in anger, went to sleep in the stormy, late night.

I woke up, thinking of our conversation last night. But I went downstairs for breakfast, the house was empty, even the furniture had gone. I went to check on my parent’s room, but everything was gone.  I frowned, as my heart beat faster and faster, repeating words like where did they go? and what am I going to do?

I sat down in the middle of the living room floor where the couch used to be. There had to be some sort of explanation. After a few minutes of sitting there with my head in my hands, I jumped to my feet. The next-door neighbors had to have seen something!

Hastily tying my sneakers, I rushed out the door and across the lawn to the Cramers’ house. Taking a deep breath, I knocked on their front door. 

Mrs. Cramer answered. “Why, hi, Isaac! To what do I owe this surprise?”

I paused. “Did you hear or see anything strange happening last night at my house?”

Mrs. Cramer frowned. “No, I don’t think so. Just as quiet as every other night! Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, just asking, thank you!” I rushed off, leaving a confused Mrs. Cramer at the door. 

The conversations with the next three neighbors were much the same. Each had not heard a peep last night, and none mentioned seeing my parents or seeing furniture being loaded out of the house. This makes no sense! How did everything disappear, without a noise, without a trace? 

Frowning, I picked up my phone and called the police. To my dismay, however, they didn’t believe me. “Stop lying kid, we are police, we don’t take pranks!” said the angry officer on the other line. 

I was starting to lose hope that I would ever see my parents again. No one was offering any clues or help to find them, and I had no idea where to even begin searching for them. Desperate and confused, I ran off into the woods and decided to keep running until I reached the peaks beyond the trees. I didn’t know what I was going to do when I got there, but I just wanted to be as far from my house as possible. 

As I approached the base of the mountain, I saw out of the corner of my eye a flash of movement. Standing there was a short, stout man with a long white beard, shrouded in old rags. He stared at me warily, as if I would hurt him. 

“Hi,” I called out hesitantly, hoping he would realize that I’m just a kid. 

“Hello,” he said, with the same look of suspicion on his face. 

It was a long shot, but I decided to ask if he knew anything about my parents. What’s there to lose? “I need help - my parents disappeared last night and I don’t know where to find them.”

The old man stared out at me with sympathy this time. “Ah, you haven’t discovered your true self yet I see.”

I frowned. “My true self?”

“Boy, you have the answers you seek. Your parents did not disappear, you made them disappear.”

My heart skipped a beat. What was this crazy old man saying? I didn’t make them disappear. 

And then it started coming back to me. The argument, the storm, the anger I was feeling. My dad’s face as he sent me up to my room. I remember going up to my room, shaking with anger, and then I thought I had gone to sleep but that wasn’t true. I had flashes of memory of my dad’s face wrought with shock, of my mom yelling at me to stop what I was doing. And then the next thing I remember is waking up in a house without parents or furniture. 

He was right. It was me, and this had happened before. Whenever I reach that level of anger, something bad always happens.  My head started to hurt, and all I can think of now is anger and confusion, and then everything turned black.

Story 2.

Bleary-eyed, I went downstairs for breakfast. The house was empty, even the furniture had gone…  

I stood still in shock, repeating to myself “this is a dream”, and “what is happening?”.  There was no way they’d all get up and leave on the morning of my birthday. I was sure that yesterday, everything was normal, and the furniture was all here. My mind was racing. Did I forget that we were moving houses today? 

“Mom?” I called out. “Dad?” The house was as quiet as a graveyard.  

I tried to recall the events of last night. Everything went perfectly normal -- I had come back from school, had dinner with my family, then went upstairs to my room to do my schoolwork. My parents did seem a bit quieter than their usual boisterous selves, but I didn’t really think it meant anything. Could it be possible that they had abandoned me?

My mind was filled with confusion, and so I decided to take a walk in the garden to clear my mind and help me think.  I walked towards the waterfall, and found a shiny silver-coloured metal note on the floor.  This was the material my mother used to write important card messages!  So I picked it up and it said:  baseball.  The moment I saw the word “baseball” I knew exactly what it meant.  

Baseball was my father’s favourite sport, so I ran to the town baseball court and found another silver note.  This note had the word “trampoline” etched on it.  Then I remembered that our city has a famous trampoline park, so I went to the trampoline park and found myself in a dark room.  

Suddenly,  the room lit up and confetti popped out of nowhere.  All my friends came out from the sides of the rooms and shouted “Happy Birthday!”.  Now everything started to make sense — today was my birthday! My parents and friends knew that my hobby is to solve mysteries, so they set up this event for me to celebrate. I laughed as I blew out the candles. No other birthday surprise was ever going to beat this.