Unconscious | Teen Ink

Unconscious MAG

August 26, 2008
By Samaiya SILVER, Medellin, Other
Samaiya SILVER, Medellin, Other
7 articles 0 photos 9 comments

There was a dead girl in front of the library this morning. She was breathing, but she wasn’t alive. Whatever existence she’d had during her few years – I calculated she was around 13 – certainly wasn’t life. She was tossed carelessly on the trash-­littered sidewalk in front of a boarded-up doorway, drugged and utterly unconscious of the world around her. The filth and stench of the city were caked into her skin. She seemed part of the garbage she was ­lying in.

My home in Medellín, Colombia, has a lot of poverty. I’m used to seeing dirty, starving children begging in the streets, unkempt old men sleeping ­under newspapers, and hopeless teen­agers forgetting their pain in glue and needles.

But this … this was different.

The girl’s clothes were pulled high above her chest, ugly testimony to what had been done to her the night before. Person after person walked by. Boys leered. Children gaped and were pulled away by mothers who wrinkled their noses and quickened their pace. Not once did I see a trace of caring.

I knelt down and shook her gently.

She stirred and turned her head to me, and a grimace flashed across her face. I realized she was no child. All concept of age was erased from my mind. Perhaps she was barely a teenager; perhaps she was as old as humanity.

“Señora,” I said softly. A fly alighted on her cracked lips, and I brushed it away. Still she did not wake. I don’t know why I cared. Certainly no one else did. But I couldn’t leave her like that. I couldn’t. I should cover her. I reached out to pull down her shirt but retracted my hand. I had no right to touch her.

I knew what I had to do.

Even as I pulled the sweater over my head, I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to give my favorite sweater to someone who would just sell it for drugs. I didn’t want to care. But it was too late. Once you open your eyes and see reality, you can’t close them again that easily. And even though I wished I didn’t care, I did. She was a girl, my sister in ­humanity, a person just like me. God have mercy on us both.

I draped the sweater over her. The pulsating noise of the street suddenly quieted. The outside world ceased to exist, and a deafening ­silence enveloped us. Time slowed. The moment seemed eternal. We were the only ones in the universe – just me, the girl, and the dark blue sweater fluttering down in slow motion.

I had the sensation you get when you pull the sheet over the face of a corpse and say, muerto esta. The last fold of cloth settled on the gray cement, and suddenly time was once again going. I heard the rushing cars at my back, felt the burning sun, and smelled the filth. Nothing had changed.

I got up too quickly, nearly losing my balance. I needed to get away.

“La felicito,” an old man, who had apparently been watching me, said in congratulations. “Is it a little girl? So sad, so sad. What a shame.”

“Yeah … I don’t know,” I mumbled, hurrying away, horribly embarrassed that I’d been seen. Supposedly, when you do a good deed, you get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. But all I felt was a deep, aching sadness.

I used to believe those heart-warming stories about how people’s lives were changed by some small act of kindness. If this were one of those ­inspirational stories, years later we’d meet again. She would have risen from her poverty and pain, achieved success, and been converted to some nice religion. I’d be down about something, perhaps thinking that my life was worth nothing. On an impulse I’d step into a church and – voilà! – she’d be there giving her testimony about how she’d lived a totally empty and meaningless existence until her life had been changed by the act of a caring stranger who had covered her with a sweater.

And then I’d get up, with tears in my eyes, and shout, “I am that stranger!” And we’d hug and become best friends and I’d go home completely happy in the knowledge that my life had been good for something after all.

But this isn’t an inspirational story. The real world isn’t that nice. When the girl came out of her stupor, she probably wouldn’t even notice the sweater or wonder where it had come from. She’d use it to get more drugs. That night she would again sell her body and her soul, and the next day she would once more lie on the street with her shame open to the world. And my feeble act of caring would be worth nothing.

I headed down the street and sud­denly, to my disgust, found tears running down my face. I dashed them away, not knowing whether I was crying for that girl, my favorite sweater, or the fact that no one had cared.

I thought of the Jesus I’d been taught about in church. He would have cared, I think, if he’d been there. But he wasn’t there. I wished he were. It hurt.

People at church would tell me that he was there, that he’d cared through me.

I sighed. Maybe. Maybe.

But all the way home, the pain ­remained.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 482 comments.


on Feb. 9 2011 at 7:58 am
Griffinwing SILVER, Manchester, Michigan
9 articles 0 photos 37 comments
Beautiful, beautiful. Such a lovely act, such a lovely writing. Maybe perhaps some day, whether through your words or through your actions, this world can be changed

RozaB SILVER said...
on Feb. 5 2011 at 8:08 pm
RozaB SILVER, Milpitas, California
8 articles 0 photos 39 comments
Very powerful. I wish more people would be as genuinely nice as that. 

wilden_lover said...
on Feb. 1 2011 at 8:23 am
that was so nice of  wow u to do dat u are a speical peerson...

soccerrules said...
on Jan. 26 2011 at 10:09 pm
soccerrules, Saind David, Maine
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
"If the bad people in the world don't take a break, why should I?" - Bob Marley <3

Wow :) this gave me goosebumps.

on Jan. 26 2011 at 2:34 pm
Emma.ryan SILVER, Andover, Massachusetts
7 articles 0 photos 12 comments
Absoulutely amazing! If more people were like this we would have such a wonderful world!!! =)

Insight said...
on Jan. 20 2011 at 4:51 pm
This was an amazing story of reality. Not only the young girl,but of us as humans afraid to show compassion to another human being. Thank you for having the strenght and courage to give this girl dignity in spite of how she choose to live her life. I live by the rule to respect all because i at this moment i am blessed with a good life,but i dont know what the future holds and i would like to think that if i was down on my luck that someone would show me kindness as you did.

doubleS said...
on Jan. 19 2011 at 10:38 pm
Maybe it wasn't the fact that you are a good writer, though it was told quite well. But the fact it was just a real piece of life. When you wrote this maybe you didn't care that this would get published, but I think you cared people knew. It's stories like these that are some of the more important.

on Jan. 19 2011 at 6:49 pm
LimeGreenLVR BRONZE, Springboro, Ohio
2 articles 0 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Live, Laugh, Love"

This story was amzing. Truly amazing. You have a beautiful and incredible talent. I hope you keep writing. :)

on Jan. 17 2011 at 7:50 pm
monpetitemouchou SILVER, Sydney, Other
5 articles 4 photos 17 comments

Favorite Quote:
Come with me, my love. To the sea, the sea of love. (8)

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. You have a great gift with words and I hope you never stop writing :)

on Jan. 17 2011 at 6:21 pm
And I don't think its a "maybe".  I am very sure you were God's instrument to help that girl.  In her drugged state, your act of kindness may have been impossible for her mind to comprehend -- but I am sure you touched her soul -- plus enlightened a lot of readers!  Isn't that great?!!

Infinity said...
on Jan. 17 2011 at 6:13 pm
The moment I started reading your article, I couldn't stop.  I guess that's because good writers have  good, radiant souls.  I hope you keep on helping.  And keep writing.  You don't stop being good just because a lot of people have stopped -- even if the one who stops being good is the very person you've helped.  You are a precious person and a most precious writer, too! 

on Jan. 15 2011 at 4:11 pm
DoloresDarling, Cambridge, Ohio
0 articles 0 photos 137 comments

Favorite Quote:
Sarah Michelle Gellar- [on the importance of reading] I love books. I\'m constantly afraid we\'re moving into this digital era where books are going to go away, and to me books are the basis to everything in life. Reading is how we function.

This was a very sweet article, the best one I have read on here also. :3 Well, written and the way your acts were so kind and genourous..this really needs to be known to people. People could careless about others, there only for themselves, and this shows how bad our worlds getting now a days :/  :3 Love your article..keep writing! XD

fallacy said...
on Jan. 15 2011 at 3:12 pm
fallacy, Louisville, Kentucky
0 articles 0 photos 1 comment
This is one of the best articles I've read on this site; you're a great writer and human being.

Chanchie GOLD said...
on Jan. 14 2011 at 9:33 am
Chanchie GOLD, Trivandrum, Other
17 articles 4 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
A writer who writes without zest, without gusto, without fun, without love is only half a writer.
-Ray Bradbury

Beautifully written. Upsetting but thought-provoking at the same time :)

rplove013 said...
on Jan. 13 2011 at 1:20 pm
rplove013, Burlington, North Carolina
0 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery.

This was a great article. It made me tear up..You are a kind person and it is awful how people can just pass by like nothing is wrong. You are right about everything you said in this writing.

The world is cruel...but there are people like you who make it better.

Nicely written; I enjoyed reading this.


on Jan. 12 2011 at 7:12 pm
go_green100 BRONZE, Winnipeg, Other
2 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
Don't take life too seriosly, you never get out alive anyways.

The story is really very realistic. It's just awesome!

cheer4u said...
on Jan. 12 2011 at 3:34 pm
cheer4u, Brooklyn, New York
0 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
Let the circle be unbroken.

wow you are such I kind person I wouldve did the same thing the story brought me 2 tears.

on Jan. 12 2011 at 10:14 am
jameswritesinsecret DIAMOND, Auburn, Alabama
53 articles 2 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We live until we live no more"
Frontier City- Kings of Leon

It alomst broght me to tears how people will just pass by a stanger as if they weren't there. When I read this story it really made me think of what I could do to create change in the world around me.

anne.Brooke said...
on Jan. 10 2011 at 1:08 am
anne.Brooke, Mumbai, Other
0 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I'm not.
-Kurt Cobain

absolutely...

on Jan. 7 2011 at 8:52 pm
Finding-me PLATINUM, Dover-Foxcroft, Maine
45 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
It's kind of fun to do the impossible

Ghandi once said "Whatever you do in life will be insignifigant, but it is important that you do it."