“Beep! Beep! Beep!” my alarm rang loudly. I felt my long, blonde hair lying on my shoulder. I heard the birds chirping. I saw my fluffy, white kitten lying on my bed at my feet. I felt happy because I knew it was Saturday and I had a feeling that something different might happen.

When I got out of bed, I grabbed my hairbrush and gently combed through my blonde hair. Then, I opened my wooden, double doored wardrobe and scattered through my hanging clothing. I chose a pair of jeans, and a light sweater. When I walked down stairs, I smelt a whiff of pancakes. Then, my younger sister, Kylie, came down stairs also. “Oh, yum! Pancakes this morning Riley?” she asked, “yes,” I replied. We began to talk about how our neighbors were going to come over a little later and play Hide and Go Seek with us.

After we ate, I heard a knock at the door. It was my neighbors. “Come on in!” I told them, “Okay, rules are: we can hide any where in the house. You just can’t go outside.” I stated. “1..2..3..4..” My neighbor, McKenna, started counting. I ran up stairs. My neighbors and I always play this game, so they already knew where all my good hiding spots were. This time, I wanted to find the best hiding spot! I stood and thought for I while. “I got it!” I thought to myself. The only problem about this hiding spot was, my mom had never allowed me in this room before. The more I thought about the forbidden attic, the more tempted I was to enter it! I couldn’t take it any longer! I immediately ran to the door and swung it open. But to my surprise, there was nothing but a stone wall. This really left me baffled! I examined the wall for anything on it. And at the top of the wall, there were buttons with numbers on them! My excitement suddenly decreased when I couldn’t think of a combination. I sat for a while trying to think of any possible combination. I pinned in a couple of numbers, but still. Nothing happened! Then, I had noticed a word carved into the stone. I couldn’t fathom the letters though. I wiped that area of the wall off. After, I was able to read the word. “Hobbies?” I read. At first, I couldn’t think of anything that had to do with hobbies! Then, it popped in my head! If my mom is the one that doesn’t want me in the attic, than the word probably has something to do with her! So I thought about what hobbies my mother enjoys doing in her free time. She loves to knit! I rustled through her knitting basket, but no luck! Nothing in there could help me with the combination. As I began to reach my hand out of the basket, I felt a little pocket that was glued onto the side of the basket! I reached into the pocket and I felt a piece of paper. I unfolded it, and right there, on the piece of old looking paper, was a set of six numbers! “12-13-64,” I read. Now it made sense! That is my mom’s birthday: December 13, 1964. I pushed in those exact numbers on the stone wall. The old, grey wall moved! Behind it, was a beautiful room! It had purple tinted carpet, a beautifully designed roof top, and two windows that were covered with dusty, burgundy curtains.

I didn’t care about the game I was playing with my sister and neighbors. All I cared about was exploring this mysterious room! I wanted to be alone, and I didn’t want McKenna discovering the room with me in it, so just to be safe, I closed the door. As I walked around the room, I admired the gorgeous, old fashioned paintings on the wall and the adorable furniture that looked like it was from the 1800’s. There were boxes piled on top of boxes. I decided to take a look at a couple of the boxes. When I opened one of the boxes, dust flew everywhere! On the top of the inside of the box, was a silver scrapbook. Inside, there were many pictures of my mom and dad. It made me happy to see my father. He isn’t alive any more, so I love to see pictures of him! Lately, I have been really down about my dad not being alive. I mean, he died such a long time ago, but I still have a hard time coping with the situation. I wanted to explore the rest of the room, so I decided to close the scrapbook and put it away. As I was walking through the room, I noticed a candle lit on a shelf in the back of the room. I was curious as to why the candle just suddenly lit, so I walked over to it. I picked
up the candle to use the light to look at something else, and the brightest light I have ever seen in my life appeared on the back wall. I didn’t know what was happening! Out of my uncontrolling curiosity, I took a step further into the light. When I had opened my eyes, I had been surrounded by the most beautiful plants and trees! I was lying on the greenest grass anyone could ever imagine! And the smell, was a fresh, cinnamon smell. I sat up and saw animals just roaming free around the pastures. And the people there had the most kind, humble looks on their faces. Far in the distance, I saw a man sitting on an old tree stump feeding a deer. The man was wearing a white robe and had long, brown hair. I was curious as to who he was, so I walked up to him. Right as I was about to say hello, he said, “Hello Riley”. “How do you know my name?” I asked, “Riley, all those nights you have been praying about your father, I have been building more and more courage every day in you,” he said. “Thank you Lord,” I replied, “Can’t I just live here with you forever?” I asked. “There are many things that you still haven’t learned in life. Also, your family needs you,” he stated. I gave him a hug and started to cry tears of joy as I left this flawless place. Before I knew it, I was back in my hallway in my house. And I could hear my sister and neighbors calling my name.

From that day on, I had become stronger than ever. I had a lot more hope than before and I was noticing that every night my family and I spend together praying, makes us more hopeful and gives us more courage.