APRIL opened her eyes. Am I back in my room? She looked at her ceiling. Her eyes moved to her chandelier. It was perfect. There were no missing crystals. There were no hanging wires. She looked at her wall. There were no dents from the flying crystals. She listened but did not hear anything. Silence. The sweet sound of birds chirping filled the air.
She jumped out of bed and looked out her bedroom window. Nothing. The trees were intact. They stood up straight with green, red, orange and brown leaves. Leaves were rustling on the trees and leaves were dancing on the street as the wind blew.
Her neighbor’s car was perfect. No dents. She pressed her face into the screen to look down the street. No elephants. She took a deep breath in through her nose. The crisp fall air smelled fresh. No elephant poop. She looked down at her hands. Then she looked in the corner of her room. The bag of three things was gone.
She looked over at her desk. Her cell phone was sitting there. She picked it up and texted Grace:
“The elephants are gone! YAY!!! And, my chandelier is fixed…that’s weird. And, where are you?”
Grace replied:
“April? What’s wrong? What elephants?
What was wrong with your chandelier?
Only you would have a chandelier in your bedroom, btw. And what do you mean? I’m at home!”
“Huh? The elephants we just did the spell on and the chandelier I made dance… remember?”
“What spell? Dancing chandeliers? Elephants? That must have been a dream. Eve just got to my house. Are you still meeting us at the park?”
April lifted her head and looked out the window. She felt all the blood leave her face. Her jaw dropped. She slowly scanned her room with her eyes. What just happened? Did I just rewind to before the elephants were here? I get it! By undoing the spell, I started the day over!
“OMG!” April fell on her bed. Her arms went limp. She swallowed. I just went back in time. And I am the only one that knows about this.
She sat up, picked up her cell phone and texted back to Grace:
“I’ll be over in a little bit. I’m going to lay back down for a sec.”
“Yeah, sounds like you may need a little bit extra sleep. We’ll see you down there l8r.”
She put the phone back on her desk, took a deep breath and sat back down on her bed. She walked out her room. The muffled sound of the television and her parents talking echoed upstairs.
I guess I’ll get some breakfast before I head over to Grace’s house. Skipping down the stairs, she walked into the kitchen, and heard the morning news show that her parents normally watched. As she poured her cereal, she heard the announcer say,
“In happy news today, because of good people around the world, the elephants of Africa have a new large reserve extending 30,000 square kilometers for their protection. Private and corporate donations, and Save the Elephants Walks have raised enough money to create the protected space…”
April looked at her mom who was smiling at her. Then she quickly turned to her dad who was grinning from ear to ear. Her mom walked over to her and gave her a hug.
“Look what you helped to do,” Mrs. Appleton said, squeezing her daughter tightly.
“Look what WE did,” April said as her face warmed. Her mom beamed with pride.
“OK. I better get to my next task.” April let go of her mom and walked back to her cereal. She quickly shoveled a spoonful into her mouth.
“I gotta go gra gre gra,” April said.
“April, don’t talk with your mouth full,” her mother scolded.
April swallowed.
“Sorry. I have to get to Grace’s house. Eve, Grace and I have a project to do for school.” April quickly finished her breakfast and cleaned her dishes. As she went up the stairs, she paused, looked back, and watched her parents working in the kitchen. She smiled and then quickly ran upstairs to get dressed to meet up with her best friends.