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Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: MN
Gender: Female
Posts: 15
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The Night Mom Died
This is a story about the night my mother died.. I was only ten years old, and yet, this still remains fresh in my mind. I beg you not to trash on it.
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We came out of the theater, laughing and talking. Tim and Christopher's movie had finished before ours, so Jane and I met them at the car. Tim and my cousin, while they had been waiting, had decided to walk over to Sammy's Pizza Parlor, across the parking lot.
"How'd you like the movie?" I asked after giving Tim, and then Christopher, a hug.
"It was a GREAT movie!" Tim answered, his lips smiling, his voice cheerful.
"What about you Chris?" Jane asked her youngest son.
"It was awesome!" He tried answering with some energy. But, as usual, he sounded tired.
We all laughed before climbing into the car. Going to the movie had made me really happy. For lack of a better word, happy was all I could think of. This had been the first time I'd seen Christopher in four years. His brothers though, I hadn't seen in an even longer time.
All the way home we laughed, joking with each other enjoying ourselves, unaware of what awaited us at the house.
We pulled into the driveway of our house where Sean, my brother, was shooting hoops. "Hey Sean! You should've come to the movie with us!" I yelled trying to get his attention.
He caught the basketball as it fell through the hoop. He tucked it under his arm and looked at us as we got out of the car. "I had better things to do." He said.
"Like what?" I asked, running up and taking the ball from under his arm. I threw a jump shot, missing the hoop completely.
"We'll see you inside," Tim said, walking through the garage to the door that let us inside the house. Jane followed soon after him.
"Can I shoot a few?" Christopher asked, a little more enthusiasm in his voice now.
I threw him the ball, and watched as he threw the perfect shot, swooshing it into the hoop. He did this a few more times before finally passing the ball back to Sean and I. "Thanks," he said before disappearing into the house with his mom and dad.
We watched him before passing the ball between us, throwing a shot in here and there. "So," I started, "are you glad we get to see Christopher after so long?"
"Dunno. Haven't really though about it," Sean answered, throwing the basketball through the hoop. "It's ok. But we can't really relate. He's a lot older than we are."
The ball bounced my way, and I caught it before it could roll down the driveway into the street. "I guess you're right," I said, throwing the ball through the hoop as well. I caught the ball again and threw it to Sean. "Let's go in. If we don't the bugs'll eat us."
Sean nodded, and threw the ball one last time. I laughed when the ball missed and hit the rim. Sean chased after it and I started to head inside. Sean caught up with me, put the ball on one of the shelves and shoved into the door before me.
Inside, I slipped my shoes off in the foyer and then walked up the three steps that led into our living room.
There were more people in the room than when I had left. Kathy Lund, one of my mom's closet friends, as saying something to my crying grandma. My eyes horrified, scanned the room. Nothing was out of place. Except where my mom had been laying before I'd left for the movie. Had, been laying. She was no longer there. The only thing left was the hospital bed she'd been in.
"W-where's mom?" I asked, looking around the room. Faces of my family members were hidden behind hand and you could hear the sobs of some of them.
My dad came up the steps from the kitchen, stopping when he saw my horrified look. "Where's mom?" I asked again, my voice shaking.
Sean came bounding down the steps and said, his voice almost nonchalant, "She died while you were at the movie."
My heart seemed to stop. All the lights in the room seemed to disappear and Sean's words hung hollow in my head. She couldn't be dead. That wasn't possible. It couldn't be. Could it?
I looked at my dad and with a quaking voice all I could manage was, "Dad?"
My dad nodded. I let out a choked cry. I ran up to him and buried my face into his shoulder. This couldn't be happening. I sat there for almost five minutes before racing up to my room, past Sean and grabbing my phone from the desk. I dialed every number I could, giving the bad news. The tears kept welling up, no matter how many times I wiped them away.
For what seemed like hours, but may have only been minutes, I sat on my bed and cried. I had buried my face under my pillow and shooed away anyone who tried to enter my room. This gave me time to think. I was only ten years old and had just lost my mother. Yeah there were worse things that had happened to people, I just didn't think it was that important at the moment.
Of course, being there was better than being more than probably a thousand miles away like Sam, my oldest brother was. Unlucky for him, he was in Colorado on a mission trip with the church then.
When all the tears had swam away, I got up and wandered back downstairs. The room was silent now, no one was talking, no one had the tv or radio on. Sean, I thought, must be outside again. I walked slowly down the steps to the foyer, and slipped my shoes on once more.
I was right. Sean was shooting hoops once again and Tims car was gone. He left, I thought. I decided to join Sean again, talking to him and telling him at least five times, "That was a terrible way of telling me that mom had died. Couldn't you have though of a nicer way?"
All he did was look at me. He obviously didn't care. The rest of the night passed slowly, and when we were both finally tired and worn out, we put the basket ball away, went inside, got ready for bed and fell asleep.
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This is all true. None of this is made up. My mother will have died exactly four years ago this July 30th. I was only 10 years old.
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