The Burden of my Father

1

Amaris reached into the glove box of her truck and grabbed the bottle of Oxycodone she had stolen from her mothers room the night before. She took her phone off of the dashboard with trembling hands and dialed 9-1-1.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency," asked the dispatcher. For a moment, Amaris froze.

"Um, hi," said Amaris, "I-I think its my time to go, just tell my mother and sister I love them and I'm sorry."

Amaris fiddled with the orange pill bottle, the child-proof cap always gave her a little trouble.

"Honey, whats your name," asked the dispatcher. "My name is Angela."

"Amaris."

"That's a beautiful name," said Angela. "Did your mother come up with it?"

"Yeah," said Amaris, "she said it means I was a gift from God; shes real religious like that." Amaris placed two pills in her mouth. She took a swig of the bottle of Smirnoff from the passenger seat, choking it down painfully.

"Amaris? Are you all right? What happened," asked Angela.

"I'm all right," Amaris said, giggling. "I'm not dead yet. Vodka just gives me a little trouble, thats all."

"Can you tell me where you are?"

Amaris poured three pills out of the bottle this time, before throwing them in her mouth and taking big swallows of the vodka, the taste made her dry heave.

"I cant tell you yet, silly," said Amaris. "I'm not done the bottle."

"How about you tell me about your mother, Amaris," said Angela.

"My mom used to be a teacher before she got sick. She was so strict. My mom was so paranoid she had the, um, the bad world syndrome, no, the mean world syndrome! You know, the one that people get when they watch Criminal Minds all the times so they think the world's full of murderers and psychos," said Amaris. "I learned about that in school. My teacher was nice; she let me go in the teachers lounge once."

"Oh crap! I forgot to take my pills," said Amaris and she poured seven pills out of the bottle, then grabbed one more to make it an even number. She was slowly running out of pills and vodka.

"Amaris, what pills?" said Angela. "Are you taking them now?"

"Yeah," said Amaris, her voice sounding faint. "I think I'm almost ready to tell you where I am but first, I have to leave a message for my family."

"Mom, I love you so much and I'm sorry but, I can't stay here anymore. I tried so hard to be happy but I couldn't do it anymore. Alexa, I love you more than youll ever know, I'm sorry for leaving you, it's not your fault at all. Goodbye, I love you guys. Angela, I'm parked on the west side of Lake Montebello by Hillen Road. Thanks for staying with me, I didn't want to be alone, it won't be long now."

"Help is on its way. Please stay with me, Amaris," said Angela. "Amaris?"

A/N:

This is my first and ONLY author's note. I hate when people put these things in books but I just wanted to let you all know that I am open to criticism. If you think there's something in the story that just doesn't work or could be better just let me know and I'll consider it. Grammar Nazi's do your thing. Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy!