A Change Of Plans

Chapter One: Unforgetable Memory

  Everything was perfect, at that very moment in time. Before the fire. We were laughing, making jokes, and one thing that never happened, all of us were together. Unfortunately, it was all about to change.

  It all started on June 23rd in the summer of 2005. I was 13 when tragedy struck. I am now 15, and my devastating story is going to be told.

                               ...

  The neon yellow sun was bursting through my transparent glass windows of our little cabins kitchen. It was the nicest day of the week. "What are we having for breakfast mom? Our usual creamy oatmeal, or fried eggs and bacon?" I asked with happiness.

  "Let's mix it up," speaks Johannes mom, "Go to the raspberry bush near Brooke. We can have dessert."

  Off I went berry hunting. Dessert for breakfast!, I thought, yesterday must have been a great day at work. I'm heading to our little Brooke, she always gives us fruit and veggies no matter what season it is! She waters the vegetation through little streams that run through our rows of plant beds. The garden is usually a lush green like the evergreen trees people would buy at Christmas, or the green if someone's freshly watered lawn.

  Then I reached it, our Brooke and garden. The streams are dried up, the rich dark brown soil is all crumbly, everything! Brooke was dehydrated, the vegetation shrivelled, what was happening? Something terrible is going on, Mother Nature is warning me. So I dropped my gently weaved fruit basket with not even a single berry inside, and ran. Halfway down the root covered trail, I heard two distinctive screams. Please don't be who I think, repeated in my head like a broken record. This of course caused me to run faster then I ever thought I could.

  The black suffocating smoke made me sneeze. My sweaty sunset orange shirt was already covering my nose by the time I came to the grey shrouded scene. Our cabin was on fire.

  "Mom.. Dad? Tell me you are both alive?!" Think silence hung in the air like leaves on a tree in autumn. Then my small ears tuned into a different sound, rubber wheels screeching on gravel. Fire trucks, raced through my mind.

  I didn't wait for them. My palms sticky from sweat were already on a charcoal black piece of burnt wood. Adrenaline was surging through my veins, to find my parents. My soul ambition was for them to still be apart of my life.

  "Mom.. Dad? Where are you! Please answer..." I yelled with more sadness then hope.

  "Jo.. [cough] Johanne." My father choked. "Your auntie is in her way."

  "Dad don't say that." I plead holding back the salty liquid behind my eyes. "Dad you're going to be okay you'll see. People are almost here." Being optimistic was the only chance I got. "Where's mother is she alright?" By the pale, empty look on his ashes burned face, I could tell that mom was dead.

   "Johanne, I lo-" came out with his last breath. He didn't finish.

   A few hesitating moments passed by before I was dreadfully aware of what happened. A little tear slowly slid down my hot cheek as my only father drifted out of his body, out of the world, into Heaven. "Rest in piece Daddy." I whispered with a dry throat.

  Thick smoke was filling my sensitive lungs as the stomping of feet filled my almost-crisped-home. Then a face appeared, then three more. "Little girl please gradually make your way over here, this place isn't intact." Spoke a muscular man in a bright yellow and red uniform. I then ran, out of the house, ignoring authority.

   Faster and faster, my feet bolted, trying to escape. Then it was face to tree. Crying, and crying for was seemed like forever, till my face was red and I couldn't breathe. Exhaustion caught up to me, and I felt so dizzy from all the intoxicating smoke. Then the world went dark as the sense of falling washed over me.