Weekends are always about Sam. Sam this, Sam that. I love my brother, but I just feel like an outsider. We drive to hockey, then drive home. Sometimes I can convince them to take me to the mall or something, but it’s a chore.
“Mom, what’s for supper?” You could tell Sam was getting hungry ‘cause every two seconds, he’s been bringing up food.
“Sam, bud, we haven’t decided yet. What would my little boy like?” Could Mom baby him any more? He’s 10 years old, treat him like it. Anyways, we’ll probably end up having mac and cheese, Sam’s favourite, not that I’m complaining. Mac and cheese is delicious. Plus, it would be ‘Annie’s famous recipe,’ as my dad calls it, which is just the mac and cheese my mom makes, but my dad loves to give everything silly names.
“MAC AND CHEESE,” Sam yells. Look at that, I was right.
“Meg, what would you like?” Dad asked. Maybe he noticed the annoyance on my face.
“Mac and cheese is good.” Even if I didn’t want mac and cheese, it’s easier to just agree with Sam instead of starting a big fight and getting everyone in a mood.
“Supper’s ready. Meg, get down here! Myles, can you get the drinks,” yelled Mom.
“I’m coming!” Jeez, I didn’t expect the food to be done so soon. I don’t know how Mom can get so much done so quickly. Like, we haven’t been home for 30 minutes and she has cleaned the kitchen, made a whole meal, helped Sam finish his homework, and probably 20 other things. Maybe that’s just a ‘Mom thing.’ I run down the stairs to get my seat at the table. Sam is already sitting in his seat, Dad is bringing out the drinks, and Mom is bringing out the food.
“Yay! Yummy mac and cheese,” cheered Sam. It is his favourite after all. Mom scoops some on everyone’s plates, and supper starts. Mom asks Sam about his hockey game, what the coaches were saying, how he felt. Then Dad chimes in with more questions about it, making comments on what Sam could have done differently and all that.
Then there’s me, who sits there not knowing what to say because hockey’s their thing. Mom and Dad both played hockey growing up, and they were so happy Sam started sharing their love for the game. But I just don’t. I don’t belong here. I don’t know where I belong, but I don’t think it’s here. Don’t get me wrong. I love my family, but during times like this, I feel so left out. All I can do is focus on my food. I don’t wanna cry. I don’t wanna ruin the mood. After what feels like ages, I finally finish my supper, and excuse myself.
“Don’t forget to put away your dishes.” Mom looks at me and smiles.
“I won’t.” I smile back. I know they love me and care for me, but Mom and Dad have this special bond with Sam. That’s all I want is a special bond with them, something we can sit at the table and talk about.
I walk into the kitchen to put my plate in the dishwasher, and hear them all start to laugh. I wonder what they’re laughing about.
After a quick shower, I just lay in bed thinking about supper. Maybe I was being a little dramatic, but my feelings are still the same. I guess I don’t really know where I belong in my family, where I fit in with their chaos. I’ve always felt a little like an outsider, but I don’t know. Maybe if I get some sleep, I’ll feel better in the morning.
If only Meg knew how much like her parents she truly is. You could say she has some of their magic…
Ugh, what is so bright? I must have fallen asleep, but I’m awake now. It feels like someone is shining a flashlight at my face. Once my eyes start to adjust and I fully wake up, I can see the light is coming from outside my window. I thought I closed the curtain, but maybe I forgot to. I really don’t wanna get up and it’s probably just the moon, so I’m just gonna try to go back to sleep.
I can’t, it’s just too bright out there. Maybe it’s not just the moon. I wanna go see. Okay, that was a lot of work just to get out of bed. So comfy, so warm…anyways, what is that?!?
The sight was something she’ll never forget, it was such a beautiful and magical thing. When she stepped over to the window, she realized it was the moon that was making all the light, but the moon was bigger and brighter than she’d ever seen before. The moon had this almost spotlight-like effect shining down on a beautiful red fox. Foxes were not common in her hometown, so she’d never seen one before. But she had this feeling like she knew this fox and the way it danced in the lightly falling snow, watching the snow fall to the ground. Meg was scared to move. She didn’t want the fox to notice her and leave. She never wanted the fox to leave.
All of a sudden, the fox stopped running around and sat staring up at the moon. The moonlight was still shining on it. The fox’s coat shimmered in the moonlight, and the snow reflected the light as well, making it look like glitter falling from the sky. Meg had never felt more peaceful in her life, the way it all felt like a dream. Deep down she knew it wasn’t. It was this extraordinary feeling that she’d probably never feel again, one of those once in a lifetime feelings. Meg was lost deep in thought when she was snapped out of it by the fox starting to get up and walk away so slowly and peacefully. Meg immediately started to run down the stairs.
I need to catch that fox, it can’t leave yet. I don’t know how to explain it, but I have this weird feeling that it’s trying to tell me something. I think I woke up my parents because I might have almost just fallen down the stairs…I’m not fully awake yet, but the fox is more important, plus I didn’t fully fall or I’d probably be on the floor right now. I run through the kitchen and the dining room, then out the front door and around the side of the house. The only thing on my mind is that fox, how beautiful it was, and the way the moon shone on it like it was the only thing in the world.
I was running so fast that once I stop, I am out of breath. The fox must have heard me coming around the corner of the house, because it had stopped walking and turned to look at me. The way it looks at me is so familiar, like it’s seen me before. We just stand there looking at each other for a few minutes until it starts moving again. It looks as though it’s smiling at me as the fox begins to walk away once more. Before it gets into the woods, it turns around one last time to give me a nod. But that was crazy. Why would a fox smile or nod at me. I need to go back to bed, but I just stand there looking towards the spot where the moon was shining so bright on the fox. Clouds had come across the moon so it was quite dark, but I knew where that spot was. I think I will always know where this spot was.
“Meg, what are you doing?!?” My mom’s voice makes me come back to reality. I look around, and I am still standing in that spot. Did that actually just happen…
“Meg, let’s go inside.” I just nod my head at her, and slowly turn and walk towards the house, my mom wrapping me in a blanket when I get near her. I realize how cold it is out here, and I’m just in a t-shirt and PJ pants. Everything feels so surreal.
Once we get inside, Mom sits me down on the couch and goes to get some hot chocolate to help warm me up. Dad comes and sits with me, and after mom finishes making the hot chocolate, she comes and sits with us, too.
“What were you doing out there?” asks Mom.
“And why were you running around the house?” asks Dad.
Then, I just tell them everything from the bright light outside waking me up, to the fox, the snow, the smile and the nod, and the feeling that I somehow knew this fox. “Still it all seems so crazy, but it felt so real,” I finish. I tell them all of it, and they just sit there looking at each other. They probably think I’ve gone crazy.
“Maggie, it might not be as crazy as you think,” Mom says smiling. She only says my full name when she means business.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well, when your father and I were little, we found this place in the woods. It was a magical area, just a little clearing in the forest. Right in the centre of this magical place was a rock shaped like a perfect crescent moon. When we found it, two beautiful foxes were sitting there on the rock. Still, after all these years, we have never been able to find that spot again.
“Yeah, me and your mom never stopped looking for that place,” says Dad. “I can remember our parents yelling, ‘Myles and Annie, time to come home,’ as we were deep in the woods searching for that place.”
“Now,” my mom adds, “we could be completely crazy too, but they might be connected. Maybe the fox knows about our magical moment.”
“Maybe,” I say thinking. My mom pulls me into a big hug. What if this is what the fox wanted me to know? What if it wanted to help me find that special connection with my parents? The three of us sit on the couch talking about it for a long time, just getting lost in the magic of it all.
They stayed on the couch for a long time that night, just talking. Meg loved it. She’d never felt closer to her parents. This was just the thing she needed. It was her thing, her special connection. Once they went back to bed, Meg laid in her bed smiling. She finally had a ‘thing’ with her parents, just like Sam had hockey. She had this and it was all she needed. After this, she didn’t have the need to complain about the weekend mac and cheese for Sam, or going to his games, ‘cause she knew through all of that, she still had something that only her and her parents could talk about. She did belong here.
by Lily Hopper (15 years old)
