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For the Ones Missed
She could smell gas even before she could open the door but where was everyone? Were they still inside? Why was the front door locked?
Panicking, she grabbed the flower pot that was positioned beside the front door, and ran over to the window. She had no choice, breaking the window would be her only hope. She had to act quickly in case her family's life might be in danger. Her thoughts ran wild, "What if the gas tank exploded?" she gulped, "What if someone unknowingly struck a match or flipped a lighter!" Clearing away shards of broken glass with her now bleeding hands, she murmured softly, "I couldn't bear it! This pain is nothing compared to the pain I'd feel if I were to lose them! Please, be okay!"
Scurrying to the kitchen, she turned off the gas tank, seated next to the stove. Just as soon as she did, she hurried off to the living room, yelling, "Mom! Dad! Rosa!"
"Where are you guys?"
Tears filled her right eye then her left as she continued shouting, hoping one of her family members would answer.
"Are you all here?"
"Are you all okay?"
"Can you all hear me?"
Drifting as though intoxicated and light-headed due to the stench of the gas she made her way upstairs. After arriving at the top of the staircase, she halted while attempting to catch her breath, also wishing she had brought her inhaler that treats her asthmatic condition with her when she came. "These are the last rooms," she thought to herself, "they must be here…they have to be in one of these rooms." Desperately searching, as she cracked open each door to a room hope diminished while her wheezing once quieter now worsened, but finding no one she began to sob. Just then, she heard the pounding of several feet near the outside of the last room she had entered, slowly she turned around. She had been caught. A police officer who drew his weapon and three other people dressed in white surrounded her.
"Please. Please." she pleaded. "Tell me where I can find my family."
"I scoured this entire house to find them but I haven't seen anyone, I -
One of the women in white interrupted,
"I'm sorry but…" she explained, taking a deep breath in as she continued, "apparently, you didn't look around well enough." The woman then notioned her head upward as though informing her that she had missed a critical piece of information that would somehow clarify her misunderstanding.
"That picture there, though small, shows the new owners of this house."
"Once…years ago, it used to belong to you and your family but they died one day due to faulty wiring, when the house exploded while you were at university."
"The house was rebuilt and sold to this new family, and you…you were the sole survivor of that incident."
Tears flowed down her cheeks while listening to the story of her past. As she remembered that she had longed to correct her family's passing in such great intensity that it drove her insane during her years of rehabilitation that in her state of dementia she had to escape to see for herself whether or not there was a way to save her family from having to die back then.
"It's been 5 years since that happened and you've been receiving treatment at our rehab center ever since. We've been praying for you and treating you as best we can…with all things it'll take time but I'd say you're getting better. Today, you've cried in front of others without holding back or bottling up your feelings, and miraculously, even though you weren't supposed to be here, I think you might've saved the life of a family."
What sounded like the blaring noise of an ambulance's siren in the distance suddenly arrived outside the house in less than a minute.
"Let's hurry downstairs! On our way in, these two cops we have here, busted through the front door so it should be open as we speak."
"We need to get you away from here and under the ventilator for oxygen."
"This place reeks of the smell of gas."
On the way down the staircase and into the ambulance, while the police officers withdrew their weapons and two of the people dressed in white upheld her by her arms, she closed her eyes and prayed that she would recover fully. Moreover, that she'd live her life well in God's hand until she can depart this life and live with her family, in heaven, once again where they'll never be separated.
© St. Clair
Panicking, she grabbed the flower pot that was positioned beside the front door, and ran over to the window. She had no choice, breaking the window would be her only hope. She had to act quickly in case her family's life might be in danger. Her thoughts ran wild, "What if the gas tank exploded?" she gulped, "What if someone unknowingly struck a match or flipped a lighter!" Clearing away shards of broken glass with her now bleeding hands, she murmured softly, "I couldn't bear it! This pain is nothing compared to the pain I'd feel if I were to lose them! Please, be okay!"
Scurrying to the kitchen, she turned off the gas tank, seated next to the stove. Just as soon as she did, she hurried off to the living room, yelling, "Mom! Dad! Rosa!"
"Where are you guys?"
Tears filled her right eye then her left as she continued shouting, hoping one of her family members would answer.
"Are you all here?"
"Are you all okay?"
"Can you all hear me?"
Drifting as though intoxicated and light-headed due to the stench of the gas she made her way upstairs. After arriving at the top of the staircase, she halted while attempting to catch her breath, also wishing she had brought her inhaler that treats her asthmatic condition with her when she came. "These are the last rooms," she thought to herself, "they must be here…they have to be in one of these rooms." Desperately searching, as she cracked open each door to a room hope diminished while her wheezing once quieter now worsened, but finding no one she began to sob. Just then, she heard the pounding of several feet near the outside of the last room she had entered, slowly she turned around. She had been caught. A police officer who drew his weapon and three other people dressed in white surrounded her.
"Please. Please." she pleaded. "Tell me where I can find my family."
"I scoured this entire house to find them but I haven't seen anyone, I -
One of the women in white interrupted,
"I'm sorry but…" she explained, taking a deep breath in as she continued, "apparently, you didn't look around well enough." The woman then notioned her head upward as though informing her that she had missed a critical piece of information that would somehow clarify her misunderstanding.
"That picture there, though small, shows the new owners of this house."
"Once…years ago, it used to belong to you and your family but they died one day due to faulty wiring, when the house exploded while you were at university."
"The house was rebuilt and sold to this new family, and you…you were the sole survivor of that incident."
Tears flowed down her cheeks while listening to the story of her past. As she remembered that she had longed to correct her family's passing in such great intensity that it drove her insane during her years of rehabilitation that in her state of dementia she had to escape to see for herself whether or not there was a way to save her family from having to die back then.
"It's been 5 years since that happened and you've been receiving treatment at our rehab center ever since. We've been praying for you and treating you as best we can…with all things it'll take time but I'd say you're getting better. Today, you've cried in front of others without holding back or bottling up your feelings, and miraculously, even though you weren't supposed to be here, I think you might've saved the life of a family."
What sounded like the blaring noise of an ambulance's siren in the distance suddenly arrived outside the house in less than a minute.
"Let's hurry downstairs! On our way in, these two cops we have here, busted through the front door so it should be open as we speak."
"We need to get you away from here and under the ventilator for oxygen."
"This place reeks of the smell of gas."
On the way down the staircase and into the ambulance, while the police officers withdrew their weapons and two of the people dressed in white upheld her by her arms, she closed her eyes and prayed that she would recover fully. Moreover, that she'd live her life well in God's hand until she can depart this life and live with her family, in heaven, once again where they'll never be separated.
© St. Clair
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