When I was younger, my mother used to hand me a handful of white summer dandelions and tell me to make a wish. I would close my bright blue eyes, take a deep breath and blow the white fuzz into the summer's breeze. My mother left me due to the fatal death of cancer. I was too young to know the disease yet, or else I would've wished for her and blown that wish out into the cool summer's breeze.
If there was one thing I learned about life in all of my seventeen years; it was to greet death like my old friend. When the time would come, I would go easy and willing. Life was too short to put up a fight. My mother once explained to me that death would bring me many fights. She told me I had to hold on and fight back; in my opinion, she was wrong.
Realization hit me on the day my blonde hair started falling out like the fuzz that comes off a dandelion when you blow it into the cool summer breeze. There's always a chance that you can survive, but from the beginning I knew I would rather die. The side effects were awful for me. I couldn't handle the incessant vomiting or hair loss. Then there was the fatigue. I was only seventeen and yet I felt like I had aged ahead fifty years. Death was a game that one could take a whisper of fate on.
*****
In the summer of my junior year, I had been blessed with the opportunity of moving into the quiet country life. We were moving from our busy apartment and it wasn't big enough for our growing family. My father and stepmother had just been blessed with twin boys, Logan and Luke.
The country life brought a sweet certainty back into everyone's minds. It reminded us that we could start over. My brother's seemed to grow everyday and there wasn't a moment past when I wasn't admiring their precious smiles. All hints of my stepmom's genes were not a trace in the boys. They looked exactly like my dad and took on his easy going personality too.
But, that summer brought better things that new life and the gift of moving. It was the summer I would meet Henry Wells.
On moving day we approached the grey farmhouse that my father had picked out. There was a pond and a barn. The house itself was not inviting, but once it was filled with the life of a new family, it would turn around. I had been helping unpack the many crammed boxes filled with our junk for hours while my stepmom watched carefully after Logan and Luck who were enjoying the new country surroundings.
"We can unpack the rest of the stuff. Nora, Why don't you go into town and look around?" My dad suggested. He was sweating profusely from the blistering summer heat and lack of air conditioning. He wiped his forehead and ran his hand through his ashy colored hair. I looked around at the nearby boxes. There was still a lot of unpacking to do and as much as I wanted to help, I wanted to explore the new area too.
"Okay, I'll come back for lunch," I replied. The farmhouse was located close to town, so travelling wouldn't take long. Dad nodded and continued putting box after box into another location of the house. I found my old blue bike sitting by the moving truck. I had never really used it back when we were in the city, but now I had a feeling it would become my only option of transportation.
I hopped on the old blue bike and rode down the gravel driveway that separated our farm house from the dusty country roads. I didn't know where I was going to be honest. I just followed the warm summer breeze until I came to a long cold stream. The stream was inviting and looked cool just from standing on the side of the road. It was covered in a thick line of trees. I parked my bike off of the road and walked down the steep slope to the creek bed.
The gurgling of the stream soothed my mind and I slipped my shoes off plunging my toes into the creek water.
I could hear people further down the stream. There was a distant roar of a car engine nearby. I felt a sharp pain on my back and heard a nearby clinking noise along with the sound of laughter. My face turned hot and red. I turned around in embarrassment. There were boys standing by the side of the road. They were yelling and laughing at me. I saw a horde of stones in their hands and realized what had hit me.
