Delilah

• Leah Maroske, Grade 6, Holy Trinity Lutheran College
• Short Story
• 2019

Excellence Award in the 'Inspired 2019' competition

Sadness still fills me, ever since my sister Delilah died. I haven’t been myself, I feel like I’ve been missing something. I can’t bear to remember the moment it all fell apart before my eyes. But the memory keeps coming back, it all started on a dark, stormy night…
It was raining heavily, bright streaks of lightning flashed among the clouds and the loud thunder rolled. Delilah and I were crossing the highway, cars were zooming along the road splashing water on the sidewalks. Thunderstorms still scare me so Delilah was comforting me, she wasn't watching the traffic properly. Delilah was in front of me, holding my hands and we were slowly nearing the road. Then in a flash a car zoomed past taking Dalilah with it! She was ripped right out of my hands. I panicked, looking around to try and spot the car. I couldn’t see her anywhere, I was frozen in shock. Cars stopped and people got out. Some adults saw what happened and surrounded me, but the driver that did it was gone…and so was Delilah. The next morning Mum was bawling her eyes out, policemen were inspecting the case to try and find the body. I hated when they called her that. Soon they found her further along the road. A week later was her funeral, it’s the hardest thing that I had ever gone through. She was like a best friend to me because I never had one.
The funeral was yesterday, I still don’t want to go back to school. These days it’s just me and my Mum, I never really had a Dad. Mum says he never wanted children so as soon as Delilah was born, he left. Mum has spent a lot of time alone in her room, so you could say it’s just me, myself and I. She always said that she’ll be there for me but this is the one time that I need her the most and she’s not here. When I enter her room, the tears come right back. When my eyes start to tear up it stings like the pain of my grief.
Another week gone and I thought that I would have bounced back and moved on. But I haven’t, I thought that Mum would have made me go back to school by now but she hasn’t. Maybe I should go back to school? I don’t know anymore.
It’s another day and like always the house is empty, I head to the lounge room and flop onto the couch. Mum comes through the front door with a cardboard box in her hands. She puts it on the coffee table and says, “Open it”. Inside is the most adorable, cute puppy ever, I pick it up and it licks my face. For the past few days I have gone back to school and have been happy again, it feels great. The girls at school are a lot nicer to me and I’m loving it.