When Life Turns Upside Down

Majeda Dakkak

Professor Alexandra Peat

CRW 100

Story Title: When Life Turns Upside Down

She stared at herself in the darkness. Everything around her seemed foreign. The brown chair at the corner of the room seemed like a demon trying to attack her. The mahogany bed looked unbelievably large and empty. She could not understand nor make sense of what was happening. The woman standing in front of her was now a stranger. Her bleak eyes revolted her. The hollowness of her reflection reminded her of her misery. It reminded her of her despair. This hollowness took her back in time to when her life was turned upside down.

It was a hot summer day. The children were playing outside, and the grass spread beneath their feet like a bright green carpet. The beach ball was being tossed back and forth while their loving golden retriever ran around the children wrapping them with love and playfulness. Meredith was inside the kitchen cooking and looking at her happy children through the window when she saw him come and add a beautiful touch of love and fatherhood to the picture she was seeing behind the glass window. Spencer threw the ball, carried their daughter while their youngest son wobbled after them in his bright red shirt, and diaper. She couldn’t help but smile at the view of her three kids, and husband, playing under the sun. It was the perfect image of summer, fun, and sincere family love.

Meredith took the food outside where they set it on the brown table. The five of them sat around the table under the yellow umbrella. They ate the food, and she looked at the faces of her family thanking God for her blessing. Her husband had the spark of manhood and sweetness in his eyes as he smiled and passed the ketchup to their oldest son. She looked at his loving gestures and smiled, remembering that his eyes were what first charmed her. She turned her gaze to look at her two sons and daughter. Their eyes were a replica of their father’s yet their innocent smiles were ones that to her, were not possessed by anyone in this world. They were a mix of sparkle, purity, mischief, and love.

As they ate their homemade burgers and French fries, Meredith got a sudden feeling of urgency. She did not know why or how, but she immediately told everyone to go inside. Feeling confused and disappointed, the children went inside and rested on their favorite sofa in the living room. Spencer held her hand and led her to the brown chair in their bedroom as she trembled. She couldn’t understand what was happening to her. Spencer tried to act calm, but he was worried about his one and only love. She looked into his eyes and started crying. She was scared. Her heart was beating fast; she could hear noises inside her head. Her ears were ringing, and she did not feel well. She tried to explain to him “I feel like I am being invaded” but he couldn’t quite understand what she meant.

He left her to rest while he went downstairs to sit with his children when he heard a huge crash. The youngest started crying, and Spencer rushed to their bedroom to find the windows shattered. His wife was standing across from him looking as pale as the walls around him. Her eyes were filled with fear and surprise. “I feel invaded” she repreated with tears falling from her watery eyes. Spencer stood there, unable to know how he should react. He took a step back but she ran to his arms, crying and shivering with fear. “Help me! I don’t know what is happening to me. I need you. Help me”. He hugged her, really hearing the desperateness in her voice, but he had no clue what was happening to his serene loving wife.

He sat her down on the brown chair again, and asked her to explain what happened. “I was sleeping in the bed, when suddenly I felt a force inside of me pushing me to get up. I tried to resist it, but I felt powerless. I heard voices in my head but it was loud and I couldn’t understand. Then I just saw myself in front of a broken window”. Spencer had heard something like that before, but it was on television not real life. Can movies come to reality? Can his wife really be haunted? Why? Why her? He traveled into a deep realm of thought till suddenly his daughter called for him. He came back to his senses and decided that it was impossible.

His daughter was holding her favorite doll in her arms. “Daddy, they hurt her. Make it better” she frowned as her words left her mouth like pixy dust. Spencer looked at his daughter’s favorite doll; there was a missing leg. He knew his daughter well enough to eliminate the possibility of having her break her favorite doll. Her delicacy and tender were invincible parts of her and it was impossible that she would do such a thing. His son was lost in his world of television and he was too sweet of a boy to ever break his sister’s heart. He stood there, suddenly terrified and filled with a feeling of danger. Spencer told the kids to put their shoes on and took them outside. He did not know if he was escaping or if there was anything he should be escaping from, but the incidents that have happened in those long hours of a hot and humid summer afternoon terrified him.

As Spencer closed the huge house door, he saw his wife looking from the broken window with tears in her eyes. He knew he was right. He knew it was best to take the kids to a safe place then come back and rescue her from whatever is tormenting her mind and body. But the tears in her eyes were not tears of despair; they were loud and angry tears. As he looked deeply into her distant eyes, he saw it as clear as the sky. She, or whatever is haunting her is after him. He had to escape. He was human and he was lost in the world of fear and confusion. He wanted to take his kids away -that was his number one concern. They rode in the car and drove down the empty almost deserted roads of their valley.

The ride seemed long, and the endless questions of his children were like thunderstorm in his ears; loud, uncontrollable, and striking. When they got to his parents house, Spencer told his inquisitive mother than Meredith is sick and he did not want her to get the children sick. He kissed his three angels and drove back to the house that once consisted of nothing but love, security, and joy. From the outside, the house looked the same, but unusually deserted. He fearfully went and walked around the house hearing his footsteps that echoed in his ears and mind. As Spencer entered the bedroom, he found Meredith sitting on the floor screaming at him telling him to get out. He tried to come closer to her, but she pushed him away “leave! I’m dangerous. Leave me here. Go, go away. You can’t be here, they’ll kill you. Go away Spencer!” she was crying and yelling at him but Spencer wouldn’t leave his beautiful wife to suffer. “It’s okay, don’t worry. I will help you Meredith. It’s okay” he tried to say those words, but he knew that in each letter was an infinite maze of questions and doubt. How can he help her without knowing what has suddenly happened to her?

His world of thought was disturbed when he heard weird voices coming from behind him. A cold chill went over his body, and he knew right away that she was right. In a speed faster than light, he stood up and turned around. Meredith was on the floor begging him to get out. He looked at her still feeling an odd cold chill through his body, and remembered the laughter of their children when suddenly he was pushed to the floor. He fell and dropped a cup that was on the table, scattering glass on the floor again. He was being attacked. The frightening sounds, the screaming and begging of his wife, the laughter of his children haunted his mind and thoughts. He managed to escape and get to his parents’ house, but the thought of his lonely wife tortured his heart.

Two weeks have passed, and Meredith was surrendering to her unexpected fate, praying for some sort of explanation. Her husband and children left her, and she is alone with invisible strangers that are attacking and destroying her mind, body and soul. There was no escape except to hope for the mercy of time. Was their house haunted? Where did they come from? Why her? What did they want? She did not know. All she knew was that the woman she was seeing in the mirror was emotionally numbed, and dead.