Lost in Time

The Johnson family were in their house playing a family game of shuffleboard. I wasn’t happy because I was losing by three points to his older brother, Mark. I had 121 points and Mark was still playing his round and he was at 124 points. My parents were sitting down in the living room waiting patiently for their turn. His younger sister was sitting on ]my mothers lap with 97 points on the board and Lucas tied with me in points with 121 lying on the couch sleeping with one eye open. 

Dad had a ding on his phone. And saw that they had a chance to win free tickets to cross the Atlantic ocean to the Netherlands. “Hey check this out, it says on this app that we can get free tickets to get to the Netherlands. I really want to meet up with my brother again. How about you guys?”

Mark finished his third turn with 130 points and walked over to dad to check out what just happened. “I’d love to see uncle Jack again and cousin Bill!” He said with excitement.

I jumped up, walked over, and said, “Uncle Jack gives me money whenever we come over!” I came over with enthusiasm “20 dollars was the most he gave me. Then I went to Dollarama and got packs of Reese’s pieces. They tasted so good.”

Lucas shot off the couch and cried “It’s 5:00 o’clock!”

“What’s so good about five o’clock?” Anna said in a squeal

“THe Winnipeg Jets are playing! I’m so excited about them getting back their new team! Blake Wheeler will crush Ottawa senators like a kid crushed an ant with his shoe!” Lucas said dramatically, saying: “CRUNCH CRUNCH!”

Mark said with a sad tone “it’s too bad the Oilers aren’t doing great right now, and at least the Jets aren’t either.”

“Anyway, what does it say about how we get the free tickets?” My mom asked with a curious tone.

“Well it says we only have to pay $20 to enter the contest, that’s cheap! .” My father answered

“Wow, how many tickets?” I asked

“It doesn’t have a number it just says “‘Family”’

“Does that mean if we win we can all go?” My little sister asked

“Yup”, said my Dad.

“So are we going to sign up?” I asked

“I don’t know, it sort of sounds like a scam” Mom said. “We should ask if other people are signing up first. We’ll do it tomorrow. I’m going to put Anna to bed.”

“But I’m not sleepy.” she exclaimed as she yawned

“Yes, you are, you goofball it’s 7:00 O’clock”

“Hehehe” Anna said then yawned immediately after. “But will you read me a story?”

“Only if you go super fast.”

Then she sprinted to the bathroom to go brush her teeth.

“As for you Mr. you need to head to bed in an hour if you want to talk or read a book or do devotions because we all know how long it takes you to get ready for bed” she winked. I laughed.

“I’m going to first grab a snack.” And I went to grab some cheese and crackers. My dad took his turn at shuffleboard and my sister called for help from the bathroom. I also asked my Mom for a cookie.Mom responded with a question of her own “Did you have one already today?”

I said no, so she told me that I could have one but that would be my last snack. I walked over to the cabinet and saw the box of chocolate bars. I widened my eyes acting like I was in a cartoon and then grabbed the cookie, looked back at the box, widened my eyes for a second time and then closed the door and thought “Hmmm maybe I can have a chocolate tomorrow.” Then I walked away with the cookie and came to my dad as he was finishing his turn and started eating my cookie and asked him, “How many points?” Mark answered in a grunt (at least that’s what I heard)

Then I asked again with a louder voice and he answered “115.”

I responded: “You don’t always have to be so mad.” I could tell he was angry with me with the glare he was giving me and pointing his finger at me and then sliding it across his neck.

“Yes!” My dad exclaimed “122 points!”

“No!” I cried in defeat “You beat Lucas and I!”

Mark smiled. It wasn’t the normal smile that you would see anyone else smile, it was a little creepy and made me want to crawl under my sheets and start to cry.

That night while everyone was in bed, I checked my clock and it said 10:00 o’clock. I heard footsteps. I covered myself with the sheets hoping Mark wouldn’t beat me up. I thought to myself “I should check if that’s Mark so that I don’t have to be afraid when I’m trying to sleep.” I climbed out of bed, over my sheets and walked to the door of my room into the hallway towards the beast’ and Lucas’ room. I saw Lucas sleeping and on the far side of the room, but there was no sign of Mark. My heart rate doubled when I saw a light turn on behind me. I raced to my parent’s room and crawled under their bed. This was smarter than running to my room because then my dad and mom could protect me. All of a sudden I saw another light turn on. I thought it was Mark so it felt like a person stabbed me through the chest. When I found out it was my dad’s phone I was relieved. After a while of laying down contemplating what I should do next I saw the offer on my Dad’s phone ding again and say 11:50pm and the app said we had 10 minutes to apply for the contest.. I clicked on it and thought to myself - 20 dollars to go to Holland? 20 dollars from Uncle Jack? Video games with cousin Bill and playing outside with the others? I saw a sticky note fall to the ground with my Dad’s passwords. My dad’s words of 20 dollars, and my mother’s words of it being a scam maybe rang through my head like the clanging of pots and pans. Eventually it came to me. I clicked on the buttons to enter the password and thought - “it’s only 20 dollars for so much fun” I clicked the last button, went to the app, clicked to pay 20 dollars and entered the password. I heard an alarm,then it said 12:00 O’clock The app closed and started shuffling votes. A minute later it said Picking votes then a second later it said YOU WIN AS WELL AS FOUR OTHER FAMILIES! My eyes grew wide, and the bed started to shake. It was my Mom getting up to go to the washroom. I got out from under the bed, ran across the hallway to my bedroom and saw my brother in the hall with his eyes closed? Wait a minute, he’s sleep walking. I walked over to him and started waving my hand in front of his face to see if he was really sleeping or not. Nothing happened, he’s sleeping! I started tickling his nose then pulled my hand away quickly as he slapped himself in the face. I let out a silent laugh and did it again while he was walking to my bedroom and I was walking backwards. He hit himself again. I was about to laugh until I heard my mom opening the door of the bathroom. I heard the click and a light went off. I ran into my bedroom under the sheets and acted like I was asleep. Eventually I did fall asleep rolling over into a comfortable position.

RING RING RING RING. Oh be quiet, I thought, as I slapped the clock. ‘What am I going to do today?’’ I thought to myself, ‘Hey, maybe I could play with the neighbours outside!’ I got out of my bed, got dressed into my Jets shirt and blue shorts. Then I thought to myself ‘Hey, how did the Jets do yesterday?’ I walked out of my room seeing my older brother lying on the couch and thought ‘Hmm I wonder how he got there? Whatever’ Then I walked over to the kitchen and saw that my Mom was making pancakes “Yes you’re making pancakes!” I exclaimed then my dad walked into the room I asked him “Hey can you check how the Jets did yesterday?”

“Sure, why not?” he told me. “Wait, what is this app saying? That we won the tickets to Holland, as did four other families?!!”

Thoughts went through my mind then I remembered that I entered the contest last night! Mark walked over to the kitchen and said “hey, how did I get to the couch?”

“I think you slept walked last night” My mom answered reasonably.

“Ya, probably”

“Hey everyone! We’re going to the Netherlands!” My Father exclaimed

“Wait, how do we know that this is not just another scam,” My Mother asked in concern

“Oh ya like the time when we paid 100,000 dollars to a fake website.” My dad said not knowing he just let out a secret.

“What about this 100,000 dollar loss?”

“Ohh uhh that oh that was uh ya that was just another great joke of mine.”

I could tell he was lying by his expression and by the sweat that came down from his hair.

“But we’re on the website right now so it can’t be a scam. Maybe I should call the company and ask some questions. Does that sound good?” my dad asked.

While he was calling, I snuck over to the family computer and typed in Winnipeg Jets to check the score from last night: 3 to 1 Winnipeg Jets!

My Dad piped back in: “They said that they had flights covered for five families and that we were one of them. They also sent me their official website that announced the 5 winners so maybe we can go check that out.” My dad continues, “Here, it says the Johnson family, The Harries, I don’t know them, oh it says they’re from B.C. then the Jacksons from Alberta, then the Peterson family, and finally the Washington family from Brazil. Cool!”

“Hey, at least if we don’t know something, we can reach out to the Peterson family. They’re really nice.” Mom added.

Mark and Lucas came into the room both asking what all the excitement was about. “Hey what’s all the commotion over here.”

“Oh nothing, just we’re going to the Netherlands!!!” I screamed

You could Mom shout from the other room,“We haven’t decided yet!”

“Ya but we’re probably going to go to the Netherlands” I answered again.

“YES!” Lucas cried out “I really want to play with Cousin Billy in Minecraft!”

“I know, right!” I said back

“Ok I’m going to make some pancakes” Mark said

Lucas and I pitched in to help.. While we were eating pancakes we could hear our parents debating if we should go to the Netherlands. Then they walked in and stopped in front of the table.

“We have decided that our family is going to go to the Netherlands. ” My Mom said “Wait, how did we pay the 20 dollars entrance fee?”

“Uhhh.” I said as my heart beat started to double “That doesn’t matter, does it? we’re going to the Netherlands!”

“Ya!” Lucas said

“Yes!” Mark said

“Netherlands, Netherlands, Netherlands!” We all started chanting.