Living through Lenses

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

It was almost like a cry of death when the heart monitor couldn’t count any more heartbeats. The sound of howls of the family next door echoed through the hospital, piercing through the deadly silence. That woman has been coming here everyday and I’ve watched her slowly break down as she watched her son die slowly, and painfully.

After watching the mother being escorted out of the hospital room I went back to the television. It was a tiny, block television up in the corner of the room, showing all the news in the world. A young man’s face popped up and I wasn’t really listening but it seemed like he’s gone missing. He had messy blonde hair, some of the strands fell down to his face and his blue eyes stared straight into mine. Poor boy, his life, like mine, is probably over. I wonder …

‘Kayla?’ A doctor walked in, pushed up his glasses and faced me. ‘Kayla, you will be released tomorrow, and we will discuss the options when your parents arrive. Okay?’ He smiled, a smile that he uses with all his patients, a smile filled with pity. I hated it. He wanted to discuss options, what options? How I was going to die, what sort of coffin I would be put in, what options were there? This was stupid but I had no option but to nod and stay silent.

The day I was let out my parents smiled for the first time in a while, they said how I would be fine and all that cliché nonsense but the doctors told me the truth.

‘Kayla, you know your condition already and it may not be serious yet but we have no way of stopping the progress of the brain cancer. You only have less then a year to live.’ He’s face was deadly serious but it didn’t really matter, I’ve lost everything I could’ve had, my future.

It was like I couldn’t see; the world had no more colours, everything was different. It was hard to keep secrets from Faye, but she didn’t know about my illness, I told her that it was just from overworking myself. She was obviously suspicious but she let it go. She always tried to get me out doing stuff like seeing movies but what was the point, I couldn’t see the colours, I couldn’t feel the emotions, I was never interested, in anything actually.

‘Kayla, you need to get out of the house!’ I stared at my mum and she sighed. ‘It’s unhealthy for you to stay in here all the time, what about going out with Faye?’

I ignored her, I didn’t want to have this discussion but in around 5 minutes my mum appeared in front of me with my handbag, wallet, mobile and pushed me out the front door. I dawdled down the stairs of our apartment and groaned as the sunlight shone straight into my eyes.

Who cares, I’ll just walk around the shops and see what I can find. I kept walking since nothing caught my attention. I’ve probably been walking for an hour now so I decided to take a seat. The bench was just by the road in front of a small store but I didn’t bother to look inside. But when I sat and looked in front, I saw a camera store, I had seen many of these around but there was almost a hint of colour in my vision. I looked around to check any other areas that may have colours showing but nothing, just this tiny camera store. The tint of colour slowing became stronger as I walked closer but it never became more then a tint.

There was no difference when I got inside; it was still black and white like the rest of the world. But it was so intriguing why this place caught my eye. It was an old dusty shop on the corner of the main street; no one even came down this far. There was no receptionist and no customers but it had many cameras. Digital, pro, old, Polaroid, I could nearly bet that they had every sort of camera but there was a single one that caught my eye. It was placed behind a glass screen and it had a trillion locks so I guessed that it would be really expensive so obviously I wouldn’t be able to afford it. I was deciding to walk out the door when an old man walked to the reception.

‘Hi, young lady’ He smiled a hugest smile I’ve seen in my life.

‘Hi’ I replied sincerely, but it came out colder then I expected.

‘I saw you looking at that camera, it’s beautiful isn’t it?’ he turned his head and looked at the glass case, but his face was not a face of someone who thinks its beautiful but a face that sees some sort of depressing past in that camera. ‘It was my wife’s, she loved taking photos but she died a while ago and I’ve kept this camera here since then. Would you like to try it?’ Without me even replying he went and unlocked all those locks and handed it to me. I didn’t even know what to do with something so precious to someone. ‘Go on, try it out’

I put the camera up to my face and closed my eyes. I felt the smooth edges and the turned it on. I was scared to open my eyes because my hopes would probably be dissolved. I just stood there with my hands shaking and slowly, slowly I opened my eyes and looked through the lenses of that special, old camera.

The colours all flowed in at once; it was like someone pouring a bucket of paint onto my black and white world. I could see the world I used to be in and my tears started flowing down my face. I could see how shocked the shop owner was but it wasn’t stopping.

‘Are you okay, young lady?’ He looked seriously concerned.

‘How much do you want for this camera? Please give me a price, I may not be able to pay it off straight away but …’ He put his hand on my shoulder, smiled and shook his head.

‘I saw how much you wanted this camera, I never wanted to sell it, and I wanted to give it away to someone who would truly appreciate it, please accept the gift and take it.’

I felt my chest tightening, my lungs gasping for air, how could I accept this gift, so precious, so dear to him but I couldn’t help but smile at him, I was so grateful.

‘Please!’ I could hear the strain in his voice as he tried not to shout at me. I couldn’t, I wouldn’t, I wasn’t going to move until he gave me a price but just like my mother he pushed me out of the door chucked out a bag and threw me on the front step. I didn’t know what to do. I finally found something to do in the last year of my life and I could do it alone, painless, I felt the freedom overwhelming my body and I remembered.

‘Thank you! I swear I’ll pay you back for this one, with everything I’ve got!’ I screamed at the door and ran off in the direction of my home with the plastic bag and the camera. I was curious about what was in the bag but I couldn't afford to waste minutes of my life by stopping. My black and white world was back again and I couldn’t wait to look through the lenses, I needed to see that colourful world as soon as possible. 

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Hello people, I really don't know where this story is going and have no idea what I'm doing. I'm completely lost and this story is boring as! Any comments please, be as truthful as you can please (: