The girl was sitting behind the bars. Her body kept shivering; tears ran out of her eyes endlessly. She sat there with her legs curled up with her body to keep herself warm. Her long hair, once beautiful and attractive with her delicate face, was tousled all over her back. She heard silence and saw darkness. It might have just rained; the humid cold air snuck into her bones and she shivered even more. She kept coughing and sobbed once in a while. She used to be a strong girl, always happy and had a perfect life. She rarely cried; but now, in the darkness, between the concrete and iron bars where she couldn’t even see her own hands, was crying her soul out.
Life has ups and downs, but it’s funny how things can change completely in such a short time. It was just a normal sunny morning when the girl woke up seeing the birds flying and clouds in the blue sky through the window, so perfectly blue it seemed a little unreal. Her parents were leaving the house for work; she gave them long sweet kisses and said “goodbye”. She started making breakfast for her younger brother while on the phone with her boyfriend happily. It was Saturday and she was letting her brother sleep in until breakfast was ready. Her brother has some rare disease and it gets worse every day, so she always took care of him as much as she could.
“Colin, come down stairs! Breakfast is ready!” The girl called with a smile when she finished setting the table.
Colin came down and greeted his sister. They ate breakfast joyfully. They talked about Colin’s art class and they were getting ready for it.
Suddenly, a sharp ringing came from the phone. Since they were almost late for Colin’s class, the girl picked it up without much care. After listening to the lady on the other end for a moment, “bang”, the phone was dropped to the floor. The anxious voice from the phone could still be heard, but the girl couldn’t hear anything. Her legs gave up and she fell on the couch heavily and stared out of the window without blinking as if she was separated from this world.
She saw the leaves and flower petals that had fallen on the ground; then she remembered once the leaves were so high up on the branches and the beautiful flowers were blooming. She saw the clouds had covered the sun and the sky had turned gray and gloomy; then she remembered this morning when the sun was still shinning and the sky was still blue. She saw the empty parking space and the tracks that were left by her parents’ car; then she remembered her loving parents when she kissed goodbye them from this morning. The sun came out from the clouds but nothing was the same now.
Colin sensed something was wrong. He asked “What happened?” but she just sat there like a statue. He picked up the phone and asked:
“What is happening? What did you say to my sister?”
“Is this the Brookes family? Mr. and Mrs. Brookes had been in a car accident and they passed away. I’m really sorry for your lost.” The lady replied.
Colin understood why his sister froze. He almost did, too. But he wailed. The girl’s heart was shattered by her brother’s wail, tears were going to slip out, but her eyes swallowed the pain. Then she forced herself to adjust her emotions and suggested to Colin “Let’s go and see if they are okay” as if their parents were still alive.
She took a deep breath and told herself to be strong. She called her boyfriend to pick them up so they could go to the hospital safely. But he answered without listening to what the girl had to say:
“You know what, I’ve been thinking we should breakup. I don’t want to do it over the phone, but……”
The girl wasn’t listening at all. She couldn’t deal with this at that moment; she had too much going on in her mind. She only knew Colin needed her so she had to be strong. She stood up and took Colin to the hospital.
They got to the hospital. Colin was sobbing very hard when he went into the room where his parents’ body lied peacefully. Everything was white around them, it was like heaven almost. The girl felt like she was floating into air. She wanted to; she wanted to go up to heaven so she could be with her parents, just like yesterday. The girl hugged her brother tightly, as they were the only people left on the Earth. Their tears were running like streams of river, their shoulders were wet from each other’s tears. They stared at the two white sheets above their parents for a long time and said “goodbye” forever.
They went home at dawn, holding each other’s hands and walked in silence. When they got near their house, they heard unusual noises. The girl walked closer courageously, with Colin following, they saw a group of guys stealing their stuff.
“Hey! Stop taking our stuff! Stop it! Hey! Stop it!” The girl yelled as she ran to them and tried to stop them.
One of the guys turned to run away when he heard her, but then he saw it was just a girl. He stopped and said: “Oh, look at who’s screaming?! A pretty little girl and a kid standing behind her!”
Colin wanted to protect his sister, so he walked up to the big guy without thinking of the consequences. As Colin tried to grab their valuables back, the big guy chocked him. The girl was panic and didn’t know what to do. When she looked around, she saw a brick near her. She quickly picked up the brick and hit the guy on the head with all the strength she had…… Then she couldn’t remember much of what happened besides the guy’s blood and Colin got sick from the abusively chocking.
Police came afterwards. They continuously asked her what happened that night, but her mind was out of order. She thought about why weren’t her parents picking her up from the police station and was Colin safe. Everything the police was asking her she couldn’t recall exactly. This was an unreal world to her. She was worn out by everything. Everything was in such a mess as if it was an endless nightmare: a nightmare that changed her life, a nightmare that she could never forget.
The girl was locked behind the bars for the entire night.
The sun finally rose after the longest night the girl had ever spent. The warmth of the world returned. She realized that the sun is still shinning, the flowers and leaves will be back the next year. Everything was going to be okay. Her parents would like to see her being cheerful and keep going with her brother. She knew if she was happy her parents were going to be happy in heaven.
“This is a brand new day, I won’t stop going.” She decided at last.