Fading Memories

• Audrey Sie, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2017

“Mum, do you have to go?”
“Yes I must, but I will see you in a month on your birthday. I'll be fine, your father will take good care of you.”
“Bye mum I love you.”
“I will always love you no matter what.”
And just like that she stepped into the helicopter and left without me.

Six years had passed and my life was gone. Mother never came back and father had just left the world. I was old enough to live by myself now and I didn't have anyone to hold me. Memories kept flashing across my eyes and I pictured my father running back from the helicopter after visiting my mother, holding a dusty book. And then nothing, it was like the memory just vanished into thin air. I had forgotten everything I ever loved.

The next morning was like any other. Me feeling down and glum. And then it came to me, the idea of moving away from all the grief and sorrow. Soon I was packing up dusty books and clothes. I dived into the books placing them neatly into cardboard boxes. And then I heard something. I stood up alert, and stepped into the blowing air. The sun beamed bright in my face and the my luscious hair flew in the wind, like a black raven soaring through the sky. I listened carefully but heard silence. I turned around in disappointment, and a tear rolled down my face. It was nothing I whispered.

Later it was midnight and I had almost finished packing. I placed the final books into the boxes, until I picked up a particular book. I gently dusted of the cover of the book. It seemed to be a small purple diary. I opened it up to the very first page and a crumpled up letter fell out.

I sat near the blazing hot flames. Burning deep in the heart of the fireplace. I picked the letter up and flattened it. I slowly read it out:
Day 30 10th of July 2011
I opened the old wooden door and I felt the cold come in. Would this everlasting end? Would I see my family once more? Will I make it for Lauren’s Birthday? and I closed the frozen door. I walked over to the window covered in icicles. I watched the trees die and the memories I had fade. All hope was lost and so was I.
Charlotte
I’m sorry Lauren, My Daughter.

I sat there in silence. And then a tear rolled down my face. It was then followed by another and another and soon I was crying in anger and sadness. Mum had died in the cold and Dad wasn’t brave enough to tell me. I threw the diary in the monster’s flames, full of wood and coal. It swallowed the diary whole and I could almost hear my mother cry. Soon the diary was burnt to crisp. I’m sorry, my Mother.