Never Mending Heart

• Alexandra Wall, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

Never Mending Heart
The diary of Piper Louise Harper

I sat there in dead silence. The only sounds I could hear, was the rain pelting down on the roof, and my heart thumping in my chest so violently, I thought I would explode and shatter into pieces at any minute. I clutched the only updated photograph of my older sister, Lillian , to my chest until my knuckles went white, and cried myself into a restless, nightmarish sleep.
I awoke to another normal Sunday morning. It was foggy outside, and I knew it was 8:00a.m., even though it was nearly dark. Disorientated and with sleep dominating my eyes, I reluctantly stumbled out of bed.
While I was eating breakfast, Mum and Dad called me into the lounge room. It was quiet, and there was suspense in the air.
“Piper, darling we are only doing this for the best.”
“Doing what?” I asked suspiciously. There was silence for a while.
“Your father and I are separating” Mum blurted out.
I couldn’t believe it. First the death of Lillian, and now this?” I felt like boulders were falling on my shoulders, pushing me into the ground. I ran out of the house and into the garden, crying myself uncontrollably like I did three years ago when I’d lost Lillian.
Two weeks later, I’m still not getting grips on things. I stumble over to my dressing table on a Monday morning. I pull my hair back into a ponytail and gently tie black ribbon around it, fastening black clips on the pieces of hair that won’t go back into the ponytail.
Still in mourning.
I still can’t grasp that she has left me. I walk out of the house not bothering to eat breakfast¬¬¬-I’ve lost my appetite.
Saturday afternoon I come across Lillian’s old bird watching binoculars. I decide to go bird watching-after all, Lillian liked to do that. I go out to the garden and lift the binoculars to my eyes. It was blurry, and then I saw her.
Lillian.
I tried to let out a scream, but I couldn’t find my voice. Lillian walked over to me, wearing a white dress made from the finest silk, her golden hair flowing down her back. She spoke in a stern, hard voice.
“Piper, it’s been three years now, and your just making everyone else miserable when your miserable. Surely you can accept that I’m not with you anymore. Your seventeen years old.”
I felt so silly talking to my dead sister through her old binoculars. I put them down. I didn’t want to talk to Lillian anymore. I didn’t know what to do.
I was lost.
Every night I would lift the binoculars to my eyes and Lillian would coach and temporarily convince me that I don’t have her anymore. It worked during the day. I was happier, which made everyone else relieved that I finally moved on, but at night I would cry myself into a restless, nightmarish sleep.