The Lost One

"Marsha?"

I turned around and saw principal Franklin look me in the eye.  

"Can I have a word with you?"

"Sure."  I said reluctantly.  I would miss all of the cool stuff we were learning in Math today, but this must be important.  I was the goody-goody nerd of the class, comfortable in the soft city light.  The cars roaring on the highway sung me to sleep every night.  The streetlights were my nightlight.  Car alarms were my alarm clock.  Everything to do with city was written all over the notebook of my life.  But lately, someone's been drawing on it.  I've lost my only friend, Tella, to the popular girls.  My grades have been going to the dumps, and by that I mean getting B+'s on tests.  thats REALLY bad for me.  My dad was never around.  I don't even know how my mom got to like him, I only see him every weekend, and that's only for a few minutes!  

Principal Franklin took me outside the classroom, looking rather sad.  What had happened?  He grabbed my hand.  

"Your mom is very sick Marsha.  She's gotten a very rare form of cancer.  She's in the ER.  I'll go drive you to see her.  Lets go."

I followed behind him dumbstruck.  What kind of luck did I have?  How many 5th grader's moms got cancer?  

We got to the ER in a few minutes, it was pretty close to our school.  It had seemed like forever though, time had slowed to a sickening snail pace.  We walked straight in, Mr.Franklin asked the receptionst where my mom was, and she led us past many diiferent rooms.  There were beds full of injured, sick, and some that were covered in bandages so much I couldn't even tell what they looked like.  At about the 23 room, we finally slowed down.  I looked at the room next to me, and there was a bald figure lying on a hospital bed.  She/he looked in pain, but yet serene at the same time.  It couldn't be my mom.  She would stay strong, wait for me to come.  Maybe the lady just stopped to use the bathroom.  She gestured at the room.  

"There she is."