Broken By Reality

Chapter ❷❶

At Karly's funeral, they called me to the stand to speak. It was, I admit, one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. She touched my heart, changed my live, and impacted everyone. So what was I supposed to say? I settled with a speech I had made about love and friendship and us seeing each other again soon and all that sort of stuff. People solemnly walked to the coffin to lay beautiful roses and bouquets. I had made a flower arrangement with Karly's favourite flowers and a little note saying "thankyou". Just a simple note to thank her for every single second she was alive. I guess that it was a good thing that the old hospital burnt down because then they would've never sent her to LAICH and she wouldn't have gotten such a longer life. And plus, I guess that I wouldn't have got to say goodbye. I snapped out of my daydream as the man said prayers and we bowed our heads.
"Take these flowers Karly.......We hope that well see you soon, some may see you sooner than others............But we know your looking down on us right now and smiling. It's not your fault that you had to leave this life, but we will not forget you.........Thankyou Karly for letting us all into your amazing life. It was truly an honour. Enjoy your second life and we hope you get better soon. We will be with you sooner than you think. Amen." Our heads arose as they then slowly lifted up the coffin and placed it in the ground. Sobs of sadness smothered the chirping bird sounds as mothers and relatives wept.
"Goodbye Karly." Was the last thing that the man running the funeral had said.
We strolled slowly back to the car after saying our final goodbyes. Why? Why did life have to end like this? In this treacherous way. On the way home mum stopped in at a burger drive through place and we both ordered a frozen coke to brighten our spirits.
"Are you okay honey." mum sweetly but curiously asked
"Yea. I'm okay I guess." I replied
"Oh honey, I know that this is a bra time for you but you'll get over it eventually. Just remember the good times, not the bad ones. Maybe this happened for a reason."
A few moments of silence hung as I took it in.
"I guess you're right. I'll try." we drove home solemnly with the radio blaring in the background.
I immediately walked to my bedroom with my frozen coke and my phone. I turned on some music and started flipping through my camera roll, choosing every photo with Karly in it and putting it into an album that I then locked so that no one else could access it and possibly delete the photos. I wanted these memories forever. I opened Instagram and scrolled through the lives of other people, liking posts and paying no attention to them at all. Clicking off my iPhone, I lay there, fan turning, window open, neighbours screaming, and me quietly sobbing. Just sobbing in my mind the sadness that my heart was bearing. I grabbed my book and finished the entire 789 pages that remained.
"Mum I'm going for a walk." I yelled depressingly accords the hallway
"No you have to..........Okay but be back in two hours for dinner." she had changed whatever she was going to say after obviously realising the tough situation I was handling.
I no longer caught a cab to the hospital for I was not in a rush to get there. I walked the whole 4.6km until I arrived at the beach right next to the hospital. And right there, right then, was when flashbacks screened through my mind, trying to bring her back. It was no use. But not ever would I forget what she had told me. I stared out to the ocean and silently said the exact words I was told that haunting day
"We are like waves. And just like waves, life is short so we need to embrace every second. There are highs and lows. Some of us don't make it to the end but most of us do. Some of us are more powerful than others, and some of us are just gentle pushes." I sighed and thought more carefully about what she had said. This isn't what Karly would've wanted, for me to be sad and depressed, living in my own sorrows.
Arriving home, life struck my like a bomb as a moment of realisation came through. Maybe that was it! A lightbulb moment occurred instantaneously in my mind.