I Love You

• Lisa Yang, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2012

I LOVE YOU


I felt warm, sleepy and full after having consumed another meal. I turned around to be in a more comfortable position to sleep in only to find that it was cramped. I was growing bigger each day and the lack of space was starting to get uncomfortable. I knew it would be soon that I would be able to leave this place…soon…but not yet…

It was 8:00pm when I felt that it was the right time for my departure. But how was I meant to escape from this ridiculously small space. I felt annoyed. Nine months of having to live in a cradle such as this was driving me to near insanity. Anger ran through me causing me to kick unforgivably. I heard screams and shouts above. I ignored them. I felt sudden movements coming from my carrier. I ignored that too and continued to kick viciously.

An hour later I found myself not being able to breathe. Wrapped around my neck was some cord. By now I had stopped kicking. Everything around me seemed to be moving slower than normal. I could hear my own pulse beating away. Getting slower with each pump. Panic ran through me. I shifted and budged yet the cord was still wrapped firmly around me. Finally I gave up. I lay limply. Cold hands from nowhere elevated me into the air. I wanted to cry with joy for having escaped the dark and dreaded bowl, but that wasn’t possible; I couldn’t even breathe. Like something had heard my desperation, the cord around my neck loosened allowing me to release my piercing cry. A sigh of relief came from something followed by desperate panting. I was free at last…

PANT~~~

Free…but not satisfied…why was everything so dark and cold? I began to cry. Suddenly something bright and attractive illuminated. Some small device was the cause of the light. The device was held by the thing that panted. It desperately jabbed at it. Halfway through its jabbing it began to leak a wet substance from its hazel-brown stare. It stopped prodding to observe me. I stared innocently back. More of the wet substance came as it pushed the device into my hands and held onto me…

10 YEARS LATER

“An earthquake hit the same time that you were born,” started my uncle.
“WHAT! How is that possible? If an earthquake hit at the same time I was being born…shouldn’t I be dead?” I reasoned.
“Well no…that’s why your birth was so amazing. You lived after having been buried under so much rubble.”
“But how?”
“Because of your mother…” I said nothing as I was on the verge of crying. So this was how my mother died… “When the rescuers found her body she had already died, but you my boy remained alive and living within her arms.” I was crying by now. “…and within your hands was a mobile phone.”
“Phone,” I gasped. My uncle passed me the photo. In the picture was a phone that had been severely damaged yet was still working. On it read: If you live through this experience, remember your mother will always love you.