We Are A Family

"FREDA!"

She's not there.

"Huh?"

It takes me a minute to notice the sheer difference of scenery my eyes are seeing right now. I'm in a room. More precisely, it's my own room.

"Wait, what?"

I lower my head and realizes I'm sitting on my bed. I can't believe it. It feels like just a moment ago, our family suffered from a car crash.

That truck is at fault.

And there I am, wearing a plain, white shirt. As if the accident didn't happen.

"Was it all just a... dream?"

No, it can't be. It felt too real. The pain, I can still feel its lingering sensation in my muscles. At least, what's left of it. I pat my ċhėst, searching for that gaping hole from the metal rod piercing through me before. It's not there.

"Freda..."

I quickly leap onto the wooden floor and reach out for the doorknob. It twists open just a second earlier and an old woman emerges behind it.

"Grandma?!" I exclaimed.

It has been. . . ten years? Anyway, I've not meet Grandma even once after our family moved to Osaka, Japan. The last time was certainly back at German.

I shake my head and take a few steps back. "Wait, why are you here, Grandma?"

Her expression is as confused as me. Her white hair is tied into a small bun at the back of her head. A red cotton shawl is draped over her shoulder, with a long-sleeved white blouse underneath. Her black, long skirt swishes a little when she takes a step towards me.

Grandma squints straight into my eyes, perhaps wondering if I'm insane or something like that.

"Klaus Weber!" Grandma said.

"Y-Yes!" Suddenly, I stand straight into attention. I guess it's the first time I've heard someone calling me by my full name, other than my teachers.

"Do you know you're late now?"

"What?" I shift my gaze to the round, wall clock above my desk. "It's eight thirty already?!"

"I come here to see what you've been up to. And yet, you're still not dressed," Grandma said.

"I-I'm..."

What is even happening anymore?

You know, I don't care. I'm late and that's all I want to think right now.

I pull open my cupboard and buŧŧon my school uniform in a jiffy, put on my black blazer and blue tie with yellow stripes easily. Grandma turns around and goes downstairs, and I immediately put on my tailored trousers. My hands scramble for my school bag, and with that in my hand, I step out of my room.

Now I'm literally insane.

"In case you're wondering! Aoi has left earlier!" Grandma shouts from downstairs, "She said you took too much time!"

"Who?!"

Who is this Aoi? Among the girls, I know in my school, there's a few 'Aoi'. But, definitely, no one of them waits for me at my house to go to school.

I rush to the front door and put on my shoes. "Bye, Grandma!"

"Watch out for the cars!" She replies.

My legs run as fast as it can to the Shizumi junior high school. At this pace, I could reach the front gate by 8:45.

My Shizumi junior high school requires its students to arrive at the school ground by 8:30. After that, you're considered late.

Of course, I'm beyond saving at this point. And I forgot to put on my watch.

But that day is an anomaly, so there's that.

I run straight to my classroom and slides the door open. The class has definitely started when all of those present in there staring at me.

"Er, Miss Takahashi!" I call, still catching my breath.

She tilts her head at me as if I'm a stranger, which I'm very sure I'm not. I sweep my gaze around the classroom quick. There's a male student in my seat, which is in the last row in the middle column. I recognize my classmates, but their response is the opposite of what it should be.

Their faces are basically saying, 'Hey, I don't know you,' or 'Are you from another class?'

Trust me, their expressions are scaring what little sense I have left.

"Um, I think you're at the wrong school," Miss Takahashi said, pointing at my blazer.

"This is. . . my school." My eyes are wide open when the school logo I'd expected sewed on my blazer is something else entirely. It's a different school logo.

"This isn't right," I mumble, looking back at her. "This is my class, Miss Takahashi! I study here."

Which I'm not.

"Who are you? That's my seat!" I call out at the student sitting at my desk.

"Miss, he's out of his mind!" says a girl.

"You. . . Inori! You remember me, right?!"

That same girl watches me with her gaping mouth. "How do you know my name?"

"That's because I'm from this class," I insist. This has to be a joke that the whole class plays on me. Yes, it has to be.

Miss Takahashi approaches me and purses her lips. "I'm afraid this is not your class. Not even your school at that. Look, I'm sure you're late but you can still make it to Yokoyama Ichi Junior High."

"What? But. . ."

An idea pops in my mind at that instant, with my feet dragging me to the teacher's office.

I lean towards the desk, where Mr. Sato is skimming through my class's name list. "But I'm a student of this school!"

He sighs and put away his glasses. "Look, I don't know what you're planning here, but your BLAZER is saying otherwise. You're not from this school, Klaus Weber."

"That can't. . . be." I refuse to admit it and snatches the name list from his hand. "My name has to be here!"

"Hey! Give that back!" Mr. Sato grabs the name list away from my grasp. "Get out! Of this school!"

The other teachers are staring at us, specifically me.

I grit my teeth and walk out of the teacher's office, and eventually out of the school itself. Without looking back, I drag myself to Kema Sakuranomiya Park.

Upon arriving, I set my hands on the waist-high metal railing, separating me from a branch of the Yodo River.

A few passersby look at me strangely, but I ignore them.

I feel like tearing up. I know I shouldn't do that, however, everything happens so fast. And everything disappears from my life in a snap of a finger.

There's no Freda. No Mom, or Dad too. Where are they? And Grandma just appears out of nowhere in that house.

"And who is Aoi?" I said.

The thin branches of a cherry blossom tree near me is clearly visible since its February.

"What's happening to me?"

All these questions that I have in my head keep bugging me. It doesn't make sense. The only thing that I can conclude from all this, is the fact that I'm in a dream.

Yes, it has to be it. It must be.

I squeeze at the metal railing. Unfortunately, the sensation of touch is there, making me doubt that it's even a dream.

Filling with despair, I force myself to head back home. Disappointed, crushed, sadness, perhaps even feeling broken at what is transpiring around me.

"Can I meet them again?" I asked myself. "What I'm talking about? Freda's no more. Dad's no more. And so is Mom." My right foot kicks a pebble without me realizing. "Why am I here then?"

Indeed, I'm alone there, in that similar yet unknown world. A world where my family doesn't exist. A world where I'm a completely different person.

"And what school is this anyway?!" I pull at my blazer to get a better look at that unfamiliar school logo. My blazer is the same black that I knew, but my tie is a bit different, which I regret not noticing until now. The red tie has white stripes on it, instead of the color yellow. "Where is Yokoyama Ichi anyway? Sure never heard of it."

And I don't care, honestly. This void in my heart is swallowing any emotions I have. If Mom and Dad are not here, then why should I care about going to school? If Freda's not here, I don't have to worry so much about her anymore.

To put it bluntly, I might as well be a free man as of now.

"Heck, what am I saying?" I shrug the wicked thoughts off my head and continues my slow walk to my house.

What makes it worse is that when I open the front door, there's that old woman who greets me. Instead of Mom or Freda, it's the grandmother I bȧrėly knew.

"Aren't you supposed to be at school?" Grandma asks as I put away my shoes.

"No, because I don't even know where my own school is," I reply.

"Did something happened?" Grandma prompts, watching me climbing up the staircase.

"Well, my life happens. A life that I don't know exists."

I slam my door and throw my school bag on the bed.

"What is real anymore?"