An Act Of Kindness

VIII

10.11.2014

I was running.

I didn't know what I was running from,

But I knew that I had to get away.

The problem was, there was no where to hide.

Whatever it was, it wasn't slowing down.

Suddenly, a person appeared the same way that Alice had done earlier.

Hoping that it was her, I slowed down and began walking to her,

Forgetting about what I was running away from.

I tapped on her shoulder when I was close enough.

"Alice?" I asked, wishing with every fibre of my being that it was her.

But my face darkened as soon as I saw my mother's face with tears in her eyes.

"Mom?"

She didn't reply.

Instead, she turned around and continued to cry.

"What is a mother supposed to do when her son is like this?" I heard her say.

Since when did she care? I bitterly thought to myself.

"I'm sorry for treating you the way I did Leo. Just please; come back to us."

My head started to spin when she said that.

Alice had said something similar,

"please wake up Leo..."

Did something happen to me?

I felt fine;

Great in fact.

And that's when it dawned on me.

I didn't feel any pain.

For the first time in a very long time, I couldn't feel any pain.

But how could that be?

The doctors had all said that it would be nearly impossible for me to recover.

So what was going on now?

Why was I suddenly feeling as if I had fully recovered?

I felt my knees grow weak, causing me to sit down on the green grass.

There was only one reason I could think of for this feeling:

Death.

Could I possibly be... dead?

Tears streamed from my eyes as that possibility began to make more sense.

But even though I didn't feel the pain that my sickness brought,

I was still in pain in my chest.

The thought of never seeing my family,

Despite how they treated me,

Caused my heart to constrict.

But that pain was nothing,

Compared to the pain from the thought of never seeing Alice again.

The girl who put so much effort to make me smile,

And to make my day brighter.

I lay myself on the ground into a fetal position as I cried,

Wishing for the first time in my life,

That I could feel the pain that I felt every day that I was on the hospital bed.

Because with that pain,

Came the chance to live again.