Pet Peeve

I smiled and stretched. Day one of working from home has officially begun! I quickly got ready for the day and started cooking breakfast. My dog, Shelby, ran around me in excited little circles. 

“Haha, calm it Shelby!”  I laughed, and she wagged her tail excitedly. I flipped the pancake I’d been frying onto a clean plate. Unfortunately, it slid off the plate. Before it hit the floor, Shelby snatched it up and devoured it. I laughed softly, reached down, and patted her head. 

“Ugh, what time is it?” I looked at the kitchen entrance, and my brother, Joseph, stumbled in. He immediately tripped over Shelby, who had run to greet him, and fell flat on his face. I laughed at him and took a picture with my phone, then went back to making pancakes. 

After lying on the floor for at least twenty minutes, he finally got up and sat down at the dining table. I’d already cooked twenty pancakes by then, and they were all stacked in a neat tower. He grabbed the one on the top of the stack and shoved into his mouth. I glared at him. 

“Manners, Joseph.” I said, then slapped the top of his head. He rolled his eyes at me. 

“You’re not my mom, Am-” Joseph muttered, then caught himself. Our mom was always a sensitive topic. After she and our little sister had disappeared years ago… We had both agreed not to talk about it. He glanced at me, and offered him a small smile as if telling him, It’s okay. He gave a small sigh of relief and continued shoving pancakes into his mouth. I rolled my eyes, and ate with him. 

Once we finished breakfast, Joseph left to go play basketball in the driveway. After we’d installed the basketball hoop, Joseph would always be seen outside playing basketball. After all, what else was there to do? Since we were all stuck at home, we had to find some way to fill our time. I decided to fill my time with writing, video games, and other things. Joseph and I both had part-time jobs; he was an assistant basketball coach, I was a grocery store employee. I still had to go to my job, but only twice a week. Joseph, on the other hand, had been let off and didn’t really do much all day. 

Shelby yipped at me, and I looked down at her. She ran in a circle, then looked back at me. This was her signal that she wanted to play. I smiled, then let her outside and followed her out. 

Later, I sat down on my bed. I opened my computer and selected “New Document”. I stretched and started writing.However, I wasn’t able to write for long. Shelby rushed into my room, and jumped onto my lap. Well, at least she tried to. Instead of landing on my lap, and landed on my keyboard, making me write: 

 Cbr fbh,mfgdjvjg78 deer

“Shelby!” I cried in surprise, then laughed.  I petted her for a while, then lifted her off of my computer and went back to writing. 

A few days later, my schedule had morphed into something like this: First, I would get ready for the day by dressing, going to the bathroom, eating, you get the gist. Then, I would sit in my room , or outside if the weather was nice, and continue writing my upcoming novel. It didn’t really have a name, but I’d written 20 pages in it, so that was a start.

 However, every day when I tried to do some work, Shelby would always come and interrupt me. One day it was because there was a Really Interesting Stick in the backyard. Then, it was because a squirrel was in our front yard. After that, it was a leaf that was being blown about by the wind. And then it was another squirrel running across the yard. And-well, the list goes on. 

Then came the days where I had to go to work. Thankfully, our manager knew how bad the situation was and made sure that we were only there for a few hours at most. We also wore really uncomfortable masks and gloves, but I knew they were for our protection. 

When I came back home from work, I would always almost immediately go back to writing. While I was writing, Shelby ran in with a rectangle-shaped object in her mouth. She dropped it at my feet, and I leaned down to try and figure out what it was. 

It was covered in a plastic cover, but there was so much dog slobber on it, that I couldn’t see what was inside of the cover. I slowly picked it up with two fingers, then rushed to the bathroom and rinsed all of the dog drool off the… I looked more closely at it. 

It was a picture, and an old one to be sure. The picture depicted a happy family in a backyard. Everybody was wearing short sleeved shirts and shorts, so it was presumably summer. A man was standing in the background, cooking at a grill. That man was my dad, years prior. Now, he was stuck in Florida because of the lockdown, and called me and Joseph twenty times an hour, at least. Speaking of Joseph….

There was a blurred image of...something in the photo. Even though it was just a blur, I knew there was only one person who would run around while a photo was being taken. Especially if he had knowledge of the photo being taken. 

There was also a girl sitting on the far left of the picture. She was reading a giant book, and had a small smile on her face. That would be me. I was always a giant book worm, and would always be seen with a book in hand. Then, there were the two people in the very center of the picture. 

Sitting there was a woman and a little girl. My mom, and my little sister, Josie. They were in matching outfits: a fishtail braid, a yellow dress, and pink tinted sunglasses. They both looked so happy…. 

Would they still be happy if they knew that was the day they would disappear?

I sighed, then slipped the photo into my pocket.  I trudged out of the bathroom and went back to work. 

After being interrupted by Shelby multiple times throughout the day (for example:she came in and dropped a stick on my lap, then came in holding a still-somehow-alive squirrel), I’d finally had enough. I shut the door close so she couldn’t get into my room. I didn’t know why I hadn’t thought of that before. Almost immediately after, I heard someone scratching at my door. I knew it was going to be Shelby. So, I just ignored her. 

5 minutes later, she was still scratching at the door. I sighed, then opened the door. She ran around my feet excitedly, then ran away. I closed the door again, but just as I did , she ran back to me and wedged her body into the opening of the door. 

“Shelby, no!” I cried, and swung open the door. Thankfully, she didn’t get hurt, and just ran away again. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and ran after her.

I walked outside, following Shelby. She ran to something, then stopped, wagging her tail excitedly. When I drew close enough, I could tell what- no, who Shelby had been leading me to. 

A girl of about 10 sat in the middle of my backyard. She wore a tattered, too-small yellow dress  and her hair was in a really messy braid. She was extremely dirty, with mud smeared along her legs, arms, and face. She also looked like she hadn’t had a decent meal in days, with hollow eyes, and a terribly thin body. Despite all of that, I could still recognize the little girl in front of me. 

I stood there in shock for some time, then whispered, 

“Josie..?”