Have We Just Begun?

• Anita Grassy, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2010

A long beeping cut through my sleep. I heard the people come running down the hallway, the loud sighs and the final beep as the heart rate monitor was turned off in the bed next to me.
As I lay there staring at the dark room a dark thought slid silently back into my mind. It was a sentence I’d pushed away long ago, but now it came back, the truth was inevitable.
How do you cope with the fact that you're going to die? I'd been waiting for so long that dying seemed almost like a way of life. I'd watched and listened as those around me had breathed their last and the quickening of their heartbeats as they sprinted towards their final beat.
I couldn’t remember anything before three days ago. I’d heard the doctors speaking; saying they couldn’t help me. My memory was failing and I was bleeding myself to death.
Depressing thoughts consumed me and I began to cry. I barely noticed when a young doctor walked into the room and sat beside me.
“Hello Kitty,” he murmured.
Hi, was what I tried to say, but that name caught my attention. Kitty? It sounded so familiar – was that my name?
“I have something for you,” he said passing me an envelope. ‘Kara’ was scrawled on the front in messy script.
“Kara,” I muttered. “My name.”
The doctor smiled in response and waited as I opened the envelope with shaking hands.
‘Kara, by the time you read this, you won’t remember me. But I don’t mind. It’s easier to forget the accident. I’m not sure if you’ll ever see me again, but I’m happy if I know that you’re going to survive. Even if you didn’t know it you saved me long before I returned the favour. Don’t give up Kitty, I love you, love Darien.
I looked up at the young doctor.
“Ben?” I asked quietly.
He nodded, smiling. I remembered him. But my face fell as I realised why Darien’s brother, not Darien himself had given this note to me and what was left of my heart broke.
“He’s dead isn’t he?” Ben’s sad eyes confirmed it. “I’m going to die too, aren’t I?”
“No Kara,” Ben smiled through his sad eyes. “You’re going to live. We’ve found what’s wrong, and we can fix it.”
“But what about Darien,” I whispered as memories came floating back. I choked on my tears. “It’s my fault he’s dead. I caused the argument; it’s my fault we ran off the road.”
“Kitty, you know that he loved you. We can’t blame you when it was his own decision to shield you from the impact.”
“You should,” I whispered closing my eyes.
Through my sleep I could hear voices talking. Surgery, life or death. I didn’t really care anymore.
I walked amongst the gravestones until I came to Darien’s.
Kneeling beside his grave, I read the words engraved on the stone and smiled even though a single tear escaped my eye. The lyrics of my favourite song stared back at me from the dark rock.
As I walked away it was almost as though I could hear his voice echoing across the cemetery in the breeze.
All we know is distance
We're close and then we run
Kiss away the difference
I know you hate this one
But this is where the story ends
Or have we just begun
*Lyrics taken from Where the Story Ends by The Fray