When I Woke

When I woke up this morning I could not dream of what lay ahead. Actually perhaps I did, once upon a time. A hint of a memory was the prelude to the images that would be forever burned into my head. --- I woke up in the gym like I had every day for the past month. After the storm wreaked our home we were left with no choice. A hundred families packed into the middle school gym of Venice, Oregon. My mother and father were in the cots in the row before me, my aunt in the one next to mine. The noise of the early risers had roused me, they try to be quiet, but I don’t sleep heavily like I used to. We still have to be alert for any flash floods or sinkholes. I don’t want to lose anything more. I search through my bag for a new shirt, none are clean. I guess I need to do laundry again. I sniff the shirts and pick the least offense to slip over my sports bra. I slip from under the blanket and shiver slightly as I search my bag again. The sweatshirt I pull out is worn, one of the donations, with a small brown stain at the bottom that adds to the sad state of the sweatshirt. The dull yellow is a bit depressing. I pull my shoes on and tie them loosely. I…

It’s been ten years of this marriage and I can’t take it anymore, I want to leave but I don’t know how to get out. I've asked for a divorce bu but tells me no each time, I feel like a prisoner to this man, he just keeps me around to take care of the house when he's gone, I'm scared for my life, he's never hit me but when he drinks he becomes very violent. I need to get out before he hurts me. I can hear him coming in the house the clicks of his boots, rumble through the house it gets louder as…

When I heard the words “ He has no mother. He has no skates “ I felt like shattering glass as I realized that Jerry lied to me. As I snapped out of it I told the lady what way did you see him go last. She replied “ I don't know “ I ran outside yelling his name like a crazy psychopath. As I thought of the many places he would go to I remembered he liked the pink and white bloomed laurel. As I rushed to the laurel a cool icy stroke of breeze hit me. Then I saw the yellow bright sun…

night, I thought that I could finally rest these last two weeks. Boy did I think wrong! Sleeping peacefully September 27 in my new cherry oak bed with the ceiling fan wide open, I suddenly jolted up feeling an excruciating pain radiate all in my stomach and back. I knew then that it was time to have my little bundle of joy. Seeing my mother and sister give birth, I thought it was the most wonderful and beautiful event in the world. Little did I know the actual effort of bringing a child into the…

Day 8 I soon feel asleep and when I woke up the fire was still lit. I looked over to see Lacey gone. I got scared I thought where could she be. I started to yell her name. If the fire wasn 't enough know everyone knew where we were. I looked around and around I was scared. They had taken everyone they could not take another one. I started to cry when i saw Lacey. I sprinted towards her a gave her a big hug. She was so confused she told me she had just gotten up to go to the restroom. I laughed…

me well. She had said to me. I was scheduled for surgery the next day. She was not my doctor, thus how extravagant it was of hers to come and wish me well? But she had come and she had wished me well. And once she had done so, she had left. When the examining room door had closed behind her, for reasons beyond me, I hopped off the table, went to the door, cracked it, and watched her grow small down the long, sterile hallway, until the corner took her. Soon after she had left, my doctors,…

ponytail, which was unusual for me, but I had to keep it out of my deep green eyes. At the time I wasn’t sure what I was chasing, all I knew was, it had to be stopped. I had run five blocks exhausted, I stopped to take a breather. Then I heard it a bang! A loud sound behind me. I thought if the shot had come from behind me, who was the target? I looked down and saw a gaping hole through my stomach. I heard an eerie screeching in my ears as I began to black out. I woke up hours later, in the…

I was wide awake when I had drove off a hill riding my four-wheeler ATV. I must had jumped off, stepping my right foot loose around the brake to jump. No vivid memory of the outcome, so much heat the sand was fire. I just felt my body slamming into the dirt with piles of rock, rolling down with another huge rock. Therefore, my memory isn’t very clear pretty sure I had my face cover the best I could. Finally, I had woken up staring at the ceiling of an ambulance. All I felt was my body and mind…

I had my first surgery ever during the summer of 2015. I was sitting at home in my cozy living room and a sense of pain would come across my throat as well as my ears feeling full with water. I asked my mom to look in my throat because every time I swallowed, it felt like a piece of sand paper was scrapping my throat. I remember her saying we should go to the doctor bright and early in the morning because there were white, clammy spots deep in the back of my throat that should not be there.…

my class and I as we streamed out of the cramped classroom on a Friday. We couldn’t wait to bust out of the schools doors and claim our prize of a short freedom for surviving another busy, exhausting, and slow week of middle school. I rushed to my locker, grabbed everything I would need for the homework due Monday, threw it in my bag and headed down the hall collecting my friends to walk to town to start what I would hope would be a slow but fun weekend off The weekend went quicker than I wished…