Escaping Death [Watty Awards]

Chapter 20-Signs

Chapter 20-Signs

There is one thing that I know of that can make a person remember everything that they had lost in cause of a spell.  I was taking Gwen to the creek we use to go to when we were younger.  The spell would only be broken if she remembered a strong memory.  The creek was where we first met.

It was a hot August day and our families were at the lake that same afternoon.  I remember that it was a few weeks before I was suppose to start first grade.  I had wandered off into the woods to go and play.  I was making a fort with some branches and that’s when a snake came and slithered next to me.  Instead of walking away from the snake I began to throw the sticks at it, which infuriated the snake and attacked me.  I cried out in pain and that is when Gwen came running towards me.

“Are you okay? Oohh…that looks like an owie? Ima go get my mommy, kay?”  She leaves me, crying and afraid that the snake might come back but before I even realize it, Gwen appears with her mother by her side.

As soon as Mrs. Hampton see’s me, she runs towards me and kneels down and asks what happened.  I tell her that I was playing and that a snake had slithered by and bit me.  She looks at the swelling by my ankle and then takes me into her arms.  “It’s okay sweetie.  We’ll find your mommy and daddy and they’ll take you to the doctor.  It’s okay.  It’ll be fine, little one.”  Her voice is soothing and she rubs my back, trying to calm me down.

“Oh! Mommy can I come?  I wanna go with him.”  Gwen pleads, tugging her mom’s shirt. 

“No.  Gwen you can’t.  You have to stay with your dad.”  Mrs. Hampton says. 

“But mommy please, please, PLEASE!”

“Gwenivfer.”  She says sternly.  The tone that her mother says her name is enough to silence her pleas.

Gwen sulks behind us and I look at her.  Her big brown eyes look at me pleadingly and I feel sorry that her mom wouldn’t let her come with me.  All I want is for her to come because she found me and got help.  She cared about me even though she didn’t know me.  I saw her as a friend because of her caring.

Once Mrs. Hampton finds my parents and tells them what happened they quickly pack up and my mother takes me from Mrs. Hampton’s arms and into hers.  My father is hurriedly packing everything into the truck, while I see Gwen sitting down on the ground and absentmindedly drawing on the dirt with a stick. 

“Mommy?”  I said, taking her attention away from the conversation that her and Mrs. Hampton were having.  “Can my friend come too?”

“Oh, Gabe.  I don’t think her parent’s would let her, honey.”

Mrs. Hampton heard and said, “Well, if it isn’t any trouble we would like to come along.  Gwen has been asking if she could go.”

My mom smiled and looked at Gwen’s hopeful face.  “No, no problem at all.  You can come along sweetie.”  Then she turned to Mrs. Hampton and said, “I think they made friends of each other.”

When we got to the hospital, Gwen was by my side, holding my hand.  She talked to me about her drawings and how she liked to color and I told her that I liked to play catch with my father.  We talked and talked about the things we liked to do and the foods we liked.  She hated green vegetables and would only eat carrots.  I told her that I hated green beans.  That’s what most of our time consisted of and all the while, she stayed by my side until the doctors finished treating me.  Luckily, the bite was not poisonous and all I was treated for was for the swelling that the bite had caused. 

After that day, we became best friends and our families also became close.  We found out that we only lived twenty minutes away from each other and that made it easier for us to hang out.  As the seasons passed, and the years went by, Gwen and I had always stayed by each others sides.  All the scrapes and bruises, all the tears that were shed, all those days that were difficult but we got through it.  We were to halves of a hole and it was time that she remembered that.  I knew that she felt like something was missing; it was me who was missing.  We had been together for so long and erasing my being from her life had resorted to her feeling empty.  I wanted-no, I needed to give it back to her.