After that I couldn’t hear anything. I looked up; my vision was blurred by tears. I walked slowly into the kitchen almost zombie like. Sure enough there was no food for tomorrow in the cabinets or refrigerator. “What?” I asked myself mostly, I guess. “I---he---no…” I couldn’t talk anymore. I went into Sam’s room; I looked through his drawers for his green shirt with the four leaf clover on the front. I put it on as soon as I found it, it was his favorite shirt. I laid down in Sam’s bed and cried. Eventually, I cried myself into a sleep with dreams, no, memories of Sam.

I woke up. I was weird, knowing Sam was never going to be around anymore. I opened my eyes slowly, only to realize I was in my room. “What?” I muttered. It wasn’t until just them I noticed someone’s arms around me. I jumped out of my bed and screamed. “Lizzie, shut up!” Sam said.

Sam? Sam. Sam? “SAM!” I screamed. Was all of that just a dream? I was so happy I felt like crying. I felt my cheeks, I was crying. “It’s really you!” I said hugging him. I was crying into his chest. “I just had the worst dream.” I would have laughed at me being so silly, I was just glad it wasn’t real. “Hey, shh, shh, don’t cry, Lizzie. It was just a dream” he said. “I’ll make us some breakfast, go into the living room and lie down.” He kissed my temple and left.

The dream, it felt so realistic. So real, and so scary, thank goodness Sam’s alright. I smiled, wow, I feel dumb right now. I got all worked up over a stupid dream. I picked up my phone to check the time. School starts at 8:30; I don’t want to be late. I flipped the phone open. It read: Monday 7:10am.

Wait. WHAT? Today isn’t Monday, it’s Thursday. What’s going on? There was an easy way to settle this. I went into Sam’s room and got to the safe. “4, 14, 93” I whispered and then I smiled. The door creaked open slowly. I looked inside. Oh no. The money we stole last night was gone.
“Sam, what happened to the money we stole yesterday?” I yelled through the house. He came up to his bedroom door with a plate in his hand.
“What are you talking about? We are going on Wednesday. I thought we worked this all out.”
“What---? Wednesday was yesterday…” I said.
“No, Lizzie today is Monday, and unless they changed the days of the week, Wednesday is still two days away. Are you alright?” he seemed worried.
Isn’t that the question? I’m not really sure. Something isn’t right here, and I need to find out what it is. “Yeah, Sam, I’m great. I’m just a little tired, I guess.”
“Alright,” he said uneasily “Just yell for me if you need anything”
What’s wrong with me, surely I couldn’t have imagined the past three days. I don’t know. Urgghh! Maybe I shouldn’t go to school, I don’t feel well. I should probably rest.
“You know what Sam? I’m not feeling good. I’ll just stay home and nap,” I yawned to emphasize my point. “Do you want me to stay with you?” he asked. I shook my head no; I wanted to figure this out myself. “Okay, I’m off to school. Breakfast is on the counter in the kitchen” he said. He walked out of the room and I heard the door close. I got my breakfast, and then sat in front of the television for a few hours. I got up, put my dishes away, and called my boss to call in sick. I lied down on the couch looking at the clock. The last thing I saw before I fell into a dreamless sleep was the clock change from 2:19pm to 2:20pm.

I woke up, though I was in Sam’s bed this time. “What the--?” I said. I was wearing Sam’s yellow t-shirt that said ‘Have Fun in the Sun’ in small blocked gray letters. The door bell rang, I groaned. I got up and went to answer it. I walked through the kitchen; it was messier than it was last afternoon. I opened the door to see my neighbor, Ms. McMantyre. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were huge bags under her eyes. It looked like she had been crying. She sniffled.
“Ms. McMantyre, what’s wrong?” I asked.
“I’m so sorry,” she said “I’ve been away for two days I left late Tuesday and got back late Thursday. If I had known what had happened I would have not gone to see my sister.” she hiccupped. “I left the day it happened. I’m sorry.” She hiccupped again “Sam was such a nice boy…” he voice broke off.
“What are you talking about?” I asked worried. She was just standing in front of my door ready to cry. “Mr. Higgins said you told him, he told me. I-he--was just so young. I should leave you alone. Sam’s death was just a shock to me. It must have been worse for you” She gave me a hug and hiccupped one final time then she left me alone.

What? Sam’s not---What’s today? I opened up my phone, it read: Friday 10:49am. What? Yesterday was…wasn’t it? It was Monday; I have to talk to someone. I need help, I should go see someone I trust, someone who won’t think I’m crazy, but who? Mr. Hartford! My mythology teacher, I’ll go see him, or better yet… I’ll call him.

I went into Sam’s room to get the phone book. Something was wrong; the safe was on top of Sam’s desk. It was opened, inside was the money, and a crumpled piece of paper. I opened it up it was a paper from the white pages in a phone book.


Sure enough the page had the right range of letters, Mr. Hartford’s number was sure to be in the page. I went to see which number was his, and then I went to the kitchen table to see my snow globe that Sam got for me smashed on the table. I was shocked, who would break this? I loved this. Sam got it for me for my 16th birthday. I grabbed a cloth and put all the broken glass in there and I threw it in the trash.
What is wrong with me? Sam wasn’t dead yesterday or what I thought was yesterday. I’ll call Mr. Hartford. I looked at the phone book page in front of me. The top of the page said Han-Har.
“Kyle Hart, D. Hart, L. Hart, Felicia Hartferd, Fred Hartferd, and Michael Hartford” I muttered reading the page. His name must be Michael. His number is (612)555-3164. I picked up my cell phone, it said: Friday 10:57am. I was confused. Mr. Hartford would definitely help me. I slowly dialed the number with my shaking hand. It rang; it felt like a million years while it was ringing. I heard a beep, it was the answering machine.
“Hi, it’s Michael. You know what to do.” I closed the phone and cried.

Pull yourself together, a voice in my head said. It kind of sounded like Sam’s voice. I was going to listen to him, no matter what. I picked myself up. I went into my room. Oh my goodness! What happened in here? My room was a mess. I didn’t usually have a messy room. Almost everything was smashed, well everything that was glass. It reminded me of my snow globe that was smashed on the table.


I’m not really sure that this is real. It may just be a bad dream, but something makes it seem so real. It’s scary. Sam, Sam is my best friend, someone who takes care of me when I’m sick. When we were 14 I had the flu and he helped me get better. He took over my shifts at Pete’s and Pete even said he would hire him, or well, ask him to sub in for people who needed the day off. He is my family, the one person in the world who truly cares about me, and I don’t care if this is a dream or not I have to make sure he’s okay. If he isn’t… I can’t even think about that right now I should just go see Mr. Hartford. He’ll help me, he has to help me. I looked around my messy room. I bus schedules, bus schedules, where would they be? My desk drawer! I stepped over assorted broken objects like my chair, picture frame of Sam and I, dirty clothes, and random wrappers. I took two giant steps across my room. I got to my desk and shuffled through the drawer. It looked like it already had been shuffled through. Like someone was looking for something they couldn’t find. Yes! The bus schedules were in the drawer, under the ink cartridges so the schedule was a little messed up. I looked really hard at the numbers. The inky lettering was smudged and very hard to read, but I think it said 11:30am is the next bus to Winston Town High; Mr. Hartford has a 10:30am class that ends at 11:45am. Then he has a 12:15pm class. That should give me enough time. I hope he can help. I had to change before I left. I went through Sam’s drawers and found a red shirt and I put on a pair of my jeans. I had to go now if I was to catch the bus, sometimes it comes earlier and its 11:10. I went outside locking the door, without Sam here I didn’t feel as safe as I used to. I ran down to the bus stop that was about 8 blocks down. I ran down the streets and passed Rosone Communications: HOME PHONES, TELEPHONES, TELEVISIONS, AND COMPUTERS. There I saw the televisions all playing a rewind of the news that was on Wednesday. I couldn’t look at that, it hurt too much the first time. I passed the old Town Library, the new Town Library, Tenning Park, and the small amount of stores jumbled up together. I ran past just in time to catch the bus. It was at the stop, and I had just got on and paid when the bus driver looked at me.
“Hey, Lizzie. How’s it going without Sam?” the bus driver said. I don’t know who this person is, or why they are talking to me. I don’t think I have ever met her. I just kept walking through the bus. I went to go to the back when I saw her name in the front of the bus ‘Abigail’ the tag said. I went to the back of the bus. The ride felt like forever. Everything feels weird without Sam here to protect me. He always made me feel safe, without him I feel, terrible. The bus ride went really slow and I seemed like it was hours, days even years. The bus finally stopped at the school, Lizzie was so wrapped up in everything she almost didn’t get off when Abigail called her.