Getting up for breakfast the next morning, Mara had a peculiar feeling in her head. She leaned heavily on the bannister on the way to the kitchen. She stood still, trying to stabilise herself before facing her brother and father.
“Good morning, Mara,” called her dad. Mara smiled weakly in return. Her brother nodded. The whole family preferred the world to remain as quiet and still as possible before the inevitable sounds of fast-paced life began to pour in.
“Hey kid, why so glum?” Is it written on my face? thought Mara. She was annoyed with herself for being transparent. Not wishing to get into details, Mara replied, “Oh, I had a bit of a thing with Christi.” True enough, the girls had hardly spoken in a week.
“What?” sputtered Alex, entirely shocked. Christi and Mara had never argued. They were not those sorts of girls.
She reached for her favourite rabbit mug. Alex had given it to her on her sixth birthday. Suddenly, her world became confused. She felt off balance. The earth shifted under her feet. She tried to compensate by stepping to the side. Gravity took over and pulled her down.
Her family jumped up and over to her. Although to her the fall had seemed like slow motion, the entire incident had occurred in a split second.
“My goodness, Mara, what happened?” asked her father.
“I don't know. I guess I got dizzy.”
“Is this the first time this has happened, kid?” asked Alex, who had a knack of sounding like an expert on any subject.
Mara did not know how to respond. She had never entertained the idea of telling her family about the other world. After the fiasco with Christi, she was even more determined about keeping it to herself. The problem was that there was something physically wrong with her, and she had to be honest about that.
“No. It happened to me that weekend at Christi's cabin, too. I just felt like I was going to fall and felt dizzy for a while.” Uncertainly and unconvincingly, she added, “It's no big deal.”
Her brother snorted, and her dad looked very concerned.
“It is most definitely a ‘big deal.’ I should never have let you stay with Christi after you fell off your bike. I should have insisted that you go to the doctor.” Mara sensed that her father felt guilty.
“It's okay, Dad. I'll go to the doctor today after school. I fall off my bicycle all the time—I'm a kid. You don't know half the times I've banged myself up and not told you! I feel okay to go to school. I promise I'll come home if I start feeling poorly.” And with that, she flit out of the room and dashed upstairs to get ready.
The two men just looked at each other and shrugged. No wonder she gets dizzy, thought her father. She's a whirlwind.