The Voice
It was spring of the year 2005. Sarah, a five-year-old girl, chose to stay home alone.
“Why am I stuck at home?” Sarah thought to herself, “why didn’t I choose to go shopping with mommy?” She had just woke up from her afternoon nap, remembering that her mother had left her at home.
     “Mother, mother, mother,” she murmured quietly.
     “Go find something to do, Sarah,” a ghostly voice whispered.
     “Wha! What was that?” Sarah innocently questioned.
     “It’s me. The voice inside your head.”
     “What did you want to tell me again?”
     “Go find something to do instead of sitting around aimlessly.”
     “Alright.”
The sun came out, after a couple days of overcast. Sarah couldn’t go outside without her mother’s permission and her mother wasn’t here, so what was the point of wanting to go outside? So she began exploring the house, with hopes of finding something interesting to entertain herself. When Sarah wandered into her father’s room, something dazzled her. There was a pumpkin sitting under his workdesk.  Her father once told her that there were many secrets in his room and that Sarah must not venture around, especially if she wanted to sift through the drawers. So instead she decided to seek treasures from her mother’s room–the master’s bedroom. Sarah had not recently been in this extremely large room, except when she was really young, and she couldn’t remember.
     “Argh,” Sarah sighed.
She was too short to reach the curtains, too short to turn on the lights. Luckily, Sarah came across a stool so she could climb up on it to reach the curtains. Since the room all lit up at once, she saw a dazzling display of colors on the wall, from the pictures that she drew in preschool to some pictures of her father, mother, and herself. Sarah lay in her mother’s soft, comfortable, and warm king-sized bed, and lay there, daydreaming of a world beyond her own.
Suddenly, Sarah heard a rumbling sound. It sounded like the garage door, but it also sounded like a dog scratching on the front door. She ran to the front door, but heard no sound. All was silent, except for the sound of her breathing. There came a sudden sound. It first mysteriously appeared, while Sarah was listening to the pounding of her own heart and breath. It sounded like a squeak, from a mouse perhaps, but then the volume increased to sound like a whimpering puppy. The whimpering puppy then evolved to a calling, but not barking for help. After came the barking puppy. But following that was a medium-sized dog yelping. And later came the big dog defending its territory. What these voices were telling her, she did not know and she did not know why. The voices just increase in volume, louder and louder, stronger and stronger. Abruptly, a fierce lion somehow came along and wrecked out the whole house with his giant lion roar. “Stop it!”, Sarah violently yelled, but inside her head.  Then it was all over. The thoughts immediately flashed back-to the mouse, the puppy, the dog, the bull, the bear, the hyena, the elephant, the tiger, and the lion. To be honest, she really wanted to scream herself, but it just did not work. Sarah dropped her jaw, and mouthed, “Stop it!” Still, the words couldn’t come out!
“Help!” she screamed, this time out loud. Sarah started to cry. She sobbed and sobbed, feeling hopeless.
The voice appeared again, “When one is happy, they think kind thoughts, they say kind things. Similarly, when one is unhappy, they say mean and negative things, or they don’t even speak at all, so they put on a mad face. Also, when one is having fun, they tend to laugh and smile. It’s where all the happiness comes from. There are many ways to have fun. The simplest way would be to attend a party, hang out with friends, or cheer for your favorite sports team! That will definitely get you going.”
Sarah sat on the couch again, hopeless and reluctant. Suddenly, she remembered she was tall enough to turn on the TV to cheer for her favorite sports team. She loves to cheer for the Golden State Warriors, a professional basketball team in Oakland, California. That’s when it got her. She sat in front of the TV, cheering, and laughing, and smiling. Sarah was having an excellent and fantastic time! Time had gone by real fast. After the game had ended, Sarah was all sweaty and sleepy, having cheered hard for the Warriors. She crawled up onto the sofa, and fell fast asleep again.