SEVENTY EIGHT: THEN AND NOW

THEN When well-wishers rushed us to the hospital that night. Almost 12am The sound of the gurneys almost deafen my ears, and the light from these doctors' torches is blinding me but I keep running towards the scene. It is 12 o' clock. In the midnight, I know even though I don't look at the clock over my head. With sweaty palms and terrific faces, five gurneys are wheeled towards the emergency rooms by the late night doctors. Even though their mouths are shut tight, I can hear millions of inaudible sounds coming out of them. Each of the gurneys are being wheeled by two personnels, and each time they pass me by, i peer into them to see the victims' faces clearly because I can not see them from where I am. The first face I see is badly disfigured. It's got a big mark from the forehead down to her upper eyelid, her lips are charred and her jaw is almost totally detached from the rest of her face. Hot drops of blood trickle down her head to her chest and her dress is soiled. She looks like she is no longer breathing and just as the ambulance pass by me, I see something in her hands-A red neck piece. She is clutching it tightly like it is her whole life. My red neck piece. Yes, this victim is my only sister, Jamie but I do not cry. I mean, I always want to cry but I can't. So my face is firm and peaceful, but I am screaming inside me. My legs are hitting the air and I'm ripping my hair inside of me, but outside? I am standing tall. Somehow, with all the swiftness as they pass by me, her hands shake and she loses hold of the red neck piece. As thick and shiny as my hair, our hair(hers blonde and mine black). It falls from her hands and drops at my feet just as soon as the second ambulance approaches me. I bend to pick up my red neckpiece-the one thing that binds my sister and I together but whoosh...it is air. I can see it on the cold tiled floor but when I try to pick it up, it is not there. I fall and shiver with the noise in my head but I cannot cry. I get up quickly to take a look at the second victim but I can't see 'its' face-the whole body is wrapped in a blue satin material that looks and smells like death. I wait for the third but it moves so fast I can't get a proper picture of her, but I do know it is a female. The fourth has blood dropping from his nose and his eyes are shut tight like he is in another world. The fifth body is wheeled upstairs and I hurriedly follow it. As I climb the staircase after them, I see a woman descending it; her countenance looks disheveled but her heart is dancing. She is jumping and laughing inside of her. When I look into her eyes, that's what I see but she does not see me pass. I stop staring at her and follow the ambulance which is now being rolled into the theatre with calculated moves. I want to see who the victim is, but they are so fast that they enter and lock the door before I can catch up. I sigh and hesitate for three minutes and then I remember the red neckpiece-the one that fell from Jamie's hands. "Jamie!" I scream in my head. Then my feet begin to move very fast down the stairs. I do not have the power to stop them from moving and they only stop at Emergency Ward 1 and I suddenly and supernaturally find myself inside without using the door. The neck piece still lay there, close to the reception. There on the bed in the emergency Ward lay my sister Jamie with her pale face and bloody body. Her left eyebrow is now gone and her nose and ears are bleeding. Her lips are still charred and a man in white coveralls keep wiping blood off her face and body every now and then. There are three men around her, plus a woman, pushing and pulling some strange machines on the wall and on the floor, to save her. The woman is placing a stethoscope on Jamie's chest. I watch her from the corner I am standing. She does it three times and then she stops, placing her head on the side of the bed which isn't bloodstained and I see, from her eyes two drops of tears fall into the soft bloodstained bed where Jamie lay. Just then, the three men stop pushing and pulling the machines, they shake their heads from side to side as if on cue and one of them proceeds to cover my sister's body with a long blue satin cloth- the same one the second victim has on his whole body. I shiver, seeing this cloth because I know it is used to wrap corpses in readiness for cremation. Suddenly I find my voice. "Don't! She's not dead! Don't cover her up!" I scream. My lips shiver as reality dawns on me. My whole body utter a help but they do not even look at me "Hey Doctors! Jamie's my sister, she cannot die! Please save her" I mutter under my breath because raising my voice doesn't help. "Pack her up quickly, the poor girl has given up" one of the men say to another and I try to cry but tears do not come. My eyes sting badly. I watch one of them roll her body like a burrito and wheel it out of the theatre. My feet scurry after him but it is all hopeless, so I soon stop going after him. I go up the stairs towards the fifth accident victim like a defeated warrior and lay my head on the door of the ward like a wounded child. For some reason, I do not want to see any more of these gory sights. So I turn to go, but, I hear a voice "Hello" I hear someone say to me. I turn around swiftly to face a tall man in white coveralls. His head has hair as black as coal and his voice sounds like several elephants trumpeting. I think he is a doctor here but I am shocked because he can see me, hear me. When he opens his mouth, I see that his teeth are very long and that his eyes shine in the dark. Dark red eyes, and with fingers that look like claws. "Please sir, I need you to save my little sister. Please stop that man from taking her there. I do not want her to go there" my voice is breaking but my eyes are as dry as a tree in summer. He moves his head from side to side and opens his mouth to talk. "You're a spirit", he says, "I have noticed you roaming about in the past hour and that's why I have come up to you. I am no doctor. I am here to save you" he raises his arms and I see a tattoo on it. The tattoo of a blue werewolf. His revelation shocks me and I know I should ask, "how do you see me then? People here can't see me or hear me" but I say something else, "No sir! I can see, feel, smell and talk. I cannot only cry and that is the one thing I suffer from, how can you even call me a spirit?" I shiver again, my feet floating in the air "Your body is in there" he says pointing at the door I am leaning on. "You have to go back to it please, before it is too late" "Please save my sister" I plead with my eyes, ignoring his words "I need you to do this, Ariana. Please go back to your body now" he insists "My sister, Jamie..." I trail off "Save what can be saved. Go in there now" he commands I reluctantly push the door open and just as it opens, I see the doctors about to cover the body on the bed with a long blue cloth just like the one Jamie's body's wrapped in. Just as they are about covering my face, I slip into my lifeless body. Cut Flashback. NOW Well, I did that thing I used to do which I believed in-- if you want to say something to someone who's far away, fly it in a kite or something light that can fly, and send it to the universe. Make sure it goes far away, then the message has been delivered to the person. I did that same thing, few weeks after Jamie was buried. It felt like the only sane thing to do, in a compound replete with uncertainty and faint hopes. A robotic and forgetful mom, sometimes violent, but mostly robotic and forgetful. A sister wearing the same glum look everyday. A empty next-door neighborhood. Silence and unrest in our faces. Continued threats. Ghostly calls and strange texts on mom's phone every now and then. It didn't end there. I started to get some on my phone as well. Mom started to yell at the person, now affirming the evildoer's identity clearly because there was no longer anything else to hide. The evil deed has been done. The evil plan has been carried out. "Cameron, you killed our child! Our own child! How utterly debilitating and inhumane you are! You beast, I swear, I'm going to kill you. Only then will I breathe fine. I'll smear my face with your blood and watch you struggle to hold on to life! And I say again, I'll not go to prison for it!" I wrote my message in one white paper. I wrote another one in another red paper. SEVENTY NINE: HOW IT ENDED, (BUT HOPEFULLY NOT) The one in the white paper is for Robin. The one in the red paper is for Jack. Here they are-( I can read them offhand even though it's been a while, because I've read them over and over again before flying them in a kite) "Dear Prince Long Sword Robinson, Please help. I want my father dead. I don't even need you back. I just want my mama to find peace. Thank you" The other one read, "Hello Jack, Don't be surprised. It's me, Ariana.? Please come back. Save my mom. She's losing her mind. ?? Come, as soon as possible. Thank you" Immediately the message flew far away, I heaved a sigh of relief. They say, when you believe in something, it could work for you. It worked again, because I ran into Jack on my way to the convenience store one day. I couldn't believe in my life that it'd ever happen. He didn't recognize me and I wanted to cry. He didn't look so different except for more beards that had grown on his chin, and his trimmer figure. He looked neat and well-to-do. But I am different now. I have lost weight but I like it. With all that has happened, I have grown to hate food as much as I hated Cameron, so I have lost the fat that stuck on me tightly for years. I like that I have lost weight and grown much taller but I don't like the scars on my body. Thankfully, they're not on my face, only my arms, thighs, back and stomach, so I still have my clear pretty blue eyes and round lips. He was walking to his car on the other side of the store where there was a boutique and I was entering the store. I thought I was dreaming when I saw him, but when I wiped my eyes, and looked again, it was he. I ran to him before he could get in his car and zoom away, before I could lose my only hope of seeing him ever again. "Jack" I held his feet and soiled it with tears. He got confused. After a while, he stared at me closely and called my name. He recognized my blue eyes. "Oh my! Ariana!" He was moved to tears. I could almost swear that a tear rolled down his cheek. He put me into his car and drove straight to our home, upon directions from me. He put all his plans behind him. As he drove, I told him all that had happened and all he kept asking me was if Ruby Gonzalez was all right. It was so clear that he loved mom so much. Mom was silent when he came. After a while, when reality dawned on her,she ran into her embraced and let the tears out in full measure. That day, everyone of us cried so much our eyes hurt. Even Jack cried and held on to her tightly. "I am sorry" mom cried. He said the same thing. They were locked in a tight embrace for almost an hour. Nothing else meant anything. Nothing else made meaning. They both loved each other very much, evidently. I went into my room and thanked God for making the universe bring Jack to us. Who could have known he was just next-door? Mom was happier after Jack's visit. She sat on his thighs and slept in his arms every day for the next two days that he stayed with us. He made mom promise that she'd be fine while he left to prepare a place for us. He told her that he had looked for her everywhere and waited for her that long. I am getting better because both of my messages were answered. Mom didn't exactly get better until.... She did get better, but she knew she would not become herself again, until she killed Cameron. She told Jack that, but he advised her against it. He thought she didn't really mean it but I alone knew she did.