Grand Prize Winner: Rachel Hoffman

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The Seer - download as a pdf

            It was a very bright and pleasant day.  The birds were chirping, kids were playing in their yards, and the sun was shining brightly in the cloudless sky.  But soon it would become the strangest day of my life.

            My family had just picked me up from softball practice and we were driving home.  We had just reached Fifth Street, when I noticed a smoldering skeleton of a house.  It was almost completely destroyed.  The blackened tail of a small aircraft stood out above the debris.  There was also a man, a woman and a girl who were standing in the middle of the rubble.  The girl looked to be around my age, and she was staring right at me.  I glanced at my parents in the front seat, apparently oblivious to the tragedy.  Why wasn’t anybody saying anything?  Surely someone must have seen that terrible sight.

            “Did you guys see that?!” I blurted, surprised that my family was so uncaring.

            “See what?” replied Dad.

            “That big burned-out house with people standing in it!  It’s kind of hard to miss!”

            “Well I didn’t see any burned–out houses.  Did you, Honey?”

            “I didn’t notice any,” said Mom.

            They didn’t see anything?  Do my ears deceive me?  I looked back at the house, but I couldn’t see it anymore.  All the houses that I saw were completely normal.  How could this be?  I know what I saw, and I know it was real.

            “Amy, are you okay?” asked my older sister, Amber.

            “What? Oh, yeah,” I replied distractedly.  “I’m just a little tired.  Softball really wore me out.”

            But softball wasn’t the problem.  Could I be seeing things…things that weren’t real… things that no one else could see?  And why?

            The rest of the ride was silent. When we finally got home, Dad told me to get some rest.

            “Yeah... rest… sure,” I mumbled, still wondering.   I went to my bedroom, where there would be no distractions, where I could just reflect on what I saw.  Why could no one else see it?  I felt sure it was real… I just knew it! I could smell the burning wood. Why was it suddenly gone when I looked back at it?  Maybe Dad was right.  Maybe all I need is a good rest.  Maybe it was a dream… just a dream…

            I woke up the next morning with “flying nun” bangs.  My eyelids were still heavy from sleep.

            “Well, it looks like someone didn’t have a good sleep,” said my mom as I entered the kitchen.   “Want some breakfast?  I made your favorite: Mickey Mouse double chocolate chip pancakes!”

            “No thanks, I’m not hungry.”

            “For a change,” mumbled Amber.  I ignored her and turned on the TV.

            The new came on with a special report from Fifth street:  “Late last night a single-engine private plane crashed into a home at 666 Fifth Street.  The house was immediately swallowed by flames and the entire family, John and Cathy Jones and their daughter Elizabeth perished.  Police have not been able to recover any bodies from the wreckage of the plane at this time, nor have they released any details about its potential owners.  Fire crews and hazmat teams responded quickly and worked through the night to limit the spread of the fire from the burning aviation fuel.  The FAA has initiated an investigation into the cause of this tragic crash.  Stay tuned to Eyewitness News for further developments in this bizarre case as they unfold.”

            The family looked unsettlingly familiar.  Then it hit me:  they were the people I saw in the rubble of the house yesterday! “Mom,” I yelled, “what street were we on yesterday when I started acting strange?”

            “ I believe we were on Fifth Street, as I recall.”

            Every muscle in my body tightened.  I knew that scene on TV looked familiar!  It was the crash site I saw!  What does this mean?  I saw something yesterday that happened today.  Does that mean I’m psychic?  Does it mean that I (gulp!) see dead people?   A shiver ran up my spine at the thought of it.

            “Get dressed, Amy, you need to go to school!”

            “School? Oh, right.”  I ran upstairs and got dressed.  I would never be able to concentrate with this on my mind.

            At the end of the day, I went to softball.  This was practice for the championship so I really needed to focus.  The game was just two days away, on April 5th.

            I was the pitcher.  I’m usually very good, but today I just felt weird, as if I was being watched.  I was about to pitch to my best friend, Emma, when I noticed a strange family in the stands.   I asked the coach who they were, since people not related to the players aren’t allowed to watch the practices.   He said he didn’t see anyone, so I just went back to playing the game.   But they kept staring at me with their piercing eyes, while me feelings of dread grew.  And then, they suddenly seemed familiar.  They were the Jones family!

            I fought to focus my attention on the game once more.  The coach didn’t see anyone, so why should I worry about it?  It’s just my mind playing tricks on me…

            When practice was over, I looked up in the stands again.   They weren’t there.  I chose to just forget about it.  There was no point in making a big fuss about it and having everyone think I’m crazy.  Emma’s mom gave me a ride home.

            “Thanks for the ride,” I called to her as I exited the van and walked toward my house.

            I rang the doorbell to see if anyone was home.  No one answered.  Usually my sister would be home, but she might have gone to a movie with her friends or something.   I took the spare key from under the front mat and opened the door.  I didn’t see anyone.  I bent down to put the keys back, and when I stood up I was face to face with the deceased Jones family!

            “Aaaaaaaaahh!” I screamed.  “What do you want?”

            “Amy! AMY!,” they  shouted.

            “What do you want?”  There were tears in my eyes now.

            “We want you to wake up!”

            “WHAT?” What does that mean?” I shouted, hoping someone nearby might hear me.

            Suddenly, I jerked upright, and my eyes opened.  I was on the ground in the softball field.

            “What? Where am I?”

            “You’re at practice, silly,” said Emma. “You were knocked out when the ball hit you in the head.”

            “What date is it?”

            “Today.”

            “What?”

            “Boy, that ball must have hit you harder than we thought!  It’s April second.”

            It was all a dream…

            The next morning, I turned on the news.

            “There was a crash and fire on Fifth Street yesterday evening,” the reporter started.  My blood froze.  “A large radio-controlled airplane being flown at a nearby park went out of control and smashed into the roof of a home at 666 Fifth Street.  A small fire erupted, which the homeowners quickly put out.  There was minimal property damage, and no one was hurt.”

            Whew!  That was a close one…