“Are we there yet?” Michael whined to his mother.
“Does it look like we’re there yet?” she spat back at him.
“No.” Michael groaned from the back seat of the car.
“Anna, chill your grill! It’s been three hours. Just relax.” a voice said from the driver’s seat, “We’re almost there.”
All the noise woke up Eliza. She had fallen asleep whilst listening to her iPod. She brushed her golden hair out of her eyes and quickly picked up her phone, turned on the camera and looked at her face in horror. Michael was giggling so hard when Eliza let out a helpless wail. Michael had drawn an ugly moustache on her face with a black texta.
“Mum!” Eliza yelped, “Look at what Michael did to me!”
Anna turned around and saw Eliza’s face.
“Tony!” She gasped and Eliza’s Dad stopped to pull over and looked at her face.
“Oh, Michael.” he sighed, “Why?”
“Well, she was sleeping and...I just couldn’t resist!” Michael replied, still laughing.
“Eliza, go get some water in the park and wash it off,” Tony said. Eliza stomped off into the park towards the taps and madly scrubbed her face with her sleeve, until it hurt too much to continue.
She took her phone out of her pocket to look again, there was a huge red mark above her lip and a faint black moustache, it was an improvement, but it didn’t stop Eliza from wanting to strangle her brother.
As she left the park she saw a sign that read ‘North Teafall Park’ Eliza began to run out, grinning ear to ear. When she got out she squealed, “We’re here!”
“Well, Yeah.” Tony said, “I didn’t just stop so you could wash your face.” Eliza turned to give Michael a ‘death stare’ but he was already running towards a giant tree.
“Eliza, can you please go get Michael. “ Anna asked “We need to go find our holiday house.”
“Fine.” Eliza groaned, and stomped off towards the tree.
North Teafall was a quiet little town; the houses looked more like cottages and the gardens outside them were very well kept, daisies, roses and so many more beautiful flowers were blooming in the emerald grass.
Eliza walked up to the tree to find Michael, but she couldn’t see her brother anywhere.
“BOO!”
Eliza screamed and stepped back, only to trip over a large branch.
“Michael!” she screamed.
“Na, Na,” Michael taunted, “You can’t catch me!”
“Michael!” Eliza shouted even louder, “Get back here!” she yelled as he started to climb up the ancient tree.
“I bet you can’t catch me!” Michael teased.
Eliza sighed, reached up to grab the nearest branch and pulled herself up. She stood up on the next branch so she could reach the one above her, once she got to the very top Eliza grabbed Michael and pulled him down by the ear.
Eliza stopped only one step down from the top to see that Michael hadn’t moved.
“Do you want me to take this ear off?” Eliza growled.
There was a loud snap and Eliza looked down at her feet. The branch below her had snapped! They must have been twenty metres from the ground.
“Michael!” Eliza screamed as she fell from the branch, “Help!”
Eliza fell with a thud and she felt extremely dizzy, the last thing she saw was Michael running towards her.
---------
Eliza woke up still underneath the tree, but Michael was nowhere in sight. She expected him to jump out any moment.
“Michael?” she called, “Where are you?”
But instead of Michael jumping out, a little red car pushed itself into the park. Three people stepped out; a tall man with brown hair, a woman of average height with shoulder length black hair and a young boy with brown hair. It was Eliza’s family.
But wait, Eliza thought, didn’t they get here with me?
The boy who looked like Michael began to run towards her.
“Michael!” Eliza shouted, “Why did you leave me?” The boy looked confused.
“Um, who are you?” the boy asked.
“I’m Eliza, you dimwit!” she replied, “and you’re Michael, my little brother!”
“I don’t have a sister” Michael stuttered.
“Sure you do! I’m her! Mum and Dad want you to be back, now!” she said angrily.
The man who looked like Tony came up to the tree where they were standing and grabbed Michael’s arm.
“C’mon, Michael” he said.
“Dad!” Eliza called, “You remember me, right?”
The man looked confused, too.
“I don’t have a daughter,” he said.
Tony’s words stabbed like knives. Surely he had to remember her. Eliza was his daughter!
“Wh-What?” Eliza stuttered, but the man and his son were already walking away.
---------
Eliza had been walking for an hour. She had nowhere to go, as her family did not remember her. She had practically seen all of North Teafall; the farms, the shops, the parks and everything else.
Eliza pondered every possibility for the incident. Somehow they all got amnesia, she hit her head so hard that she couldn’t understand what everyone was saying or, she was just dreaming. The last one seemed the most likely for Eliza, but it just seemed so real.
Eliza kept walking, just thinking about what she could do until a big, yellow sign stopped her. It read ‘South Teafall’.
This place was nothing like North Teafall, it had factories, smog clouds, tunnels, bridges and cars everywhere, the only thing that looked bright and cheery was a small shop called ‘Jimmy’s Rent-a-bike’.
It was getting late but Eliza needed more time to think, she went towards the shop and rang the bell on the counter. To be honest it looked more like a lemonade stand than a bike store.
“How can I help you?” A tall, brown haired man with a bushy moustache said from the counter.
“How much to rent a bike for an hour?” Eliza asked.
“Just five dollars”, he said, “We don’t get much business around here so we make it cheap”.
“Okay,” Eliza said, “I’ll take one.”
“Okay I’ll be right back with that.” The man smiled. Then he walked out the back of the stand, 2 minutes later he came back with a sky blue, vintage bike.
“Thanks,” Eliza said, still quite glum about her family.
“Why the long face?” the man asked as he wheeled the blue bike out of the stand.
“This is going to sound crazy,” Eliza sighed, “but, nobody remembers me.” The man looked somewhat scared, she expected him to laugh but instead he just stared, he made a face like he was thinking, but all the while he didn’t take his eyes off Eliza.
“When you come back,” he said, “I have something for you.”
Eliza smiled her thanks and rode off on the bike.
She thought of all the series of events that could have led to her being erased from everyone's memory, she washed her face, she chased Michael up the tree, she fell, and then they all forgot.
---------
When she got back, the man was still there, waiting for somebody to come.
“Good” he said, “You’re back.” Eliza nodded.
“I can help you with your problem,” He said and Eliza frowned, “Name’s Jimmy.”
He said. “Come,” Eliza left five dollars on the counter and followed.
Jimmy led her to the tree in the park where she fell.
“Were you here when it happened?” he asked, “When they all forgot?”
“Yes,” Eliza replied, unsure of what to think, “How did you know?”
Jimmy smiled, “When I was your age I climbed the Teafall tree, “I fell from way up there,” he said pointing to the exact branch where Eliza fell, “When I woke up, I was completely forgotten.” he sighed,” but I learned a thing or two.” Jimmy walked up to a hollow in the tree and said something in a weird language that Eliza did not understand, then he sang a poem into the tree:
Oh tree, Oh tree
Show us the light
Oh tree, Oh tree
We don’t want to fight,
Oh tree, Oh tree,
Show us your people,
Oh tree, Oh tree,
Without any wheeple.
Jimmy repeated the poem and stood back, as if expecting something to happen, and it did. The hollow lit up and green sparks blasted out, Eliza and Jimmy stepped back so they didn’t get hit. Eliza closed her eyes in case the light blinded her. The light died down and Eliza opened her eyes and looked beside her, she expected to see Jimmy, but instead Michael was by her side and shouting at his mum and dad to come closer. She had been asleep. Had it all been a dream?
---------
The next day Eliza took her family to Jimmy’s rent-a-bike. Eliza skipped up and sat on the counter.
“Oi, off the counter!” Jimmy growled. Eliza smiled and looked up at Jimmy, he smiled back.
“Thank you.” Eliza said
