I Shouldn't Be Alive

• Ellie Caile, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2011

Thursday 19th April 2007

That's it! My life is over! My whole life has turned upside down in last week!
At the moment I'm laying I'm hospital bed writing in my diary while staring at the plain white walls around me.

Every time I look across the room my heart breaks as I see my little brother, who seems so tiny, and so lifeless laying there, hooked up to so many machines and monitors that are keeping him alive.

So much has happened in he last week, the cyclone, my parents dying and Luke. I still can't get the memories out of head, people running and screaming...the whole thing, I just can't escape from it.
I don't really remember much, but the things I do remember are horrible. I my head all I see is the same thing going around and around, again and again.

We were all inside with the storm outside, we didn't think anything of it until we got a call from the emergency cyclone line. We had a secret safe that was small but big enough for me and Luke to fit in. While we hid in there mum and dad hid outside.
The last words they said were "I love you"
And that was the last I saw of them.

I was the only lucky one, because as our house was destroyed around us, it collapsed on the safe we were in, Luke's head was slammed against the hard metal and was knocked out instantly. This whole skull was shattered.

I've been in here a week now and I can't atop thinking about mum and dad, and Who's going to look after me and Luke? I'm only 16 so I cant do it. The worst thing I can think of is us being split apart into different families.


Wednesday 16th May 2007

It's a month later and everything has gone the right way up again. But the most important thing is Luke has woken up!
I could stop hugging him I had tears pouring out of my eyes and I could barely speak.
The only bad thing is, he has Brain damage and needs help to speak and walk again. But no matter what he's my brother and I love him.
Even though he has brain damage I knew he could understand what I was saying. The other good news is that a great new family has come in and said that they would be our new family, they agreed to keep me and Luke together and to get all the care he needs.
I will never forget about my real mum and dad but that's the past and I need to look forward, the way I look at it, I now have two wonderful families I could never forget.