My RIde

My Ride

Time, they say is like water slipping through our fingers. There are so many things in our lives we wish we could of done.

Climb a mountain, tour Europe, tell your wife goodbye before you disappear, or maybe even tell your daughter that you don't want her to leave and grow up when she starts her very first day of school.

Billions of little things that we could not say or do because there was just not enough time. Some matters are more important than others, like how much you could of done to save a life.

But I guess in the end we all have to accept that we are human and sometimes life is never what expect, it is only so much more.

Everything we know has a beginning and an end, and the beginning of this story begins on May the 11th 2003 in a big city in a big world, Sydney Australia.

The rain pelted the already sad beach side suburb of Manly. The sky was grey and heavy with rain clouds promising to carry on raining for the rest of the week.

There was no one outside, no café no small business was open. For the first time in a long time busy Manly just North of Sydney centre was silent.

The waves rose to enormous heights and the current was strong carrying debris and mystery back into the ocean, it was like a grave yard for forgotten dreams and hopes.

The wind came from the south, it was cold and it rattled everything and every one. Along the beach road of Manly came a car, it was only a small car but it held a big future and a big destiny for the young girl inside the passenger seat.

Sitting wide awake and just being able to peer out of the window to look out into the misty ocean was Amy. Her mother drove the little white Honda on this slippery road while the rain came.

Amy was on her way to see her father, she hadn't seen him in eight years. She lived in Broken Hill a very inland city of New South Whales.

The last time she saw him was when she was three, he had a big fight with her mother and so her mother left him for Broken Hill taking Amy with her.

In the divorce Amy's mother Carol got her, but almost everyday she wished she could be with her father. Amy was constantly teased by the others girls at her school because she had blonde hair and not dark hair like the rest of them.

It was her birthday three days now from here and all she wanted was to see her dad, her mother and father arranged for her to see him. This was Amy's big birthday gift but in truth Carol wanted to send her daughter away.

Carol had a very aggressive type of bone cancer and it had spread all over her body. Carol was weak and even though she was receiving an operation she knew she was going to die. In the back of the car she had all Amy's things.

She didn't want to tell Amy, she didn't have the heart to tell her but she promised herself that she would she just didn't know when.

Mist covered the sea and as Amy looked down the cliffs the only thing she could see were the huge waves crashing into the sandstone rocks down below.

Even though it was three O'clock in the afternoon Amy's mother had the headlights on, that's how heavy the rain was.

The radio played in the car but was static as the weather interrupted the signal. Amy blew on the window and her breathe made a misty patch in the middle of the window.

“Amy, you haven't said a word, are you ok my darling?” Carol asked her gentle daughter.

“Yes, mummy I'm fine.” She replied. “I'm just scared of this storm, it's really big and it's different to where we live.”