It Isn't The Same

            As little Johnny walked down the street on his way to school, he could never have guessed what would happen to him that day. He felt that today was an incredibly important day, and his daily fortune cookie that he had for breakfast had told him that good things would be coming his way in the near future. Johnny had a song in his head, and a spring in his step as he made his way to classes, ecstatic about the unending possibilities of today.  Would Susan finally talk to him? Would his parents win the lottery and spend most of it on gifts for him? Would he have a stroke of genius at school, and create something amazing and new that would shoot him into fame and fortune? Johnny was giddy with anticipation!

            He went to his first class, and everything seemed oddly the same as it had been yesterday. Mr. Thompson had the same monotone drawl, the kid behind him kept kicking his seat, the class started and ended at the same time as usual, and he left the class feeling slightly odd. He retained his hopes, though. The day was far from over, as it had just begun. He made it to his next class with much the same optimism he had in the first class. Susan was in this class. He had been trying to get her attention for a few weeks now, but she never seemed to notice. Maybe today was the day! He sat up straight, made sure his shirt wasn’t wrinkled like it had been a few days before (that was embarrassing), and waved in her direction. Once again, she didn’t pay him any attention at all, but turned away to talk to a friend of hers, Veronica. That was unnervingly similar to what had happened yesterday. They even had the same laugh! Johnny reasoned with himself that people don’t change the ways they laugh, though. They tend to laugh the same way from day to day, that wasn’t unusual. Just as the rest of the day had not been unusual.

            The day continued to not stray from its lack of conformity to Johnny’s standard day (it even had the same amount of hours, for Pete’s sake!), and Johnny felt a seed of doubt grow and fester in his mind. Lunch was the same: loud people everywhere, a ham and mayonnaise sandwich with Pringles, which were as good as they usually were, and a distinct lack of fireworks, magical midgets, or anything out of the ordinary like that. As he walked home from school, he thought that something extraordinary had to be going on at his house. The feeling that something was special about today crept back into him, and he soon knew that something would be at home that would change his life forever. The fact that the Hartfords’ dog barked at him as he walked by, exactly as it happened every other day, didn’t dampen his spirits. Something was going to happen at home.

            Johnny got home, and his mom was watching TV, exactly as she always did on weekdays. She asked how his day was, gave him a hug, and told him to go do his homework like a good boy, exactly as she always did. He suspected that this was a trap to divert him from the surprise in the kitchen, so Johnny made a quick peek in the kitchen, only to find absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. He made his way up to his room, and he found that the door to his room was cracked open. He rushed inside, and found the family ferret, Gorgonzola, playing on his bed. Dismayed, Johnny moved Gorgonzola off of his bed, and started doing his homework. Dinner came, and nothing happened.

            His bed time came at the same time it always had, and as Johnny laid awake, staring at the ceiling fan in his room, which squeaked quietly exactly as it had for the past 2 weeks, he realized that nothing had happened today that hadn’t happened every other day. His fortune cookie had lied to him, he had that feeling for the whole day, and it had been wrong. Johnny felt cheated. Why had he felt this way all day, when nothing had gone as it shouldn’t have? He realized that, if he wanted anything to change, he had to change it himself.

            Late that night, Johnny snuck into his parents’ room as they slept. He went to the night stand on his father’s side of the bed, found the wallet laying on top of it, and took the first credit card he saw. He then snuck into the living room, bought a plane ticket to Tibet and a bus ticket to the airport. He was gone the next morning.