Lit Device Short Story

The Unknown Pieces to my Puzzle

I have always felt different from everyone. I am 13 years old. I have a brother Kyle who is 17, and a sister named Annie who is 18. My brother is like every jock that you see in school. He has the slick, thick brown hair that he gels and brushes every morning. His girlfriend is Rachel. She’s also 17 and has the cutest outfits. However, on the other hand, my sister Annie is more of a bookworm. She is 18 years old. Annie has some friends but her passion is reading. This is really random, but something odd happens every day. I walk around and people call out my name. “Alex how are you doing?” a lady at the supermarket once asked. It always boggled my mind how everyone knows my family. One day I decided to ask Annie and Kyle about my situation.

“Hey, Annie and Kyle can you guys come downstairs I have to talk to you guys,” I asked.

“Sure thing, we will be down in a minute,” Annie exclaimed.

“Ok what's on your mind Alex?” Kyle said slowly.

I hesitated, then said,“It’s been bothering me lately that everyone knows my name and always says hi to me in town. I don’t get it! I don’t know any of those people!”

I see Alex and Annie stare each other down and they don’t know what to say back to me. You could hear a pin drop in the room.

Kyle exclaims, “Alex that’s very strange, I honestly don’t know how people know your name.”

Annie adds on, “Yeah, just try not to be phased by it.”

“Ok, if you know anything or hear anything let me know,” I add.

I was walking around at the mall and people looked at me up and down. Every second I see one person look at me, then another. I really need to know why all of this is happening. I decide to go up to a stranger and see if they know me.

“Hi,” I shyly say.

“Hey, Alex”

“How do you know my name?” I exclaimed.  

“Oh, I, um saw you in the paper the other day,” The stranger said nervously.

“That’s not true”

“I have to go, see you Alex.”

I now know, for a fact that something is up. I mean, people don’t just know your name like that. What if I’m famous or something? But how? These questions keep swirling around in my head. Then it clicked, I remembered about a story like this, somewhat like mine. Somebody’s, parents weren’t actually their parents and their siblings too. The movie, “The Truman Show!” What if my life’s like that. No, that’s not possible. Wait, there could be a story on the news about me a long time ago that people still remember. Another thing too, was that I never saw any pictures of myself as a baby in the family room. When I go to Ashleigh’s house I always see pictures of her and her family. The are all together, smiling and it looks like there's definitely no secrets in their family. I decided to go downstairs to talk with mom about this.

“Hey mom, I feel like my life is really different from all my friends and that something is very odd.” I said nervously.

“Um, uhh, sweetheart don’t worry about anything like that. Your life will be different from your friends.”

“I know, but it seems extremely different. Every step I take someone says ‘Hi,’ to me and looks at me, as if they know me.”

In front of my eyes, I see my mom break down in tears. I’ve never seen her this way. She takes a deep breath, and tells me what I have been wanting to hear. The truth.

My mom explained, “Ok, Alex, I’m very sorry. We have kept this secret from you long enough. This is going to be a lot of information to take in honey. See, I am not your real mother, and your dad is not your real father. Your real parents died when you were three years old and we are actually your grandparents. This is a big reason why there aren’t many pictures of you with us when you were younger.”

Right now I’m balling, but I still manage to get out, “Are you Joking? You aren’t my real mom? This is insane! Ok, let me take a breathe for a second… So you are really my grandma? How did my parents die?”

“Yes, we are your grandparents, Kyle and Annie are your blood related siblings. We told them earlier than you, so they have known for a couple years now. We just didn’t tell you because we didn’t know if you could handle it. Your parents died in a car crash, and you guys were with me and your ‘dad’. “Also, your parents were movie stars so everybody knew them because they starred in plenty of movies.”

“Wait, how do people know my name then?”

“They know your name because you were on the news when they died. They showed a video of you and you looked exactly like your mom. Some feel like they know you and can relate to you because of your mom. People have known that you guys have grown up with us for most of your life. They see you and remember that you were on the news. I know this seems crazy right now, but I hope you understand. ”

“Mom/Grandma, what should I even call you now? I mean, thank you for telling me all of this. I think I’m just gonna go to my room right now to process all of this.”

“Call me whatever you want Alex.”

“Ok, bye Grandma.”

I walked up the stairs and every step I took a piece of anger came out. What seemed like a century, I finally got to my room. I sat on my bed in thought about all the things that have happened. I was confused, mad, and sad. I don’t get why MY parents had to die. I didn’t even get to grow up with them and have a childhood like my friends. I mean, I did grow up with my ‘grandparents’. Should I even call them that, is Mom or Dad better?”

2 hours have passed by now, I’m still thinking about all the possibilities and things that I could have done with my real parents. Then, I get this amazing idea. I’m going to search their names up on google to see if I can learn more about them. I then, realize I don’t even know their names.

“Grandma, what are my real parents names?”

“Steve and Patty Apple.”

“Ok, thanks so much,” I reply.

I walk up those dreaded stairs again to hopefully find out what I’ve been searching for. I get to my room, hop on my computer, and search up Steve and Patty Apple. The first thing that comes up is a video about the crash. I decide to watch it even though I know it will be painful. I watch the video, it’s the worst 1:06 seconds of my life. The person who hit them was a drunk driver. They were coming home from set on their latest movie when the crash happened.

I now have rewatched that same grueling video about 10 times, I still can’t get over that my whole life has been a lie. I’m happy though now that I know who my parents truly are. I still don’t know what to call my grandma and grandpa? Do I still call them mom and dad? I mean they did raise me to be who I am today. I decide to see how everything plays out and see where life takes me. I’m happy that I figured out the unknown pieces to my puzzle.