Everyone Groaned

Flash Fiction

Everyone Groaned

“Where did everybody go?”

“They just disappeared,” said six-year-old Anna in her bored voice.

“Well, where did they go?” Andrea asked her sister, again. “There was a crowd when I went into the bathroom.”

“I told you; they disappeared.”

“Which way did they go?

“No way, they disappeared.”

“OK smarty pants. You must have been looking at something else, and didn’t see them go. I don’t think they were all together though… Did somebody say there was something happening somewhere and they all went to see?”

“I don’t think so, nobody was talking. I was looking right at them because one of the kids looked my age. I was going to ask her if she went to Millerand too, like me, but then they disappeared.”

Confused, Andrea tried again. “Which path did they take?

“They didn’t take a path, I told you, they disappeared.”

“Disappeared how…” Andrea tried again.

“They were all standing over there when you went into the bathroom, and then over there was empty, because they disappeared.”

“Like magic?”

“I don’t know a lot of magic…”

“And they weren’t talking?”

“No, I mean yes, they weren’t talking. But the one who looked like the girl’s mother had a buzzer and the buzzer buzzed a little noise just before they disappeared. Maybe the buzzer took them.”

Andrea was confused. She looked at Anna, maybe Anna was sick? Suddenly she decided getting Anna home was the best thing to do, just in case…

“OK, let’s go home,” she said in her calmest voice.

“OK…” Anna said sadly, Andrea was older, she always got to make the decisions.

Up in the spacecraft the captain turned to the group, “That was bad! But the humans seem to have taken it well. We’ll need another lesson in subterfuge!”

Everyone groaned.