Dying: A Short Story

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Dying wasn’t an option Let’s rewind back a few hours before my family and I almost died. We traveled a lot when I was a young child. One of the many places we would visit often was New Jersey, where my dad is from. At the time my sister was seven years old, my younger brother was four and I was six. For the moment, we were living in the heart of a small town in South Carolina during the summer of nineteen ninety-seven. At home it was noon time and we were inside. Mother and dad were outside busy being adults. It was dim in the house, quiet, and not much to look at. The décor was very bland with brown walls, beige carpet and regular furniture. Sitting on the floor half way in the hall and bedroom my sister and I shared, I was played with my …show more content…

We’re dropping and picking up whatever, putting things back, and asking what should we bring. The rush of it all. We weren’t expecting to be going anywhere, but we were up for it because we enjoyed road trips. As we were loading the van, getting buckled in safely, I asked mother out of curiosity, “Mommy, where are we going?” “To visit your grandmother in New Jersey.” She replied. Well we’ve been on the road for some time now, its evening. I noticed everyone was sleeping. The radio was off, the only sounds came from light breathing from a couple of sleepy heads. Out of nowhere, I felt this sudden swerve. I moved a good bit in the seat. My first thought was to wonder what all of that was about. Since dad was driving, I thought I peek around to see what he was doing up there. HE WAS ASLEEP! I had eyes as wide as an owl after what I discovered. I wasn’t scared. I had this calm feeling come over me. The danger of it all didn’t quiet register quickly for me during that moment. I was thinking about how sleeping and driving shouldn’t be happening at the same time. Thinking I should wake mother up, I was very soft spoken and gentle. I didn’t want to startle her. I began to nudge her left shoulder a few times and started to call for her to wake …show more content…

We kept swerving, as if dad was in and out of sleep trying to focus, but failed. Still trying to wake mother up, adding the fact that dad was asleep, while this time shaking her shoulder a little harder. Finally, she woke up. I felt like I could breathe again in complete relief. She quickly realized what was happening and reached for the steering wheel to control the direction of the car and began calling for dad to wake up. Her voice much stronger than mine but without disturbing my sister and brother from their

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