Home at Last

A young girl whose life takes a turn for the worse when her parents die in an accident. She struggles to find her purpose in life, shutting the world outside. 2,687 words.

“Bye Mum.” I yelled as I ran out the front door, grabbing my boots and jacket on the way. I was always running late no matter how early I got up. I sprinted down the street to the bus stop, flailing my arms about as I ran, feeling a bit like Phoebe from Friends, I’m not going to lie! I got to the bus just in time, flustered and out of breath from my mad running. I got my ticket and was on my may to the nearest seat when the bus suddenly lurched forward and I was thrown onto the lap of a man who was tying his shoelace. I quickly stood up and mumbled an apology, not looking at the man. I was about to keep walking to my seat when the man said “Matilda?” I looked up and my eyes widened with horror as I realised that the man I had just fallen on top happened to be my extremely attractive English teacher, James Kelly. I could feel my face burning up on the spot and I just stood there stuttering “Oh er... Hi”. He smiled back at me and said “How’s your essay going?” “Umm, yeah, um it’s good, I'm nearly finished” I replied. “Oh good! I was going to give you guys half of the lesson today  but if everyone’s nearly finished then we might get straight onto the next unit?” he said. What no more lessons to work on it? I was panicking now; I hadn’t even started, despite what I had just told him. “Uh maybe you could give us this lesson just to finish and we can start the new topic next lesson?” I asked. He looked confused for a second and then he smiled and said “You haven’t started have you?” I shook my head, embarrassed that he knew I just lied to him. He chuckled. “Oh well, I’ll give you this lesson only”. Aww he’s such a cutie, always giving into the students. The bus came to a sudden stop and I lost my balance again, this time falling onto the ground. My cheeks were burning as Mr. Kelly stood up to help me up. I grabbed his hand, not wanting to let go and stood up. I thanked him, not looking him in the eyes but instead focussing on his cute red and white checked shirt, before I  grabbed my bag and practically ran off the bus, uttering a quick goodbye to him first.

 I took my usual seat against the window and opened up my diary, scribbling silly things on the cover page. I chatted to my best friend Delilah for a bit before class started.“Ok girls.” Mr. Kelly called out to the class. Everyone fell silent immediately and turned to face him. He was a really well respected teacher, partly because half the other girls felt the same way about him as I did, although none of them were obsessed like me. We spent the first half of the lesson working on our essays. I got mine fully completed and gave it to Mr. Kelly to read over. He handed it back to me with some notes on it and told me it was very good. I tucked it away in my folder and turned my attention to the screen behind him, which was now showing us a video of spiderman. Mr. Kelly had a thing for spiderman. I guess you could call it an obsession. He was always showing us videos that had nothing to do with the topics in class and even had a spiderman lanyard. I thought it was adorable that he was so obsessed whilst everyone else thought it was weird. After the video, he made a couple of nerdy jokes about it before turning around to write on the whiteboard. Delilah and I took this opportunity to stare at his extremely small but cute bum, quickly looking away when he turned around to answer the phone that had started ringing. “Hello” he said. “Yes she is. Why?” the smile faded from his face and his expression of happiness turned to one of sadness. “Should I tell her or…?” he asked the person on the other end of the line. “OK.” He looked up from the phone and called out “Tilly? Could you come here please?” the class fell silent and watched as I rose from my seat. I was nervous. The phone calls or announcements had never been for me before. I took the phone from Mr. Kelly’s hand and said hello. The news I was about to hear changed my life forever.

The phone slipped out of my hand and clattered to the floor as my eyes filled with tears. Those tears then began streaming down my face as Delilah rushed to comfort me, asking what was wrong. Mr. Kelly asked her to take me outside and wait for him. Whilst I was out there, he informed the class that my parents had just been killed in a car crash. The door opened and he hurried out to see if I was ok. I couldn’t talk, but just cried more as I buried my face in his chest. My actions caught him by surprise because he wasn’t supposed to hug students, but in the given circumstances he felt it was necessary to comfort me. He wrapped his arms around me and walked me down to the office, Delilah walking beside us with my school bag. They both waited with me at the office until my grandma arrived. Her eyes were red too, I noticed. Mr. Kelly stood up and my grandmother thanked him before taking me from his arms and walking me to the car, where my older brother, Teddy, was waiting. He sat in the front seat silently sobbing. The ride back to grandma’s house was quiet; nobody spoke a word. When we got there we huddled together on the couch and cried all night. When I woke up the next morning I was in bed in the spare room. I guessed Teddy must have carried me up. I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I couldn’t go back to sleep so I just lay there staring at the ceiling. The conversation with the lady on the phone began to replay in my head and finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I went downstairs and flicked on the TV, but all I could find were tear jerker movies like Ghost and My Sister’s Keeper. Definitely not what I needed right now. I spent day after day lying in bed, before grandma came up and told me that it was the day of the funeral. That meant it had been exactly one week. I sat up in bed and told her I wasn’t going to the funeral. She looked shocked and told me that I had to go, that it was my last chance to say goodbye. I thought back to the morning of the accident. I was running late and was in such a hurry that I never actually got a chance to say goodbye to my parents. I felt tears trickling down my face as I realised this. Reality hit me; I was never going to see my parents again.

It was cold outside, and I was shivering in my dress. I didn’t have a jacket, and I was stumbling in my heels. Teddy wrapped his arm around me and helped me walk to the front where we took our seats and the service began. I tuned out for a while, not listening to the priest until a hand clapped me on the back and I realised I had to go and make a speech. This was the last thing I wanted to do but I had no choice. I stood up and slowly made my way to the microphone. “Um. I’m Matilda, Sam and Robin’s daughter.” I paused, not quite sure what to say, before remembering that I had a speech prepared. I unfolded the piece of paper and began to read. “Ever since I can remember, my Mum and Dad have always been there for me. From the first time I fell off my bike to my first day of school, they were always there to support me. They were the most loving parents anyone could ever have, but it is only now that they are gone that I realise, all too late, just how lucky I was to have two truly amazing and unique people to love me.” I sniffed as tears poured down my cheeks. “I just want to say Thank you to everyone who came today” I continued. “It means a lot to Teddy and I and I’m sure it would have meant a lot to Mum and Dad. Umm. I’m really going to miss them a lot, and if I could go back to last Wednesday and live it all again, I would. Instead of rushing out the door to run for my bus, I would have found mum and dad, kissed them and told them I loved them. I would have taken the time to say goodbye rather than yelling it out to them from the footpath. I would have, I’m sorry” but I didn’t get any further because my voice broke and I now sobbed uncontrollably. I was shaking and Teddy rushed up to the front to comfort me. I steadied myself enough to finish my speech. “ I love you mum and dad, and I’m going to miss you every day for the rest of my life.” I buried myself in Teddy’s chest as we walked back down to our seat together. I felt a few gentle pats on my back as I sat down, but I didn’t turn around to find out who it was. We were now standing around the coffin, waiting for me to lay my flower down before they lowered it into the ground. I walked forward and gently placed my rose on the top. I walked back and watched in silence, my vision blurred by the tears, as my parents were lowered into the ground. Everyone stood their silently and respectfully. Eventually the crowd dispersed, and a few people came up to offer their condolences. That night I cried myself to sleep, the beginning of a pattern that began to repeat itself every night. I spent my days shut up in my room staring blankly at the wall. I hardly ever saw anyone, but occasionally I noticed grandma and Teddy exchanging worried looks as I sat at the table not eating my food. I became depressed and didn’t speak to anyone or leave my room. I wouldn’t eat anything and I became so thin that you could see all my bones jutting out through my taut skin. Finally grandma decided it was time to do something, and she told me I was going back to school. I was too tired to fight, so I agreed to go.

As I walked through the gates the next morning, I felt isolated and alone. People pointed, whispered and stared at me as I passed them. By now the whole school would know that a girl in year 9’s parents had died and her whole year would know it was me. I sat slowly unpacking my bag at my locker, with everyone’s eyes on me. The corridor had grown silent as I walked past and everyone had stopped to watch me. I really wished they wouldn’t, I felt a bit like an animal in a zoo with everyone staring at me. As I sat staring at my pencil case in humanities, my mind replayed memories of the funeral. I tried to stop them, to focus on what my teacher was saying, but his words were all just blurring into one loud humming noise that was giving me a head ache. I raised my hand, asking him if I could go to the bath room. I practically ran out of the class room as the throbbing ache in my head got worse. I walked outside into the fresh air and slowly made my way to the toilets. I made sure there was no one in there before I slid down the wall and dropped my head into my hands. I stayed there for the rest of the lesson and let the tears slide down my cheeks. Suddenly the door burst open and Delilah hurried over to me, putting her arm around me. I shook her off and quickly left the toilets. I went to sit behind the science block where I knew no one would find me. I wagged the rest of the day, something which I had never done before but which quickly became a habit. Grandma was yelling at me for skipping school, but I ignored her and stormed upstairs, slamming the door. I went into the bath room, locking the door behind me. I sat down against the cool tiles as the tears rolled down my cheeks. When people asked me if I was ok, I would just force a smile and pretend like everything was fine whilst I was slowly dying on the inside. I stood up and grabbed a razor from the drawer, ripping the plastic protector off. I held it in my shaky hand and looked down at my arm. Was I really going to do it? My hand was shaking as I forced the cool metal blade against my skin. I lashed at my arm several times, looking away as the blood began to pour out and drip on the floor. I was in agony, but I didn’t care anymore, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. I slid down the wall and let the blood trickle down my arm like a snake. I heard my grandma come into my bedroom and jumped up to hide all the evidence. I rinsed my arm under the tap and then pulled the sleeve of my hoodie down to cover the deep gashes I had made. She knocked gently on the bathroom door and I unlocked it. I rushed past her, down the stairs and out the front door. I could hear Teddy calling out to me as I stormed out into the cold, but I ignored him and kept walking.

I got to Southern Cross Station and as I was walking along the platform, I saw something that made me stop dead in my tracks, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. My body went numb and I blinked in disbelief. I ran towards them with outstretched arms, but with every step I took, they seemed to get further away. I sped up and sprinted furiously towards the end of the platform where they stood, waiting patiently for me to reach them. As I got closer, I could see smiles on their faces as they waved at me, encouraging me forward. When I was about ten metres away, I heard a loud horn blasting to my left. I  ignored it and just kept running, finally reaching the end of the platform where mum and dad had been. They had suddenly disappeared and it was in that moment when I looked up and saw the train rushing towards me that I understood. It was the only way to be with them. As the train reached about a metre away, I jumped off the edge of the platform and in front of the speeding metal beast. I felt a quick surge of pain as the impact of the train hit me, but it was gone as quickly as it came. I opened my eyes and looked around me. I could see people gathering, their eyes wide with horror at what they had just witnessed. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see my mum and dad smiling at me. I hugged them and sighed as I looked down at my body, sprawled on the side of the tracks. I turned my back on the sight with a sad smile on my face. I was home at last.

Author's Note

It's my first story that I'm sharing, so please don't be too harsh. I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or opinions. Hope you like it, thanks for reading x

Reviews

This story is really good, but it does need some work. For one thing, to improve readability it should be separated into shorter paragraphs. When a different person starts talking, it should always start a new paragraph. Also, make sure you're using correct punctuation, such as commas before and after names (I chatted to my best friend, Delilah, for a bit...)
Another thing is you introduced the character, Mr. Kelly, early on in the story, but then he was never mentioned again. You should either give him a bigger part in the second half of the story, or minimize or remove his part altogether.
I would also like to know why your main character had such a difficult time dealing with her parents' death. Of course it wouldn't be easy, but what led her to suicide? Did she have a history of depression? That should be clarified.
Besides those things, I did enjoy reading this. It is very emotional and captivating. I could almost feel Matilda's pain, and while reading, I was interested to find out what would become of her. Personally, I like sad stories, and they don't always have to have a happy ending, although I guess you could say that the ending was happy, in a way.

[Beka Adams]

A little confusing but good