Kelly's Story

• Allison Coe, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2014

Kelly lay in her bed thinking about how long she had spent waiting, waiting for the clock to strike 3am. Her room lay silent, not a single object moved. The wind had stopped, and so had the rain, no shadows swirled around, Just Kelly. This night couldn’t get any longer.
The flaps of her Typo clock clicked as a new time appeared, 1.59am. This was close enough. Kelly slowly and quietly slid out of her bed, regretting it as the cold wind whooshing in from the window hit her bare arms, so cold as almost like thousands of needles punching holes in her skin. As much as it ached and stung, Kelly moved down to her window and carefully lifted her leg up and out of the window, then repeating the same with her other leg. Kelly gripped her arms with her stretched out hands, covering anything she could cover, she would do anything to be back in her bed.
Kelly shuffled around in the cold, damp grass in her back yard until she reached the big oak tree that stood slightly crookedly in the very centre of the yard. She sat down fighting the cold and tucked into a ball, gripping every part of her body she could to keep her warmth up. And waited.
Kelly closed her eyes and her body chattered in time with the wind, she must have fallen asleep cause when she woke up there was a body next to her, It was cold, colder then Kelly. But it was soft, and smooth, it held Kelly’s hand and sung her a lullaby, and told her that there was nothing to be afraid of. Kelly felt her warmth returning and opened her eyes to see her mum. Kelly’s Mum had died last week, and was now back.
Back in the house, Kelly’s dad had woken up to see that Kelly was no longer in her bed and started to worry. As Kelly’s dad, it was his job to worry. He grabbed his night gown and a torch and searched the house, the front yard, and then the back yard. To find Kelly resting against the tree stiffly and silently, as he started to cry, it was the third time this week he had found her like this, and no matter how many times he had told her that mummy was never coming back, she would still continue to wait at the tree. He held her closely for the last time before calling the hospital.
Kelly’s love of her mum was unstoppable, even when she had died, Kelly’s love wouldn’t stop kicking in.
She would sit under the tree and wait for her to come and sing to her, but all this was just her imagination.
Kelly’s body got too cold to survive and slowly sunk away, this was the part when her warmth came back.