Not Yet Alone

Chapter 2

The choices a person makes are what define them.

Everyday, an individual must make choices, both simple and difficult. But it is their decisions that let you know what kind of person an individual really is.

I still don't know the reason why I made the choice that I made. Perhaps I wanted to save lives. Perhaps I wanted to change the world. Or perhaps I was tired of just going through life without giving anything a second thought.

But I did choose.

****

I suppose it all started five years ago, right after my eighth grade year. School had just gotten out about a week earlier, so it would have been late May.

Kathrine and I were still friends then. We would usually hang out at the pool or ride bikes together in the summer. But since it was still May, the pool wasn't open. So, we rode our bikes.

All of Kathrine's other friends would call her Katie. But I call her Kathrine.

However, it was that breezy May afternoon that marked the beginning of the end of life as I had know it to be.

If I had know that my world end on that day, I would not have gone bike riding with Kathrine. But back then, I was still innocent. My mind did not know of all the world's horrors.

Instead of riding in circles around our neighborhood block, we chose to ride on the hike and bike trail for a change of scenery. I personally enjoyed the nature around me as I rode.

On the hike and bike trail, there is a separate trail that goes up a hill. Kathrine wanted to ride up the hill because she said that the ride down would be really fun. I was somewhat adventurous in those days, so I didn't think twice about going with her.

Kathrine was right. The ride down was fun, a little too fun. There is just something about the feeling of going fast. It makes you want to go faster. As I flew down the hill, I threw my arms up in the air and pedaled with all my might.

Yeah, that turned out not to be such a good idea. Before I knew it, my control of my bicycle was gone. I went right into a brick pavilion that was on the side of the path.

I was too dazed to get up, but I fully expected Kathrine to come help me in an instant. Instead, this runner came to my aid. I don't know where he came from because no one else had been on the hill when I rode down. It was almost as if he came out of thin air.

But at that moment, the only thing registering in my mind was that I was hurt. The runner helped me stand up and brush off the dirt. He was just straightening out the tire of my bike when Kathrine waddled over.

"What happened?" She demanded, even though she was out of breath.

"She just took a little spill." Thee guy told her. He looked me in the eye. "You will be alright." He said that to me as a statement, not a question.

I have no idea how he knew whether I was fine or not. It's not like he asked me or anything. I hadn't been feeling too hot before he had helped me. But about right after he told me I would be alright, I felt fine.

The runner was gone before I could even thank him.

Kathrine and I rode home to find chaos waiting. In my drive way, not only was the car of my nineteen year old sister, Abby, in the driveway, but the car of my twenty three year old brother, Matthew and his wife Kelli, was in the driveway.

Even though I rarely see them (Abby was always busy with getting ready for her first year of college and Matt was busy with his wife and work), seeing the vehicles of my siblings is not what alerted me. It was the three police cars parked in front of my house that told me something was wrong.