help doormat

this is a short fictional story

I was about to board the subway, when all of the sudden I see my best friend running towards me. "Help me, Amelia, please, wait!" she cried as she rushed through the packed crowd towards me. "Poppy, I need to get on, I have a very important meeting," I began. "but, you don't understand," she said as she caught up to me out of breath, "Olivia is stuck." "Stuck? stuck where?" I asked promptly. "she is stuck in an old house, she climbed in through a crack and, oh Amelia, I am too big to fit, but you aren't," she looked at me hopefully. it took me a few moments, "fine," I said eventually," I want her to be okay.

I followed Poppy to a very old rickety house that looked rather dangerous. she showed me the crack and I wiggled through it. I was in! I crept across the floor, which looked like it would crumble in. "Olivia!" I called, "Olivia, this is Amelia, where are you?" I listened for a while and I heard a small cry coming from the drawing room. I sped down the stairs as quickly as I could and flung open the door. there in the middle of the room was Olivia. she was a mess. her hair was unkempt and her clothes were ripped and her face was covered with ash. she was stuck, her leg had fallen straight through the floor. "I will have you out in a minute, sweetie," I said as I carefully scooted towards her. I tried to pull her leg out, but she let out a little whine. "does that hurt?" I asked kindly. "yes, very much," she sobbed. "okay I am going to break apart the floor so that you leg can slide out easily." so I began my work and it took at least thirty minutes to get her out. finally her leg was out, but it was sitting at a very odd angle. "can you move your leg?" I asked her. "no," she said simply. "okay," I said, "I am going to help you up and I will support you to the exit." I helped her to her foot and together we hobbled up the stair and when I got to the exit, I pushed her through the crack to Poppy then I followed.

         

"how on earth do you expect us to take you seriously as a lawyer when you aren't even responsible enough to show up for this meeting," the man asked me. "Sir, it was an emergency," I started, but he cut me off, "no excuse for irresponsibility," he said firmly, "if this ever happens again you will be fired, because honestly we never should have hired you anyway."

"Amelia, please," she pleaded, "I can't drive yet." "yes and I need to get to my meeting." it was several years later and my friend Emily was begging me to drive her grandmother to the hospital. "Mr. Smith said that if I ever missed a big meeting again without a business day notice, he would fire me," I said still strolling down the long drive. "wouldn't he understand?" "no, remember when Olivia was stuck, Mr. Smith is super strict." I opened my car door and got inside. "do you seriously think he would remember?" she said, forcing me to not roll up my window. "if you knew Mr. Smith at all you would know that he has one of the best memories in the world," I said vaguely as I rolled up my window finally.

as I was about to start the car, I saw Emily standing there, a tear ran down her cheek, Emily never cried. I rolled the window back down. "hop in," I said.

when we got to her house and I saw her grandmother, I was really glad that I made the choice that I made because her grandma did look really sick. "Ms. Jones?" I said, "I am going to take you to the hospital. Emily, do you think you can carry her?" I suggested. Emily grabbed her and we brought her out to the car and put her in the passenger seat and we drove to the hospital.

when we got there, Emily went back with her grandmother and the doctor and I was left to wait. after an hour the doctor came back out and said that if I hadn't driven to the hospital, Ms. Jones would have died.

we took Ms. Jones home and set her up on the couch and made some soup for her and turned on old, sickening, musicals, which were all she had to watch. I then left and I drove straight to the office because I had missed my meeting.

"I told you that if you did something so irresponsible as completely missing an important meeting, I would have to fire you," said Mr. Smith, "therefore you are fired, you should have known this, so why did you even bother coming back?" "you know why I bothered coming back?" I said fuming, "maybe its because I thought that you had changed, maybe I thought that you were a different man than the one that was willing to fire his best worker because she helped someone, but I was wrong, so I quit!" I marched out after years of taking his abuse and I was proud.

Reviews

[Marie]

I guess she did the right thing, and I guess she had a right to feel proud. But she should have told Emily to call an abulance for her grandmother. I don't think being a door mat for ohter peple is a good thing.