October Sunsets by Ada G., 612

Sarah looked out the window, sighing. If Stacey couldn’t help her, no one could. After her dad had died, there would be no one to help her. That she knew. And when her mom had left her with her aunt…no. Sarah was about to get up and call Stacey when Stacey appeared before her, in a poof of pink dust. “Thank god you’re here.”said Sarah. And just like that…

“Honey!”Mom called her from upstairs. “Are you working on your Halloween costume?”

“Ummm.. Yeah!” I shouted, snapping my book shut. 

“How exactly are you working on your halloween costume? Because I heard that Umm.”

“I’m getting inspiration for it. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to what I’m going to wear.” 

“Honey, I’m coming down,” Mom said, and I could tell that my mom was coming to the edge of the stairs.“Nope! I’ll come up! No need to even bother coming down, because I’m already on my way to the stairs!” I dropped my book and started walking – no, running – to the staircase. 

“Honey, I already pressed the button for the elevator, and it’s coming. Don’t bother coming down.”

“Ummm… alright!” I ran to the bookshelves and shoved my book somewhere, than ran to where the elevator stopped. 

Okay, you might be thinking, “What? Elevator? Did I miss something?” The answer is no. I mean, probably. You might’ve actually missed something, but if you thought what I just told you, the answer is no. 

My parents own an apartment. I know, it’s pretty cool, but with them and me and my two siblings, they thought that we needed more space. Each floor is it’s own apartment, but it’s a rather skinny building, so each space is mainly for two people to live in. My parents got the top two floors of the ten story building, and there is an elevator for all ten floors, and we use it to get from floor to floor. Floor nine to floor ten. I mean, there’s also the stairs, but mom can’t use it. 

I guess you want the whole story of why she can’t use it. Well, the truth is…She’s in a wheelchair. It’s a sore subject for me. I mean, it was the scariest night of my life. I was lucky, but my mom was permanently scarred. 

Me and my mom were driving home late at night from a birthday party. It was when everything was normal. No trips to the hospital, no nothing. I was a normal kid. We were driving along, laughing and listening to music. We were turning on the turnpike, me in the front seat for once. I was so happy to finally be in the front seat for once, and me and my mom were having the time of our lives. I couldn’t wait to get home and brag to my brother that I had finally been in the front seat, since he hadn’t. As twins, we were always competing. I didn’t have the slightest fear getting in the front seat that night. The worst part was, I kinda had to go to the bathroom, and I was thinking about asking to stop, but I had decided to wait. If only I could go back in time. I would decide to actually go to the bathroom and my mom would be the same. I would be a normal kid. 

Anyway, we kept on going, having the time of our lives. I didn’t know it then, but it was a bad time in our lives. 

It happened so fast it’s hard to say exactly what happened. I saw a car coming towards us, super fast, and my mom wasn’t able to swerve around it. It was coming straight towards us, at what I thought could’ve been the speed of light, and then nothing. 

I remember waking up in a hospital. A nurse rushed over to me, and checked me out. I was kinda confused. My head hurt, and I was sore all over. “What-” I stopped myself, for I had remembered. “Where’s my mom?” I demanded, pulling off the covers of the hospital bed, and got up, but the nurse gently pushed me down. 

“You got a concussion. You can’t go running around the hospital!” She joked, and sat down on a chair next to my bed. 

“Where’s my mom? What happened to her?” I demanded again. “I deserve to know. And I’ll walk there, not run!”

“She’s… fine. You’ll see her soon. But you have to promise to be good. Be strong! You can, I know it! You survived a car crash; you’re tough! Just… be good, ok? You’re mature enough, I know it.” She sighed, and stood up. “C’mon, Alex. Let’s go see your mother.”

I hopped out of bed, excited to see my mom. But when we finally got to her… I was so surprised I didn’t even cry, out of the shock. She was sitting there, in a chair. But not any chair. It was a wheelchair! 

She saw me, and tried to come over, but she couldn’t get out of her seat, so she had to slowly wheel herself over to me. 

“Honey! Are you ok? Please be ok!”

“Mom, I’m fine! But what happened to you? Will you be like this forever? Mommy!” I started crying, because I knew the answer to the second question. 

“Honey, honey, calm down! It’s just that my legs got stuck under the dashboard, and…” She trailed off because I started bawling. And from that point on, I was the girl with a disabled mom. I was the only one that had a parent who couldn’t go up the stairs of their home. I was that weird girl, with a weird mom, who lived in a wheelchair.

Bring! The elevator made a little noise whenever it got here, so the doors opened, and my mom wheeled herself out. 

“How were you ‘getting inspiration’?” She asked with a stern look.

“Umm… Well, I was going to stop and start the sewing right when you called me so…” I can’t lie, I can only half lie.

“Lucy, you really make me mad sometimes.”

I lowered my head in shame.

She smiled. “But I just can’t stay mad at you!”

“Thanks mom.” I hugged her, with a hug we can do with a wheelchair. 

“Do you want me to help?” She asked. 

“Nah, I can do it myself. But I’d love to be with you while I work!”

“Great. I have something I have to hem, so we can sew together!” 

I smiled, and together we went to the living room, hand in hand, the sunset gleaming in front of us, out of the windows. Oh man, I love October sunsets.