weekend adventure

My dad got a new job. It involved all of us going up to this remote hotel to live there during the off season. My dad got a chance to work on his writing, while mom & I had plenty of time to ourselves. My friend Tony warned us against going, but we went anyway.

Things turned horribly awry. The solitude and isolation had gotten to my dad, and he started to act a little stranger day by day. He began drinking again, even though we had been told there was no alcohol there. There were other people. I found a door open once, and the lady inside tried to strangle me. I began meeting other children. I heard my dad speaking to people that I couldn't see.

Then one day my dad snapped. He tried to attack my mom, but she was ready for it and overcame him. She locked him in the food-storage room, and we thought we were safe. However, we couldn't call for help or leave the snowbound hotel because someone, either my dad or one of those other people, had damaged the radio and the snowmobile. Tony tried to warn my mom that the others had released my dad, but it was too late.

He began breaking down the door to our room. I was able to escape through the bathroom window, but my mom couldn't fit. She told me to run, and I did - back into the house to hide. I didn't know what was going to happen to my mom. While I was hiding in the cupboard, I heard another voice, that of one of the people that I'd met when we first came to the hotel - the head chef. Then I heard my dad yell, and the chef screamed. When the screams abruptly stopped, I ran out of the cupboard and headed outside into the snow. My dad saw me and began to follow.

I ran into the hedge maze, not knowing where I was headed. My mom and I had been in the maze several times before, so I knew my way around. When I got to the center, I covered my tracks and hid, because as always, my dad was close behind, yelling my name. When he had passed me, I ran out, followed the tracks, and was able to leave the maze. I saw my mom running towards me, and I felt so relieved because I didn't know what had happened to her. We took the chef's snowmobile and never saw my dad again.

Oh wait. That was the midnight movie, The Shining.