By: Jessie Sha

“The sun rises from the west and sets in the East. Wait. That doesn’t sound right. But it happens everyday… Something isn’t right. Every morning, I wake up at sunrise to watch it come up, only to find it looking odd. I just can’t seem to figure out what it is though.”

“Hey, everything ok?” My best friend Annalise asked, walking over.

“Ya, just thinking about something.” I answered, standing up from the small desk I was sitting at.

“Well, do you want to do something? This is a sleepover after all. And it’s my birthday, which I still can’t believe I’m turning 14!” She said, twirling her shoulder length brown hair.

“Sure, but what do we do?”

“I do have an ouija board we can play with.”

“Why, not? It sounds fun!”

“Annalise! Larisa! Come down to eat!” Annalise’s Mom called from the stairs.

“Coming Mom!” Annalise shouted, pulling me down the stairs. The scent of freshly cooked alfredo pasta filled my nose as I ran down the stairs chasing Annalise.

“Gocha!” I said, tapping her as we sat down. I turned to her mom, “Mmmm, this smells good, thank you again for letting me stay over.”

“No problem! It’s always great to have you over.”

“Mom!”

“What, I’m just saying.” After that, we finished eating quickly and ran upstairs. We talked about school, and then laid around wasting time until it was the perfect time to use the ouija board. Midnight.

“Ok, I’ll start.” Annalise said, setting up the board. “Spirit, spirit, how old am I?” The finger board moved. 14.

“Ok you go.”

“Uhm, spirit, spirit, what’s your name?” L U M I A

“Lumia, that’s a pretty name.” We continued playing, asking silly questions until it struck me. I could ask the spirit if the sun rises from the west and sets in the east.

“Spirit, spirit, does the sun rise from the west and set in the east?” I asked, my curiosity

“Of course it does! What kind of silly question is that?”

“No,” the spirit answered. That was all I needed to be convinced.

“What? That can’t be right. It’s just a spirit, you can’t believe her right?”

“I can, everyday, I watch the sun rise and set, and everyday it feels wrong like it’s not going in the right direction.”

“But then which way is it supposed to go?”

“Ask the spirit.”

“Spirit, which way is the sun supposed to move?” E A S T T O W E S T “That-that can’t be right. That is the complete opposite of what it normally goes by. Let’s just go to bed now.” Annalise said, pulling blankets over herself.

“Yeah, I agree, I’m getting tired.” I said, yawning and falling onto the bed. The next morning, when I woke up, the room was filled with sunlight, but I didn’t feel well rested at all. I had a peculiar dream.

“Goodmorning.” I said, rubbing my eyes to wake them up.

“Hey,” Annalise replied, rubbing her eyes and looking out the window.

“Wait, look outside!” I exclaimed, pointing to the window.

“What, why?” Annalise asked, jumping up and pulling the curtains back.

“Look at the sun.”

“Wait, it-it’s going from east to west.”

“Yeah, but how? Can’t be the spirit, right?” I asked, looking around as if the spirit was listening.

“I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“Maybe it always was this way, and everyday it looked backwards.”

“Or, this whole thing is a lie.” A lie. The thought echoed in my head, as if shaking me awake? I opened my eyes slowly and blinked awake.

“What?” I murmured.

“Get up sleepy head!”’ Annalise shouted, already dressed and leaning in from the door of her room.

“I’m up, what are you shouting about?”

“Nothing, just waking you up.”

“Ok. Wait, I have a question,”

“Yes?”

“Did you have a weird dream yesterday?”

“Uhm, now that I think about it, I don’t remember if I had a dream. Why?”

“Oh, I just had a weird dream about us.”

“Oh, what was it about?”

“About how the sun rises from the west and sets in the east.”

“Well, it doesn’t so that must be an interesting dream.” “Or, maybe that was just going to be what happens next.”