• “Ah,” Latrice murmured, her dream getting nicer and nicer. Behind her, a girl whispered to another girl, “Should we really do this? It’s quite mean.”

    “What she did was meaner. And anyway, it’s her fault for giving us this chance to punish her. People shouldn’t be sleeping so soundly at this time of the day.” The other girl pointed out. Her fellow orphan nodded and moved forward. She raised the baseball bat in her hand and hit Latrice’s head with full force.

    Latrice jerked awake and cried out in pain. Her head suddenly felt as if a thousand rocks had been poured over her it and then immediately washed with icy cold water afterward. And then the world spun around her and then nothingness.


    “I’m really excited about today’s trip. I wonder what I should buy...” Latrice could hear a girl say as she exited the bathroom. She could not believe that she had actually accidentally overheard two people talking about their stash away pocket money for the trip, which was tomorrow.

    Was death the punishment for what she had done?

    Later that night…

    Latrice moaned. Her head was echoing with birds’ bright, cheerful chirps.

    Later that night…

    Some distance away, a cow mooed.

    Later that night – Damn! Latrice slowly fluttered her eyes open. What she saw surprised her. She was in a some sort of a farm, with the Sun gazing down at her happily using his wonderful rays. She sat up. Far ahead, a flock of sheep passed by her, totally oblivious of her presence.

    Latrice pushed to her feet. What was that all about – a dream about her two fellow orphans? Suddenly she couldn’t quite remember. Where am I? Did the nuns kick her out of the orphanage? If they did, why choose a farm?

    She looked up. The sky was a heavenly blue, almost too heavenly to be real. Around her, the fresh grass stretched to eternity. Well, she had better find the farmer or whoever it was that ran this place. She glanced to her sides. There was a cow standing beside a tree, jumping up and down. She began walking in a wobbly way.

    Wait a minute – a cow jumping up and down? Latrice looked back, but the animal was no longer there. Probably just my imagination. She stared at her surroundings as a place she had never been to before, not just as a farm. Now that she thought about it, there were no warehouses, no lighthouses and no sign of human life except for her.

    She began running now, without really knowing where she should head, but just running. After a while, she stopped, exhausted. And then she felt something in the ground stir. She looked down. Her eyes widened in delight at the sight of a brown-haired boy groaning to himself, a pained expression on his face. She wasn’t alone after all!

    She squatted down and poked the boy at his sides. More groaning. She checked his pulse. Alive. She was glad that she had a companion now, but the question still nagged her mind. Where on earth am I?

    But the truth was, she was no longer on earth.