He sat in his car and watched as the world passed him by, he was parked outside of his house and everything was exactly the same as the nights before. The street lamps were on, the houses all had a warm friendly glow coming from within. The street was damp with the fresh rain that had fallen only hours before and he was here, in a black corvette, a boy of 20, or was it a man? How many mistakes did he have to make before he’d grasp that life doesn’t cheat you.
Punching his steering wheel he grabbed the lock, pulled it up, opened his car door and stumbled out onto the bare street. His mind was racing, his head was pounding and that’s when he let it all loose, that’s when the words came flowing from deep down and he couldn’t be stopped.
“God! What is with you? Why do you insist on taking the people closest to me away? Why did you take him? Why couldn’t you have taken me, why? Why did you let this happen to him! He didn’t deserve any of this, you’re a bastard, a heartless bastard!”
He threw his hands up towards the sky in a last gesture of want and slid down the side of his car until his body was compressed into nothing more but a black baggy clothed form hunched over from the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.
These past 20 years were nothing to forget, he had always been there for him, they were best friends, they made a pact when they were 13 that they would never leave other, that no matter what happened they would always be together and take the world head on. This was on of their biggest dreams, to concur the world, but not in a take over sort of way, just to concur the world and the fears that it threw at them, they would stop at nothing until they tried everything and had a taste of every part of the world. All of this was supposed to happen up until Gabe turned 18, it was a birthday to never forget. They had all crowded around Gabe’s kitchen table, each picking a chair, couch, or piece of floor to just sit and hold hands and pray.
“Dear God, he’s only 18. Let him be okay. Don’t do this to us. Don’t do this to him.”
I believe God was listening that night, because Gabe pulled through, he was going to be alright. The cancer had hit him hard, he got all the symptoms, all the after effects, and there was nothing doctors could really do for him, he would just keep getting worse and worse. Everybody remembers that day,
Gbae woke up to everyone in his room singing “Happy Birthday” and he went about a normal day, until he fell. He just went down, without a sound, without warning and was rushed to the hospital. His medications had made him weak and he was desperately holding onto any shred of life that he could, just to give him enough strength to pull through, if only for one more night.
A week later Gabe was released from the hospital with a new set of pills and he was happy as he could ever be, they told him it was just an effect of some poorly given medications and he’d be back on his feet in no time.
“No time” lasted for ever.
For the next two years Gabe went in and out of rehab, he was given test after test, and the cancer just kept spreading, no medications were working, and Gabe was giving up slowly. Everyone saw him fight to live, but you could see in his eyes that this was to much, that his body just couldn’t handle this anymore. He had a big heart, one that held love for everyone, he knew how much people wanted him to pull through, but he just couldn’t the effects were taking a hold of him and he knew that even if he did live that he’d never lead a normal life and he didn’t want to put his parents and friends in that sort of situation.
He leaned his head against his car and watched Gabe’s house with saddened eyes and slowly picked himself off the ground.
“Gabe wouldn’t want me to give up.”
He got into his car and drove to the cemetery and walked the half mile to reach Gabe’s tombstone. He sat down in front of it and felt the smooth marble under his hands, his fingers played over the engraved words. As he touched each delicate letter he could feel the pain searing through his fingertips and into his heart.
“Dearest Gabe, you will never be forgotten in the eyes of everyone who knew you. In our hearts you will always live on. Sit by God and know that no matter what happens we will always love you, our sweet boy, we will never give up”
The words, they seemed so simple, so plain, like it was a letter that he would receive and write back. He waited by that tombstone for days, waiting for Gabe to come back. He needed him back, this was his best friend, and he was holding up his end of the deal, he would never leave Gabe, they would struggle through life together.
Each day he went there, each day he opened the book he kept there and wrote of his life, what was going on, what happened since. Each day he wept for one memory he and Gabe shared. Each day he would sit in silence and pray that God bring him back, if only for a moment. |
Submission Name: Gabe
