MidReal Story
Cereal's Visions: Unveiling Destiny
Scenario: My cereal predicts the future.
Create my version of this story
Jamie Carter
sibling to Emily, sister to Emily and friends with Alex, long blonde hair, mischievous and humorous
Alex Torres
supportive friend to Emily, friends with Emily and Jamie, tall and athletic build, logical and brave
Emily Carter
discoverer of the cereal's power, friends with Alex and siblings with Jamie, short with curly brown hair, curious and skeptical
I was eating breakfast when I noticed something strange.
I was eating my favorite cereal, and I happened to look down at the box.
The headline on the front of the box read: “Local Girl Saves Cat from Tree.”
I thought it was weird, but I didn’t think much of it.
I poured myself another bowl and sat back down at the table.
When I looked down at the box again, the headline had changed.
Now it read: “Local Girl Saves Cat from Tree, Then Gets Hit by a Car.”
I dropped my spoon into my bowl with a clatter and stared at the box in shock.
What kind of sick joke was this?
I picked up the box and turned it around in my hands, but there was nothing on the back or sides of the box that could have caused this.
I put it back down on the table and looked at the headline again.
It was still there.
I was obviously not awake yet, so I picked up my spoon and started eating again.
“Hey, don’t eat all the cereal,” my younger brother, Jamie, said.
“I’m getting more,” I told him.
“Don’t worry.” I picked up the box and poured myself another bowl of cereal.
“Geez, Em,” our friend, Alex, said.
“You’ve already had three bowls of that stuff.
I think you’re gonna turn into a giant Cheerio if you eat any more.” He laughed and shook his head.
“Ha ha,” I said dryly.
“Very funny.” I thought it was strange that he was so amused by me eating a lot of cereal, but I shrugged it off and went back to eating.
As I reached for the milk to pour some more over my cereal, I glanced at the box again.
The headline still read, “Local Girl Saves Cat from Tree.”
I frowned at it for a moment, then looked over at Alex and Jamie.
“Do you guys think the newspaper would actually publish an article about someone saving a cat from a tree?”
Alex shook his head.
“I don’t know why they would,” he said.
Jamie shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s not like we have anything else for them to write about in this town,” she pointed out.
“We’re so small that they’re always looking for something to fill up space on the front page.
Although,” she added, “I think they would probably put an article about saving a cat from a tree on the front page if someone did it around here.”
Alex laughed and nodded.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said.
I smiled and shook my head, unconcerned with whether or not an article about saving a cat from a tree would make it to the front page of our local paper.
I turned back to my bowl of cereal and went back to eating.
“What does the box say?”
Jamie asked as she leaned over to look at the front of the box.
It says “Local Girl Saves Cat from Tree” on the front, but that’s not what the headline is about.
It’s just… weird that they would put that there in the first place.”
“That is weird,” Jamie agreed.
I nodded in agreement, then turned back to my cereal and continued eating.
“So, are you going to save a cat from a tree today?”
Jamie asked me.
I laughed and shook my head.
“I’ll see if any cats get stuck in trees while I’m walking home from school.
If I find one, I’ll make sure to save it so that the newspaper has something to write about tomorrow.”
“You’ll definitely be the hero of the day if you do that,” Alex said with a laugh.
“You might even make it into the special edition of the newspaper that they publish once every fifty years.” He laughed and shook his head at me.
I looked over at him and frowned.
There was something weird about the way he was laughing that made me feel uneasy, but I couldn’t put my finger on why that was.
It was like… It was like he was laughing at me, but he wasn’t.
I shook my head and pushed the thought out of my mind.
He’s just joking around, I told myself.
I kept eating my cereal while we chatted about how funny it would be if there was really an article about me saving a cat from a tree.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Jamie said.
“If there was an article about Em saving a cat from a tree, what would the headline be?”
I thought about it for a moment and then shrugged.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“I guess it would be something like ‘Local Girl Saves Cat from Tree’ or whatever it is.” I looked over at the box and saw that the headline still hadn’t changed.
“Then what would the second headline be?”
Jamie asked me.
I thought about it for a moment, then smiled when an idea came to mind.
“I think it would be something like ‘Girl Eats Twenty Bowls of Cereal in One Morning,’ or…” I trailed off as I looked down at the box.
The headline had changed again.
But this time, it wasn’t something funny or ridiculous like the other two had been.
This one was… different.
This one was…
I stared at it in shock, my eyes wide as I read it over and over again, praying that it wasn’t real.
But it was real.
“Hey, Em,” Alex said.
I didn’t say anything.
I just stared down at the box in horror as my heart raced in my chest.
“Em,” he said again, his voice a little louder this time.
“What does it say?”
I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times.
“It says that I save a cat from a tree… And then I get hit by a car.” My voice shook as I read the headline again.
“Girl Saves Cat from Tree, Then Gets Hit by a Car.” I shook my head and set the box down on the table, then turned to face Alex and Jamie.
They were staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell them what it said.
When they saw the look on my face, their own expressions changed from curiosity to concern.
“What’s wrong?”
Jamie asked me.
“Is everything okay?”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said.
“It’s… It’s just… that’s not funny.”
Alex and Jamie looked at each other, confusion written all over their faces.
“What do you mean?”
Jamie asked me.
“It was just a joke,” Alex said.
“You don’t really think that the cereal can predict your future, do you?
I stared at him for a moment before nodding.
“What are you talking about?”
Jamie asked me.
I shook my head and reached for the box again.
“You guys have to see this for yourselves,” I said as I turned it around so that they could read the headline.
They both leaned in closer and read it out loud.
“Girl Saves Cat from Tree, Then Gets Hit by a Car.” Jamie frowned and shook her head.
“What are you talking about?”
she asked me again.
I shook my head and handed the box over to her.
“Just read it again.”
She took the box from me and read it aloud.
“Girl Saves Cat from Tree…” She stopped and gasped, then looked up at me in horror.
“Then Gets Hit by a Car.” She set the box back down on the table and looked at Alex, her eyes wide with fear.
“Is this some kind of joke or something?”
she asked, her voice shaking.
Alex glanced at me and saw the look on my face.
He shook his head and picked up the box.
I watched as his eyes scanned over the headline a few times before he set the box back down on the table.
“No,” he said slowly.
“I didn’t touch it,” I said as I watched Alex pick up the box of cereal that was now sitting in front of Jamie.
“You guys saw me… I poured my cereal this morning and then I sat down to eat it.The headline was different a minute ago… It just changed.” Alex and Jamie exchanged another glance before looking back at me.
“You’re not serious, are you?”
Jamie asked me.
“You really think that the cereal predicted your future or something?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know what to think.”
“There has to be some kind of explanation for this,” Alex said as he picked up the box of cereal and turned it over in his hands.
“There has to be some kind of logical reason why the headline changed like that.”
“I hope you’re right,” I said as I watched him inspect the box of cereal.
He opened it up and pulled out the bag that was inside, then checked the expiration date printed on the side of the bag.
“It’s not expired yet,” he said as he set the bag back down inside of the box and closed it up again.
I shook my head and picked up the box that was in front of Jamie.
“What do you guys think?”
I asked them.
They both shrugged in response.
“I have no idea,” Jamie said.
“I’m just really freaked out right now.”
“Me too,” I said.
I shook the box and frowned when I heard something rattling around inside of it.
Alex took the box from me and opened it up.
“Maybe the company accidentally put a different bag of cereal into your box,” he said as he pulled out the bag.
He held the box open while I poured some of the cereal into my hand.
We looked down at the cereal in my palm and saw that there were no toys or prizes inside of it… Just plain old cereal.
“There’s nothing in here,” I said.
“No extra heads or anything.”
Alex shook his head and set the box down on the table.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said.
“I can’t think of any logical explanation for why the headline on your box would change.”
“So then what are we going to do?”
Jamie asked him.
Alex frowned and stared down at the box on the table, as if he was going to find some kind of answer hidden inside of it if he just looked hard enough.
“I think you should throw it away,” he said after a moment.
“If there’s something wrong with it, you wouldn’t want to eat it anyway.”
“But I don’t think there is anything wrong with it,” I said.
“I think…” I trailed off and shook my head.
I didn’t know what to think anymore, but there was one thing that I was sure about… The cereal wasn’t a mistake or a prank or an accident.
It was something else entirely, and I didn’t want to get rid of it just yet, not until I could figure out what was really going on with it.
Alex nodded and stood up from the table, then grabbed his cell phone off the counter where he had left it to charge overnight.
“Well, I’m going to go for my run now,” he said.
“If you need anything, just give me a call.”