Touched by an Angel

This is just something I had to write for my creative writing class.

As I child I never understood the impact that someone could make on my life. I never knew that one simple sentence could change a life forever. I also never knew that one single person could change the lives of many people. I guess I never knew all those things because I hadn’t met him yet.

I met Argenis Martinez when I moved to Tiebreaker Elementary school in the second grade. I was a tall awkward red-headed girl with no friend in sight. I silently walked into the boring classroom with tan walls and disgustingly worn-out brown carpet and hurried my way to my desk. I had to get everything put in order for the first day of class. The desk top opened and I started placing pencil after pencil into the little tray. A voice behind me startled me, forcing me to turn around. “Hey,” The portly boy stood behind me with a blue and silver striped shirt. He smiled under his dark skin with a bright glimmer in his eye. I silently nodded and turned my body around to look at my desk again. I felt the air move around him as he sat next to me. “My name is Argenis, what is yours?”

Annoyed, I closed the desk and looked to the over friendly boy. “Kaitlin,” My name barely slipped from my lips it was so hushed.

“Well Kaitlin,” Argenis said with a smile. “We’re going to be friends.”

I should’ve noticed it then but I somehow didn’t. Argenis was the friendliest person on the planet. It wasn’t until a few weeks later when a new girl moved into our classroom. Argenis caught me swinging my small body on the dangerously old swings in the back of our school. The young girl with curly brown hair had her shoulder tucked behind his body as they walked for me. “Katie!” he called out forcing the fun of the swing to cease. I sighed and drug my feet in the dark bark below, slowing my speed.

As Argenis moved closer with the girl in tow I noticed the fear settled in her eyes. The brown spheres popped back and forth at all the kids playing around on the toys. She wanted to be accepted, by anyone. Luckily she had run into the right kid. Argenis pulled her forward so that our bodies formed this dynamic trio. Argenis looked up into my face and said, “This is Lyndi and she’s going to be our friend.” Lyndi did become our friend, so did: TJ, Amy, Bobbi, Steven, Krystal, and Dillon. Needless to say, Argenis was the social butterfly who never stopped flying around. I don’t think I ever had a conversation that lasted longer than five minutes before he was off talking to someone new. People began to love him despite his overbearing personality. He was always someone that could make you laugh and someone who could always lift your fallen spirits.

It was too bad that he wasn’t there when I needed him the most. I sat on the computer and looked at the web page that was open in front of me. The status updates popped up, each with an R.I.P in them. His name was splattered across the screen. “What kind of sick joke was this?” I asked myself. The pictures of friends with him started to plaster over all the web page’s walls. Who could I believe? Argenis would be the one to pull an internet wide stunt like this. He was always trying to be in center of attention. This seemed a little morbid, even for him.

I shut off my computer and walked upstairs to my family. “You haven’t heard anything about an accident have you?” My mother with her blonde hair shaking behind her answered as she made dinner. “Because everyone on MySpace is saying he’s dead.” My mother stopped what she was doing and looked at me. She could tell by the look in my eyes that I was very serious.

It wasn’t until I looked at his name on the news page that I knew it was real. Somehow it brought it to real life. At that point there isn’t much you can do. The emotions take over and let your body take control.

Days later, after the emotional zombie state, I picked myself up and drove to a memorial service held at the crash site. It was then that I realized that Argenis had made an impact on over hundreds of people’s lives. Car after car lined up as they parked along the deserted curvy rode. Again the impact was made at his funeral. In order to even sit at the funeral you had to arrive almost two hours early. This one single boy had changed every single human life that was sitting in the room of the catholic chapel.

I didn’t need to cry anymore because I knew that forever our lives would be influenced by him. People vowed to encourage his spirit of friendliness by being kind to everyone. There is not a doubt in my mind that every person changed themselves after this experience. A rough high school soon became united and kind. A broken town once again found each other. We began to realize that life is too short and we should take the time to notice the people around us. 

Reviews

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"A broken town once again found each other. We began to realize that life is too short and we should take the time to notice the people around us."
~what a profound story, and very well written,
and even more touching than anything.
i really think the best thing about this piece is that you wrote it purely and didn't clutter it with too much wordiness (adjectives & the such)~u r a great story teller-and this is beautiful!!!

:)