The Dollhouse

Teresa woke up happy on Thursday, September 25, 2030. She turned on music, got

ready for the day, and went downstairs to eat breakfast. Her husband was already in the kitchen cooking scrambled eggs and bacon. 

“Good morning Allan.” Teresa said as she smiled then kissed him on the cheek. “Thanks for making breakfast, you're such a doll.”

“Anything for my family” Allan said with a kind smile as he dished up the food. 

“Are the kids up yet?” Teresa asked.

“I've heard them but I haven't seen them yet.”

“Okay. I'll go get them. Chelsea! Stacie!” she shouted towards her daughter’s bedrooms and started walking that way. Stacie came out of her room with her school bag almost as big as she was, gave her mom a big hug, then continued towards the kitchen. Teresa went to Chelsea’s door and knocked. “Breakfast is ready, Chel. Dad made it.”

“Okay, I’ll be right there, I’m just finishing my hair real quick.” Chelsea’s muffled voice responded.

Teresa walked back to the kitchen and sat down at the counter next to Stacie, where Allan had put a plate for her. “Thanks hon, this is delicious.” she said after eating a few bites. “Come sit down with us and eat. Chelsea can serve herself when she comes.”

“You're right. Gosh she's getting so old. I remember when she was Stacie’s age. Just a cute little 5 year old.”

“Hey I’m not little!” Stacie said with a pout.

“Oh sorry Stacie, you're not little. You're very big. Your sister is just getting huge!” Then after a second Allan leaned towards Stacie and quietly said, “Can I ask you a favor?” 

Stacie leaned in too with a look of excitement in her eyes. She nodded eagerly. Then Allan said, “can you stay this young forever? Don't grow up and be 12 years old like your sister is. Can you do that for me?” he said with a lighthearted tone and a smile.

Stacie just giggled and said “no, I wanna grow up!”

“Ahh okay fine, you can grow up.” Allan said as he tickled Stacie. Teresa looked at the two of them and smiled. She had such a wonderful family. At that moment Chelsea walked in with their dog Honey following happily behind her, and Teresa smiled even wider. They all ate their breakfast while talking and laughing, and Teresa could not be more grateful for her life. She felt like they were living in a dollhouse- everything they needed was in one place, and it was perfect. Eventually they all got up, finished getting ready, and Teresa went to work while Allan dropped the kids off at school.

Work that day was nothing special. Teresa sat at her desk in her little office, and worked until lunch break. She didn't hate the work she was doing, but she wished she could be doing something else. She would rather be a fashion designer, as silly as it seemed in her head. It's what she had always wanted to do. She grabbed a salad from a restaurant across the street, and took it back to the break room of her office floor. She turned the tv on and watched the news with a couple of coworkers of hers. Then, her coworkers needed to go back to work, so she was alone in the break room. All of a sudden the news went from talking about a man who rescued a puppy from a flooding house to the news anchor on screen with alert signs everywhere. “I’m coming to you live from Boston, Massachusetts. There have been multiple reports across the country of light beams coming from the sky and absorbing people into them. The source of these beams is unknown, as is the status of the disappearing people. Authorities are advising everyone to stay inside, and secure houses and buildings in every way they can.” The anchor kept talking about curtains and locks, but it was drowned out in Teresa’s mind by fear and confusion. This was something out of a movie, not real life. This had to be a prank. Or a joke, or misunderstanding, or dream.

Teresa got up and walked out of the break room, but she couldn't see anyone else in the building. She went to her friend’s office but they weren't there. No one was there. She looked out the window and didn't see anyone on the streets. She thought maybe they all went inside like the news asked them to. But how would they all hear about this and clear out so quickly? She convinced herself she was dreaming, and went outside against her better judgement. She needed to find someone. As she walked out she called her husband, but he didn't pick up. Then she called her daughters’ schools, but they didn't pick up either. She started running to her car, looking for any sign of people along the way. She drove to Stacie’s school first, but it was completely empty. There were still cars in the parking lot, toys out on the playground, and crayons laying on small desks in the classrooms. Then, crying with dreadful fear, she drove to Chelsea's school and it was the same thing. Books out on desks, basketballs strewn all over the gym. She needed to go check her husband’s office, but she was shaking so badly she could hardly keep the wheel steady. As she got closer to the city, there were cars in the middle of the road, most of them crashed together in intersections. Still, there was no one around. She got to a point where it was impossible to drive with all the cars in the road, so she got out and walked. In 20 minutes of walking, she did not see one single person. She passed by a store with a tv in it, and the news channel was on, but the anchor was gone. It was just a blank screen with a fake backdrop and flashing red lights. Teresa looked around her in confusion and panic. What was happening? Why was no one here, and was she still here? Where were her kids? Where was her husband? That morning she had been perfectly happy, and now her whole life was destroyed. For all she knew, she was the last person on Earth. She got to her husband's office and when there was no one there she wasn’t even surprised. She walked home, weaving through abandoned scooters, dropped phones, and empty cars. She saw a couple of stray cats along the way, so she assumed animals for some reason were not gone.

Once she got home, she stayed there for a couple of days, keeping the tv on the news channels, and looking on her phone for any updates from anyone. But nothing came. There was no sign of any human activity after 1:18pm on the 25th of September. She really was the last human on Earth. At least she had her dog Honey to keep her company. She mostly grieved, but also did some things to make sure she could survive. She got food from grocery stores and bought books on how to repair household things, just in case anything ever broke down. She realized she could just move to a different house if she needed to, but that house was the last place her and her family were all together, and she wanted to stay there. For a couple of years she lived alone with Honey, and she lived life because she didn't know what else to do. She found as many animals as she could and took care of them all so they wouldn't be alone, and they helped her not be alone either. She also started doing whatever she wanted. She ate whatever she wanted, including lots of candy and ice cream, and stayed up late. She played music as loudly as she wanted, and wore comfy clothes instead of fashionable ones. She even…

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“Claire! Are you upstairs? We need to get going soon.”

“Ya i'm in my room! I want to keep playing with my dolls though!”

“One second honey I can't hear you; I'll come upstairs.” Beth found her daughter in her room, with her toys all over the place. The Ken doll and the little girls, Beth never could remember their names, were shoved into a corner. Barbie and the dog were in the DreamHouse. “Well this looks fun,” Beth said. “What's going on?”

Claire smiled at her mom, and started explaining it. “Well when Kate came over for our playdate yesterday we pretended the whole world disappeared but the pets. But I thought the pets would get lonely without a person, so I’m doing it my way today so Barbie is there with all the animals.”

“Well that's very thoughtful of you. What happened to Ken and the other dolls?” Beth asked and pointed to the pile of other dolls in the corner.

“They would all fit in the dollhouse. There are too many animals. So I pretended they disappeared. But I pretended his name is Allan and they are Chelsea and Stacie.”

“I see. Well we have to go to the store after your soccer game, so how about if we get going now we can buy another little house for your dolls so they can all be together?” 

Claire’s face lit up. “Really? Thanks mom!” She got up and got ready very quickly, and they left to go to her game. After the game they went to the store for groceries, and also picked up a small dollhouse. They brought it back to their house and set it up. Claire put all the animals into the small house, and all the Barbie dolls could go in the big DreamHouse together again.

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After two years of being the only person left on Earth, everything in Teresa’s life changed again. In one second her husband and two daughters came back into her life, reappearing from thin air. Teresa ran to them and hugged them, with joy and gratitude. She had no idea what had happened, no idea where they had been, and no idea why they came back. But she didn't care about any of that, because she had them all in her arms.

“Mommy!” Stacie exclaimed and hugged Teresa. At the same time, Chelsea smiled, yelled “Mom!” and hugged her. Allan went over and hugged Teresa and gave her a kiss. 

“What happened to you guys? Where did you go?” Teresa asked her husband.

“I dont know.” Allan had a far off look in his eye. “I just remember everything was giant..”

“Well all that matters is you're here now” said Teresa, not really understanding what he meant by that, but also not caring enough in the moment to do anything but hug her beautiful family. Later that day, they all went outside, and saw that everyone had returned. The news was back on, houses were full, pets had owners again. The city, and the rest of the world, was a mess, but people worked together to clean it up pretty quickly. Soon everything was right again in the world, and Teresa even had a small house built for all the animals she had taken care of. Teresa ended up becoming a fashion designer, because after two years of being the only person left on Earth, she had a new perspective on what really matters in life, and that did not include corporate banking.