February 5th

• Paige Dunstone, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2020

I look at a car, I’ve seen this car before. Dusty grey with shot brakes and screeching tires and it takes me back to February 5th 2007; Two young children, a boy and a girl, had just left from the hairdressers to go and see what the ice cream shop across the road had to offer, ‘We’ll be fine,’ said the recently turned eight year old boy to his worried mother, ‘we love the rain.’ The two children ran across the busy road and waited at the lights. The young girl sighed and proclaimed, ‘Those lights took forever to wait at,’ as they both trotted over the road. ‘Next time let's skip them,’ she suggested as they looked at the glass cabinet shielding the decedent flavours.
They had spent enough time looking at flavours and their stomachs gurgled and the boy said, ‘Let’s go ask my mum for some money to buy one.’ They both headed across the footpath and reached the traffic lights, ‘No lights,’ said the girl who just couldn't wait for an icy treat, but as the rain got heavier the boy had his doubts about this mischievous plan.
All I remember then was the screeching of tires as a dusty, gray Toyota came flying towards the young boy and knowing I was needed. All I got was faces of fear as I walked to pick up the young boy with my bony hands and carry him away. Humans try to pull him back like they do with all the people I save, but most of the time they fail to do so.
I now look at this girl, 19 now and had just celebrated the twelve-year anniversary she lost the love of her life, just because she wanted ice cream. Her skin was pale and had not kissed the sun for years as she had been afraid to leave the comfort of her home. She looks at the car, I look at the car and in my heart I know that it is time to save another being from the sad reality that is life.
She looks at me, gives me a little smile, and lets me carry her away; Away to the love of her afterlife, who she had yearned for in the past 12 and a half, tragic years of her life.