Pain Like No Other

• Marita Emmanuel, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2015

As I lay in bed, my mind forcing sleep to wash over me, I was drowning in a sea of memories. I kept trying to forget all those times we shared together, but her last words kept surfacing above the whirlpool of happiness, “I know you`ll succeed, my little butterfly.” With that she turned her head and closed her bright, emerald eyes forever. At first it did not strike me that she was gone. I just sat there, staring at her pale, sickly face and her thin, dry lips. I could tell she had been trying to hold on, for as long as possible, for all our sake, but the tumour inside her did not give up and took over her body. Now as I lay in bed tossing and turning, tears flooded out of my eyes. I forced all my emotions out of my body after trying to keep it inside me for too long. Sadness, distress, anger, loss…

I hadn`t realised until a couple of weeks before. I rarely had been seeing Mum. Until I realised I was not seeing her at all. It was strange, especially after I noticed Mum was not around. I tried to confront Dad, but he seemed to be busy all the time. It seemed he was doing a lot of the jobs Mum would do, like make dinner and our sandwiches for school. I decided I had to ask him, so after Dad had finished all his work, late at night I went up to him and asked. I did feel a little bad, he was extremely tired after all the work. He had dark, purple bags under his eyes. His cheeks were flushed and he had deep wrinkles covering his forehead. “Hey Dad!” I chirped.
“Aren`t you supposed to be in bed. It`s late.” he said sluggishly.
“I know. I wanted to ask you about Mum. Where is she? I haven`t seen her around that much.” I asked slowly. He did not respond immediately. He stuttered, but I think he decided he should just tell me everything. “I`m sorry Sadie. Mum has been in the hospital this whole time because … she has brain cancer…” he explained quickly and continued talking, saying everything would be okay. I did not hear the rest of it because I was lost in my own thoughts. Cancer, how could this happen everything was unclear, like a murky swamp. She was healthy and full of life like a blossoming daisy. This should not be the way it is. As I slowly walked towards my bedroom I had to steady my breathing because I still was shocked. How my very own mother be attacked with brain cancer. I did not believe anything my Dad said, about how she would be fine, the tumour was like a villain plotting his revenge and in time he will attack and cause devastation like no other.

I would`t wait, I had to see my mother NOW.