Born Wild

Need for an escape

She remembered looking over at her beautiful mother in the car before school. She had long wavy hair the same color as Tala. She had tan glowing skin, a bright smile, and radiated with happiness. After Tala hugged her goodbye, she greeted a few of her classmates and opened her locker. She slid her green sweater over her white shirt because the school was chilly, and walked to her first class which was earth science. The bell rung after class. She opened her locker to grab a fiction book to read during study hall. 

"Tala Thorn."

She turned and saw the principal down the hall. She felt a twist in her stomach. She knew something bad had happened. She felt a sense of fear and dread hang over her head before the principal even said another word.

The principal walked closer quickly, clicking her thick short heels against the linoleum. She stopped near Tala. 

"Tala.....your mother is in the hospital...." 

The walls seemed to cave in and everything started to blur.

She was strapped into another mother's van and driven to the hospital. The whole drive she was frozen looking outside the window. She walked into the hospital with her brown sneakers clunking against the soft tile and her books shuffling in her backpack. The feeling of dread washed over her. The scent of hand sanitizer and cleansers overpowered her nose. The nurses rushed around in the hall. Tala couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. 

What was going to happen? What would happen to her mom who held her when she scraped her knee and made soup for her when she was fatigued and sick in bed. What would happen to her best friend that she told everything to and couldn't wait to see after school every day? Her mother was the warmth and sunshine in her life.

She walked into her father, sobbing over her mother Kita. Blood and bruises covered her body. Her father could barely mutter that it was a hit and run. Her mother managed to grab both of their hands and squeeze them tightly.

"I love you mom" she cried. 

Her mother's heartbeat fell silent, the machine letting out a long undisturbed beep. All of the light in her life was suddenly gone. Everything seemed to turn black and white.

They stayed in the room for a few minutes in suffering, not even being able to fathom the pain and emptiness they felt. As they left the hospital room, they left part of their hearts. They would never be completely whole again without Kita. They were given Kita's ashes and spread them in the forest where they knew she would have wanted them.

Tala wiped a tear from her eye and started walking to town. Her father had asked her last night if she could get groceries for today. On her walk to the store, Tala thought about how much she missed her mother. She would do anything to get her back, but she could do nothing. Her mother was so beautiful and strong. Her eyes lit up when she smiled and she was the happiest, loving person Tala knew. She broke into a million pieces when her mother died. For days after she would sit still in her room looking out the window, not saying a thing, and never wanting to eat. Her father was barely holding on as well.

Tala started to separate herself from everyone around her. She didn't speak in class or to her father. She could hear the kids whisper about her. Some said she was strange, some said they felt bad for her. She even developed a temper for a while, started to see her grades fall lower and lower, and grew into her despair. She was only 14 years old, yet she had to go through so much.Her father would bury his grizzly stubble and dark eyes in his hands at the kitchen table. It started as one glass of whiskey and became several over the months. He started to drink his life away. He was unable to stop. He didn't know how to feel okay without Kita.