Best Friend

I cried a little the first time I wrote this.

Best Friends

"Okay, Children, line up."

Door with green, red, and yellow paper apples.

First in line. Twist the knob. Peer outside.

Walk down the hal-

I shriek, my friends and class mimics, everyone panics.

Eyes flung wide open,

A man with a rabid fury inside his gun stands beside

A sticky red smeared across the bulletin board

Dripping down like raindrops on glass

To a sunken form haphazardly lying in a dark puddle.

The horrific stench of death.

Dashing, yelling, running, madhouse chaos.

Me. Frozen to this spot. Man. Gun. No.

Pointed at her head.

The one with the other half to my necklace.

No hesitation daunts his face.

Finger movements over a trigger "click"

Mid step, she bounds , running towards me

When a sudden jolting cuts through the atmosphere.

Buried in her head...

It stops. For a second. For me. It stops.

The slumber party, we were in trouble for watching a PG-13 movie

gone.

Field day, when we won the two-legged race

Gone.

I was too scared to ride the big roller coaster by myself, but we went together, and

GOne.

Playground tag everyday at recess that never ended, though you were always faster...

GONe.

Two pieces to this heart, and the other half is

GONE.

She drops.

I clap a hand over my mouth, others rush past.

I can't scream, I can't run, I sink to the ground. I crawl.

Almost trampled by a live or die stampede

This... table... might... work...

Numb, vision blinking in and out of focus, Nightmare, please no.

Can't happen, can't take it.

Eyelids glued open, saltwater makes oceans to pour down my cheeks.

Huddled in a sniffling ball.

The man. My teacher. My class. Her. Gone.

Her head hit the ground awkwardly and is turned to stare at me with a blank expression,

I see her face from my place under the table.

How could she have been the one that-

My throat constricts, my stomach churns molten acid, my eyes feel like hot coals,

I choke on a sob.

Only one thought can make it to me through the haze.

The room is silent, I reach my shaking hands up to my neck and I unhook my half of the heart from my neck.

Silver. Hanging on a simple chain with the word "best" in pink letters.

It's dangerous, too dangerous, I shouldn't do it,

But I have to. For her.

No one is around.

I mange to slowly, slowly drag myself to her.

To the shell that used to be her.

My hands stick in the pool of...

A sharp intake of my breath, covering my eyes with my arm.

I can't, I just can't think.

With hands trembling, I almost drop it,

I lay my half of the heart on her stomach.

My piece of the necklace clasps into place

Along the jagged line of her half of the heart. Magnetic.

I take a deep breath and have to use all of my strength to cautiously look.

When I do look at the two halves together,

A solemn, emptied out feeling of loss seeps through my veins like poison when I see the

Two words. One eight year old girl like me.

"Best Friend"

 

 

Author's Note

If you guys didn't know, today was the day that there was shooting at an elementary school... I just... I felt like I needed to do something. To do something to recognize those kids and staff that died, and to show that it will forever effect those kids who saw... No child should ever have to see someone die, it leaves a lasting effect on them and an awful scar on there soul. This is what happens, because those kids who died have friends and families and also to put it into perspective of a kid's point of view. They didn't deserve that, no one does.

Reviews

[CarolinaRose]

As soon as I started reading this I knew instantly what it was about. It is a terrible and senseless tragedy and this piece captured the horror of what those poor children must have felt. My heart breaks for them and their families. You wrote this respectfully and from the heart. Thank you for sharing this with us.

[Wednesday Morning]

I love your writing. And those children will not die without purpose. They will revolutionize our government. They have united this country in a way we haven't been in a while. And, maybe, finally, this won't have to happen again. Thank you so much for that poem. Those children deserve this sort of recognition. It was beautiful.

[RachelReaper]

Thank you.

[Lina Grey]

oh my gosh that is amazing...It's an awful thing what happened in Connecticut such a shame such people exist... a beautiful write though thank you darling

[RachelReaper]

thank you for taking the time to review this

[Lina Grey]

you're welcome...it made me tear up as well

[Admiral Kirk]

This is beautiful... I almost cried as well, you made it feel very real... It's beautiful...

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

amazing penning of how one would probably feel in this circumstance. I am sure you did cry, how could you not. Written well.

[RachelReaper]

thank you for your comment

[Bailey B.]

This is beautiful and I feel so bad about what happened. A wonderful write and read

[RachelReaper]

thank you for reading

[Shubham's View]

Yes I made the connection, before reading your note. Good write. Wish such psychotic people didn't exist in the world. :|

[Richy Moon]

..,.This is why the internet should be treated with caution- One towns' problems become everyones. Not to be insenitive, but this isn't really your issue and you make it sound like you had a contact in that building on that day... and that is kind of scary in this circumstance- One event triggers a landslide, and a popular writing in a day,
But this is has to be one of the best poems I've seen on writers cafe.

[RachelReaper]

I'm not sure whether to say thank you or screw you. and I wrote it because I heard it on the news and it made me cry, which triggered an emotional response, which triggered a poem.

[Ana Drake]

I completely disagree with Richy, this was a great write. And it's all of our problems, its the fact we have ways to commune our news that we're able to stop prevent the next one. With logic like that we'll be back in the dark ages, and besides pain is what makes art. Without it every thing would be the same color.

[RachelReaper]

thank you, Dragon

[Richy Moon]

I never said it was bad I was saying it was a sign of the times

[LunarSong]

Yeah, I heard about the shooting, it's so sad! I think the poem does a good job expressing that! It does good expressing that more than just the 18 kids were hurt.

[RachelReaper]

thank you for your review

[CreativeCookie]

This is such a heart-rending story, there are no words. Still, a really good read with a really good message behind it.

[RachelReaper]

thank you