How My Life Changed in One Night

 

“Wait for thirty minutes for the hair dye to settle in your hair, then wash the black color dye out thoroughly while being careful not to get it in contact with your eyes.”

Oh, Hello I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Annabelle Alexander but everyone just calls me Ann. I am seventeen years old and going to return to Queen Elizabeth High after summer break ends.

 Just a minute ago, I was trying to read the directions on the hair dye box. Before I began, I straightened out my curly blonde locks and cut my hair so that it resulted in shoulder length hair. Additionally, I cut my bang which was not very hard because I have done it before on my best friend at a slumber party.

This idea of changing my hair has been worming itself in my head until I finally took the plunge. I doubt my mother had this idea in her head, when she told me I could have some fun on my own.

“Ann, Tim, it’s high time you came down! I’ve been calling you down for a long time!”, my mother yelled from the bottom of our curved stairway.

My mom, Mrs. Ellen Watson, works part time as a nurse at Moorfields Hospital in central London.

“OK, coming!” I yelled back as I washed my hair and dried it.

“Yes mum?” Tim asked.

Timothy is my fourteen-year-old brother. Like any teenage boy, he is interested in his computer and comic collections. Me? I prefer to read fiction books and draw anime characters.

“We have to talk about something very important, so listen closely.” My father announced as I entered the sitting room.

My father, on the other hand, works as a professor at the University of London and One of his favorite things is to keep us waiting in suspense until he is satisfied that we are paying close attention.

“Your mother and I are going shopping on West Street for about an hour or so. I need you both to take good care of each other. Ann, you are obviously in charge. We probably…”

“Whatever have you done to your hair, Ann? It looks very different!” asked my mother, astonished at the sight of it.

I did not have to say anything because I knew my father despises being interrupted.

“Never mind that. We will be back around dinner time but if we get delayed, then you both can have dinner together.” My father continued, then waited for my mother to add anything.

“You may always call me, Father, or Aunt Josephine if there is an urgent emergency.”

Aunt Josephine is my mother’s younger sister who works as a marketing and sales director. Her house is a twenty-minute drive from our penthouse.”

 

“Bye then!” Dad said while putting on his coat and wellies. Ugh, rain. Typical London weather.

“Bye!”, Tim and I said together.

“Hope it all goes well! This is the first time you two are home alone. Don’t forget to take care of Tim!”, mother said as she hugged as both, then proceeded to slam the door.

As soon as they left, I felt like an adult, and I wanted everything to go well and fight-free.

“Right, so what do you want to do first?” I asked my brother.

“I want to watch a horror movie.” He replied.

“Sure, I can microwave a package of butter popcorn.”, I said after all I did not want to pick the movie just in case Tim thinks I am too bossy.

Tim then chose a random movie that he said he had heard about.

After watching the jump-scare movie and arguing playfully in the middle who got scared the most, I made frozen cheese pizza in the oven. Then I loaded the dishwasher and wiped down the table and the counters just to make mother and father pleased with me.

“Umm, why aren’t they back yet! It’s almost half past eleven! Tim asked.

He was right. The long hand on the clock was moving closer to six.

“Where could they be?”, I wondered aloud.

“They said they will be back in maximum two hours.”, Tim responded.

“I think we should head up to bed. I am worried to but we probably will see them in the morning.”

“But I really want to stay up until they come back.”, said Tim.

I was about to agree until he yawned very loudly, and so I decided that we should go to sleep, but kept on thinking that something must have happened to them.

“Come on let’s go to sleep.” I said.

“OK”

“Look, I am sure everything will be fine by tomorrow morning.” I said, trying my best to lessen the look of worry on my brother’s face but lying through my teeth at the same time.

We then headed up to our own spacious rooms, and Tim decided to sleep in the same room as me, this time shaking a little bit.

Next morning, we woke up at 8:30am to find the house oddly still and so the first thing we did was that we checked their bedroom. Empty. Loo? Empty. They could not have gone to work because they leave for work at 9:30am and it was a Saturday morning anyway. We phoned mum and all we heard was, “This number is not available now. Please leave your number and your message after the beep.”

Father’s phone was a repeat performance of what happened when phoning mother. Now we were extremely desperate.

Our last hope was Aunt Josephine. I phoned her up on speaker phone so my brother could hear, thankfully she responded.

“Hello, who is this?”, asked Aunt Josephine.

“Ann and Tim.”, I responded.

“What is it you want to talk to me about?”

“We were wondering if you heard anything about mum and dad. They left to go shopping last night and did not come back so do you know…”

Tim’s words were cut off by a loud gasp.

“Aunt Josephine! Aunt Josephine! Are you alright?” Tim asked.

“Oh my goodness!”, exclaimed Aunt Josephine, “There has been a tragic accident! Pack up your bags, you two are moving in with me now.”

What on earth has happened? I wondered, surely they did not die!

By the time my aunt arrived to pick us up, we had collected all our belongings in one suitcase for each one of us.

As we sat down in the car and were belted, my aunt began to explain to us what happened.

“In the newspaper it said that your wonderful parents…”, she stopped to blow her nose, “Your parents have been among the unfortunate five people that were eaten by a rhino who managed to escape London Zoo. Please forgive me for not telling you this earlier, I just found out this morning…”

My aunt’s sentence trailed off. I could not stop the tears from gushing down my face. Tim started crying uncontrollably too. No wonder they had not come. I felt so terrible for them. Their hopes and dreams all perished in one moment. I immediately remembered the last sentence mum said to me. “Hope it all goes well! This is the first time you two are home alone. Don’t forget to take care of Tim!”

Take care of Tim. Take care of Tim. The words echoed in my head for the rest of the ride.

“We’re home!”, Aunt Josephine said with a small smile, trying to lift up our spirits.

Tim, who was speechless during the whole ride, managed to give her a wiry smile through his tears.

The house was so pretty, the bright green trees behind the house, the sun casting shadows on them, birds chirping, and squirrels running. It was the best welcome I had ever had to a new house.

Everything went smoothly as we settled in the new home. We had our own rooms once again and huge libraries and swimming pools.

Then one sudden day, six months after we settled in, my brother and I caught sight of a rhino coming from a random zoo, and hurrying down the block where there was an outdoor festival going on. Tim called the zookeepers and told them about the situation. The zookeepers managed to catch the rhino in time and everything went back to normal in the zoo.

To this day, as I am telling this story for the umpteenth time, I am proud to be a professional zookeeper.