The boy was finally at the sandy get away. He could never have felt so much better. The only thing that could make it more special is if he had someone to share it with. He was there, all alone. Witnessing this magnificent vista all by his self. Not a single person walks on the beach. No children playing in the sand or building castles. No parents watching their kids have the time of their life. Nope, no one. He’s all there…alone.


As the boy stares out to the open water, he finally realizes that there is no one there. He takes a look around him. Not only is he alone at the beach, but also he’s not in his bedroom where he was before. He thought that he was just daydreaming. But he thought wrong. He was there, skin, bone, and flesh at the beach. He notices that he’s been sitting for a while and his butt is starting to hurt. He stands up and takes a better look of his surroundings. He can’t believe it. Absolutely no one is within 20 miles of him. He turns toward the road that leads to the house. As he begins to walk, he forgets to take the chair. He turns around but he can’t take it back. It’s gone. Nowhere to be seen.


He’s confused. He doesn’t know where he is. This isn’t the beach that he’s been to ten times before, where he walked on sand for the first time. This is a different world. It’s a replica of his favorite place. Everything looks exactly the same but there’s a different vibe. Even the sand begins to look odd. He walks to the house that he loves so much. His grandparents live there so maybe they can help, if they’re even there.


He walks up the driveway and rings the doorbell. No answer. He rings it again. Still, no answer. He even knocks as hard as he can, but no answer. He attempts to twist the knob and it opens. To his amazement the door is unlocked. He walks in and yells up the stairs to see if his grandparents are home. No on responds. He runs up the stairs and looks in every room. He finds no one. He runs to where the telephone is and he dials 911. The phone doesn’t do anything. He sees that it’s not plugged in but there are no telephone plugs. He turns around and looks at the kitchen and the family room. Memories come back…


It was a beautiful day in Englewood, Florida. The sun slowly rising in the west. Taylor wakes up and looks through the window in front of him. He can feel the ocean breeze blowing by the open window. He gets out of bed, which has its twin sitting next to it. He can hear the news on the TV in the other room. He knows that his grandparents are awake. They are always the first to wake up. No matter how early anyone plans on getting up, they always beat them to it. He opens the door and the news gets louder. Of course, the weather report is on. It’s ALWAYS on. His grandma is leaning on the counter watching it with close eye to see if anything has changed but like always, the weather is the same. “…With a high of 84°F and the sun shining high in the sky!” He sighs as he thinks how ridiculous people are in Florida about the weather.

“Hey!! You’re awake! Good morning! (spoken in Ukrainian).” His grandmother greets him. “Would you like some breakfast? How about I make you some eggs? Huh?! Come on! I’ll make you the best eggs you’ll ever eat!” She persuades Taylor. He doesn’t fall for it. He’s not very hungry as usual in the morning.

“No, it’s ok, Baba (Ukrainian for “grandma).” He tells her. He opens a cabinet to grab the Rice Krispies since that is his favorite cereal in Florida. “I’ll just have some cereal.”

“But I want to make you a big breakfast! You need it. You have to grow to be big and strong!” She waves her arms and hands in the air to emphasize how important it was to eat a lot.

“No, it’s ok Baba. I’m really not that hungry. Don’t worry, I’ll just eat cereal.” He gets cut off with his grandpa staring at him from behind a newspaper. That look was never good, it always meant that he was going to be lectured about something that he has heard a million times before. As he continues to look at his grandpa, finally, his brother walking into the room breaks the staring contest.

“Hello.” Always a short response from him. He’s never too descriptive. He grabs a bowl and a spoon and takes the cereal box. He shakes the cereal out and fills his bowl up. He adds milk and he can hear the crackling. Taylor does as his brother did. Then their parents walk in.


They loved each other. Ever since they met. He proposed to her at a Ukrainian dance and she said yes. They got married and couldn’t have children. Instead, they flew halfway around the world to adopt two boys. The first one, Taylor and the second, James. Taylor is two years older than James. Their parents adopted them from Ukraine and brought them to the United States and raised them in Chicago. They grew up to be sixteen and fourteen years old.


Taylor’s dad walks in and yawns. He sits in a chair and picks up a newspaper.

“Hey!! How about I make you some eggs, huh? They’ll be the best eggs you’ve ever had!” Baba encourages Taylor’s dad. He seems grateful as he accepts the offer. Taylor rolls his eyes since he knew that he would want it. Next in is Taylor’s mom. She pours her self a cup of coffee.

“Would you like some coffee?” She asks his dad.

“Yes, please. Black though.” He responds. He continues to read the newspaper while she grabs the two cups and sits down. James finishes his breakfast first and puts the bowl in the sink. He thanks his grandma and walks to his room. Taylor finishes and does the same. Instead of his room, which he has to share with his brother, he sits on the couch to watch the news, which has been on for a while. He’s always loved to watch the news but he regrets reading the paper. Unless there is something about cars or airplanes, he wont read it. Even if there’s nothing important on the news, he still loves to watch it.


As Taylor watches the news, they start the weather segment again. This time it’s not the normal weather. It’s the severe weather watch, if there was any.

“The temperature will go down a little tonight. It’ll be around 72°F and there will be some strong winds, but nothing to worry about. Also, around 9:30 tonight, we will see an intense lightning storm. There should be no thunder or rain but most definitely lightning. Thanks for watching the severe weather report.”


This is one of Taylor’s favorite part about Florida. The lightning storms. Like the news said, there isn’t any rain or thunder, just lightning. It’s an amazing thing to watch. Taylor always wants to sit on the covered porch and just watch the night sky light up before him. He gets excited and runs into his room to change.


Everyone eventually gets to the beach. The sun is almost at its highest point and the temperature already rose about six degrees. Taylor’s mom makes him put sunscreen on but Taylor doesn’t refuse. He really, really, doesn’t want sunburn. He has gotten it plenty times before and it isn’t pleasant. One time, his back had been exposed to the sun for a long time and he got sunburn on his back. He couldn’t even sleep on it since it hurt so much. He sits in the shade and waits for his sunscreen to dry off. A few minutes later he joins his brother in the water and cools off from the Florida rays.


James has never needed sunscreen because his skin didn’t need it. He never had sunburn or ever had to worry about it. His skin was darker than Taylor’s and that’s why. He had the same skin as his grandpa who also didn’t use sunscreen.


They both play in the water and even snorkel and they see fish. Then after drying off and having a refreshing Coke, they get the giant net that they brought from the house. This net is amazing for catching minnows and other small fish. They love to take into the shallow water where there a tons of minnows and throw it in. Then James would drag it back onto shore with hundreds of minnows flopping around on the sand. They wouldn’t just throw them back in after doing all that hard work, though. There were hungry sea gulls that couldn’t find food and were flying above looking for some lunch. The boys would put the fish into a bucket with water and then they would throw some up into the air to attract the sea gulls. In seconds, they were surrounded by white feathers feasting on a delicious meal. After the boys fed the sea gulls, it was time to go in for lunch.


After lunch, everyone, including the grandparents go to the beach. When their fun comes to an end, they head back inside to wash up and get ready for a home cooked dinner. Taylor loves to take showers outside and he has to hurry because James is waiting to take one after him. Once everyone is done, they sit at the dining table to eat dinner.


After dinner, Taylor turns the TV on. He flips to a channel that caught his attention. It was the history channel that had a program on about December 21, 2012. Taylor has heard about this many times before but wants to hear the “real” story. He learns that the Mayans predict that the end of the world will end on December 21. Taylor gets a little worried because that’s only three days away. Taylor’s on winter vacation and is scared that something will happen on the 21st. His parents and friends have told him to not worry because this happened before when the Mayans predicted it would happen in 2000 but obviously that didn’t happen. He continues to watch the show and when it’s done his mom reassures him that nothing is going to happen. She tells him that they will be home that day so he wont have to worry.


Three days go by in Englewood, Florida and everyday is like the previous. They go to the beach in the morning have lunch or go out to Checkers, then everyone goes to the beach afterwards and then they have dinner and then they chill for the night.


It’s Sunday night, December 20, 2012. The news is going frantic with the speculation about the next day. Taylor doesn’t even want to watch it because he’s so paranoid. He sits in his room with James and they play card games to amuse themselves. All of a sudden, a flash of light bursts in the night sky. James and Taylor whip their heads to the window from being startled. Taylor realizes that it’s just a lightning storm, which happens regularly, but he’s still scared about what might happen at 12:00am.


He finishes his last card game and walks onto the covered porch. White light fills the porch and blinds him for a second. He can’t believe how intense this lightning storm is. He’s never witnessed this kind before. As everyone goes to sleep, Taylor lies wide awake in his bed staring out of the window. Flashes of lightning fill the room every few minutes.


Taylor looks over to the clock sitting on the nightstand beside him and it reads 11:45pm.

“Fifteen minutes before destruction,” Taylor thinks.

“What’s going to happen? Am I going to live? Why does my life have to end like this!” Taylor screams in his head.


Right then a huge clap of thunder shakes the house. Taylor clenches onto his blanket even tighter. The sky looks menacing and Taylor has no idea what’s going to happen.


11:58pm. Taylor’s heart is beating faster then ever before. He wishes he was anywhere but hear. He wishes that he were lying in his warm, comfortable bed in his nice, cozy room. He wishes that he was reading a favorite book of his and he wishes that he wouldn’t have to be trapped in this house like a prisoner with no way to escape!


“BOOM!!!!!” The house shakes again and Taylor thinks that he’s going to die.


Taylor turns his head to the clock and it reads 11:59pm. He gets light headed and can’t think straight. He looks at his brother who is sound asleep and is jealous of him for only a second. Then, it happens. The yellow digits on the clock turn to the time that he has been dreading ever since he’s known about December 21.


He stares outside and then…


All he can see is white and he feels the house shake violently. He can’t hear anything, not even himself think. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He feel like he’s spinning out of control and he doesn’t even know where he is. Everything is so unclear and foggy and all of a sudden as everything gets louder it turns black.


He can’t see anything. It’s just black. He feels like he’s dreaming but for some reason he knows that he isn’t. He feels like he’s somewhere else but doesn’t know where. He feels his face burning as if someone was holding fire right next to it and it’s burning away.


He realizes that his eyes are closed. He very slowly opens them to reveal something that looks like the sun. He feels like he is staring right into it. He realizes that he can’t move. He freaks out and then…


His finger moves to reveal something that feels like a book. Then his hand moves to reveal something that feels like a pillow. Them his arm moves to reveal a long plastic thing that is standing upright. Then his whole body moves.


His head turns and looks at his computer. He looks at his dresser. He looks at his picture frame hanging on the wall. He looks at the end of his bed at his feet. He looks at his sky-blue wallpaper and at his clock sitting next to him on his nightstand.


He’s back home. He’s not at the beach that has always known him. He’s not where he’s been ten times before. He’s at home. He is back in his cozy bed, holding one of his favorite books, which he has to read for school. He sits up right and he realizes that he was staring into his stand up lamp beside his bed. His face feels very hot from being under it for so long. His heart slows down as he feels relieved. The clock says 12:02am.


He picks his book up and reads until he is done. He falls asleep into a dream that he thought he was living.