Last Breath

• Kieran Peters, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2014

No many things happen around these parts of town. People generally do what they have to do in order to get through the day, nothing out of the ordinary. I worked as a janitor for the leading facility in this country. I’m a simple person, only doing what was needed. Sometimes, I get involved in different objectives in the workplace but my main goal in life is to become the best of this profession.

My friend, Theresa believed with my ambition and we both wanted to be something in this world beside clean up other people messes. Whenever we shown our deep desire to become elites, crowds of professional men and women often pondered clueless at our proposal and mocked the very existence of this idea. So for the time being, we lived on second hand gift cards for Woolworth to live on.

However, during the ending of dusk, Theresa and I were slaving away in the vast concrete complex when suddenly, within the split of a heartbeat, we heard an anonymous scream channelling from within its walls. First thing that came to our mind, but we knew this was destiny, that we can do right and assertively get our ways to become the very best, like no one ever was. So we ran into the lonely night, with only knowledge and our guts.

We hastily arrived to the scene of the crime; we were horrified to witness, as somebody lay motionless in the corridor. Theresa was the first to grip tightly on the situation and ran to the patient side, loosely holding onto reason and replying to the feelings of her guts, asking if they were able to move, with silence filling in the response. I rushed on beside to call upon what I have learnt many years ago; I checked the patient’s heartbeat to measure the life within her, with was short lived with each heartbeat. With that response, I got ready to perform CPR to him, as Theresa was beginning to freak out about what the patient was doing nothing.

As I was about to start the operation, Theresa decided that she needed to find someone with more professional help, so she left, splitting the darkness in the distance with her bright clothing. With her out of the way, I set off to help save a life. I worked hard and long, pushing within the man’s rib cage, looking for any glimpses of life within and continued monitoring the area for Theresa’s faithful return. Finally, after an externality, he awoke from his dreadful slumber, and looked at me with confusion.

As Theresa returned soon afterwards, the medical staff came to, with equipment and the head of the hospital close behind. He looked at us two women, shaken from the incident but engulfed with our pride and confidence. He came to us and told us that we were able to join the hospital and sit the exam to see if we had what we needed to become doctors.