Watching Over You

• Rosemary Leed, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2008

My Name is Adelaide Watson and I’m dead.
Yep, that’s right
Sweet Sixteen and never gonna see another Sunrise.

Looking down I can see the past, present and infinite futures. I guess it is kinda like one of those choose-your-own-adventure books where all the endings are painful.
Being up here is like being the impatient kid who reads ahead and spoils the ending.
Looking at my past, I wonder where I went wrong. What was the stupid decision that landed me up here, not down there where I had it all. All I need is some validation that my life wasn’t a complete waste but try as I might I can’t think for the life of me of anything profound that I ever did for anyone else.

It is hard to feel optimistic watching everyone but you graduate, get jobs, fall in love and get married knowing that you will never get to.
But what is harder is watching someone you know waste their short life away because of your death. Take my mother for example.

My dad dying she could cope with, but losing her precious only daughter pushed my mother off the edge.
After she was told she couldn’t have any more kids I guess she focused the spotlight on me. And I loved it. When I died she became kind of reclusive. I think she eventually died of loneliness.
Looking into the future for my mother everything seemed to end up the same. I just can’t stand the helpless feeling that comes with this curse.

But Brandon held my attention the most. My next door neighbour and best friend for ten years until I became too cool for him. I still can’t believe that I was so petty.
I don’t think the wounds I gave him ever really healed. Looking over his future saddened me too.

There was one option however, to fix it all, risky, and it would probably get me into a lot of trouble, but anything was better than the lives planned out for my two favourite people.
……………………….

A blood-curdling scream pierced the night, making everyone’s drooping heads jerk up. I kept hearing a name being whispered and when I caught the name I sprinted towards the rose garden where I had last seen her. “Adelaide” they had mouthed.
I was on my knees next to her in seconds. Please god, not Adie!
Summoning up all my first aid knowledge felt for a pulse- and found none.
Breathe Adie, Breathe! After ten minutes the ambos arrived and shook their heads.
“Overdosed” one bluntly remarked.
Not Adelaide, surely not.
Shell shocked, I stumbled into the blackness. It seemed so stupid that the backstreet boys were playing. Some party. For some stupid reason I found it immensely funny that she died to the Backstreet boys. I couldn’t stop giggling.
But I could never get that image of that perfect girl lying so still on the grass out of my head, and I wondered if that would ever go away.
But part of me didn’t want it to.

………………………

Starting from sleep Brandon blinked.
Why the dream?
Why now?
What had brought the dream back?
What had brought the nightmare back?
Only it wasn’t a nightmare, it was real. The memory of that night sent shivers down his spine. Brandon was suddenly overcome by the urge to go for a long walk.
Strolling down the road wandered, disorientated. He didn’t even see the car coming.

………………….....

A flash of white light blinded Brandon as he was pulled upwards at an alarming speed, and dumped into what seemed to be a chair in a brightly lit waiting room.
A dark haired girl sat opposite him.
God, he doesn’t remember me.
“Adelaide, did you do this?” an incredulous Brandon muttered, rubbing his eyes.
“You don’t seem too surprised to see me, and yes, sorry!” she laughed, glowing unearthily.
“I’m not dead?”
“No, just a coma, hence the waiting room, not quite alive, yet, not quite dead.”
“Why am I here?”
“Because I need to fix things and earn forgiveness”
“You don’t need my forgiveness.”
“We don’t have much time; you need to find the gatecrasher, the gatecrasher at the party who gave me the drugs. Then you need to help my mother’ She took a deep breath,
‘And then I need you to live life for me, make every minute count and stop blaming yourself for what happened, it was my fault entirely.’
“Don’t worry; I’ll do what you say”
‘Hey, Adie,”
“Yeah?” she replied.
There was a sharp tug downwards.
“I think I’m waking up.”
“I was getting worried!” Adelaide sighed.
Another tug.
“Goodbye Adie, I hope I don’t see you soon!”
Another, more definite tug and back down to earth where several weeks had passed already.

Far away a man named Brandon woke up to a room full of well wishing friends and neighbours and for once again, he had a purpose.

…………………….

My name is Adelaide Watson and my life meant something.
Six years after my death my mother initiated a drug education program.
Five years after my death my best friend decided to become a paramedic after he nearly died in a car accident.
Both of them became lifelong friends.
My best friend married and had three kids.
He also assisted police in a massive drug bust in the city.
But you know what the best thing was?
I wasn’t jealous.
I had my time on earth and I made the most of it.
I am content to be sixteen and never see the sun rise again.
Because I made a Difference.