A Lost Family

Charlie sat at his desk with a pencil in his hand writing a paper. There was a knock on the door, “Still working on that paper?” asked Charlie’s mom. Charlie nodded, still staring at his paper. “Well, you are welcome to come have dinner with your family. We are eating pizza tonight.” his mom said. “I have not even finished my math homework.” Charlie said quietly. “Sweetheart, you need to eat something. You need energy to work on your homework and It is not due until next week. It is only Friday.” his mom replied. “Fine, I will finish this part and then I will come down and eat.” Charlie said tiredly. His mom left the room while Charlie finished his paper.

 Once he was done, he slipped his paper into his backpack and hung his backpack around a chair. He left his room and climbed down the stairs. His family was not there, they probably just went for a walk he thought hopefully. He saw the pizza sitting on the counter and walked over to the box. He looked over at the table and saw the plates still out and had uneaten slices of pizza. Charlie had a thought again, didn’t they have dinner already? He had forgotten about the pizza and ran up the stairs. He dashed into his room and picked up his phone from off his bed. He dialed his parents phone number and called them. There was no answer so he called his friend, Ace, and told him what happened. 

“Well you can’t stay at your house because there is no one there and it is not safe. So pack for a week and bike to my house. You can stay for a while.” Ace said from the other end of the phone. “Okay I will see you later. Bye!” Charlie replied. Charlie grabbed a backpack and packed some clothes and other essentials. He grabbed his school backpack and brung his bags down the stairs. 

Charlie went out to the garage and dragged his wagon outside. Charlie went inside and picked up his bags. He saw a note on the counter, picked it up and started to read it. “Even though you can not see us, we are still in you.`” He read quietly. He was confused, stuffed the note into his backpack and brung his bags outside.

 He attached the wagon to his bike, put the bags in and rode his bike to Ace’s house. Once he arrived, Charlie parked his bike and took out his bags. Ace was already standing on the porch waiting for him. Ace came over and helped Charlie with his bags. Once they were inside, they brought Charlie’s bags to Ace’s room and Charlie pulled the note out of his bag. He showed it to Ace and he looked pretty confused. They thought they should sleep on it and discuss it in the morning. After Ace fell asleep, Charlie took out the note and read it over again. “It doesn’t make sense though.” He whispered. He heard Ace roll over. He fell asleep soon after.

Charlie had wolk up after Ace. He got dressed and went downstairs. Ace was sitting at the kitchen counter eating a plate of fresh hot pancakes. “Good Morning. Pancakes?” Ace asked tiredly. “Sure. Got any blueberry?” Charlie asked. “Um... Check the fridge. I think we have some leftover from yesterday. You can just microwave a few if there are some .” said Ace. “Okay.” replied Charlie. Charlie walked over to the fridge and opened it. He looked around the fridge, moving containers of food and finally found a stack of blueberry pancakes. It was a plate of three blueberry pancakes wrapped up in kitchen plastic wrap. He placed it on the counter and unwrapped the wrap. He placed the plate in the microwave and pushed the button that was labeled 1 minute. After the microwave was done, Charlie took the plate out of the microwave and poured some syrup on top. He grabbed a fork, sat down and started to eat. Ace’s face had formed into a sad expression.

 “You okay?” Charlie asked, stabbing his fork into a piece of a pancake. The fork had been covered in syrup. “My mom said that if we can’t find your parents after a week, we have to find you a place to stay.” Ace replied. “I will be okay. Even if we do not find my family.” Charlie said with his mouth full of pancake. “Wait… Why did I not think of this in the first place. Why don’t we just call the police? Maybe if we do they will find my family faster.” Ace brung his plate over to the sink and placed it in. Ace started to talk, “I don’t know. It could just make your problem worse. Maybe they were kidnapped, if you tell the police and the news leaks out to the neighborhood. The person who could have done it would hide even more than before because there will be police out to find him. Know what I mean?” Charlie nodded slightly, as Ace’s Mom walked into the kitchen. 

“Good morning!” She said while slipping a mug on to the coffee maker. “Hello, Mom.” Ace said. Charlie responded a little happier, “Good morning Mrs. Parker.” Mrs. Parker grabbed the cup of coffee and poured some milk into it. She pulled a spoon out of the drawer and placed it carefully next to her mug full of coffee. “Well, good morning to you too Charlie.” She said as she mixed the milk into the coffee using the spoon she had gotten out of the drawer. 

“I am going out to ride my bike, want to come Charlie?” Ace asked. Charlie replied quickly, not knowing what to say “Sure, I guess.” They ran outside and wheeled their bikes out of the garage as that Ace’s mom had brought in the night before. Charlie and Ace placed their helmets on and started riding down the street. The road had been even more rocky than his street. “I am going to the police station. Want to come?” Charlie asked. Ace replied a few minutes later after thinking about it. “No,  I am going to head home. I will let my mom know that you are… um…. At the park or at school... on a weekend… doing detention. No that won’t work. Anyway, I will see you later.” 

Ace had left, leaving Charlie 7 miles from the police station. I will never make it that long. 7 miles? That seems like a lot. He thought to himself. A few minutes later his tire to his bike blew and was unable to ride it. He reached into his pocket to take out his phone to see how far a bike repair shop was or even to call Ace to see if he could pick him up. All he felt was a silky piece of a part of his shorts. He had left his phone at Ace’s house.

He was stranded in the middle of nowhere with no phone, bike, or Ace. The police station was right up the road but when he walked in front of the building it was closed. He walked up to the door to see a note poorly taped to the front of the door. He peered inside and saw an abandoned place. He looked closely at the note and started to read. The police had moved even farther away. With no source of anything, he slumped down next to the building drowning in tears. It made sense to Charlie that his family left could mean they weren’t really his family.  “Where is my family? And is my family really my family?”

Hours later Ace, his mom, the police and his family drove a little past where Ace had left him. “There he is!” Ace shouted pointing to Charlie while looking at a police officer. Charlie looked up at the sound of Ace’s voice. He ran and hugged Ace and his mom, then ran over and hugged his family. “I missed you. I need to ask you a question though,” His mom nodded as well as his sister and dad. “Are you guys really my family?” Charlie finished.

 “Of course we are.” His dad replied. “Then what about the note. The one that was on the counter?” Charlie asked confused. “That was just a random idea for something.” His mom said. “Where were you?” Charlie asked. His dad replied moments later, “The question is, where were you?”