Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Write something AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL (10/02/14)
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TITLE: Becoming | Previous Challenge Entry
By Gerald Shuler
10/08/14 -
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“Whatcha lookin' for?”
The voice shook me from my trance. I turned and saw Fay Brown with a scoop of Neopolitan ice cream and a piece of chocolate cake. Her folks were friends with mine so they had come to help with the party. Fay hadn't even been invited. She was just there.
“I'm not looking for anything. Just seeing if any more kids come.” I figured I'd better say something nice because the adults might be watching. “Are you having fun?”
“It would be more fun if the birthday boy would join us! I brought this cake and ice cream for you.”
I've got to admit, Fay was always nice to me. She would make someone a really good friend, but right now I had more important things on my mind.
“Fay,” I said, “would you do me a favor? Go count how many kids we have here. I'm just curious.”
As always, Fay was eager to please. She left quietly and I quickly returned to my window gazing. The longer I gazed the more depressed I became. Sure, I knew she probably wouldn't come but, somehow, the reality of her not being here was more than I could bare. Why wouldn't she at least...
But then the miracle happened. Mr. Meller's Lincoln Continental pulled majestically into our humble driveway. My angel had arrived.
“She's here!” I shouted, perhaps more loudly than intended. “She got here!”
“Who's here?” someone shouted back, catching my own exuberance.
“Who do you think? The love of my life... Lisa Anne Meller!”
I heard a plate fall to the floor and shatter. I heard a gasp from somewhere beyond my sight. I heard hurried steps running upstairs to one of the bedrooms. But I only saw Lisa coming through my front door with a birthday gift in her hand. My joy was complete. Nothing could make this party fail now.
“Billy James Mason...” The voice was unmistakable, as was the emotion that propelled it. It was Mom. “Billy, what have you done? You broke her heart.”
I looked at Lisa. What could I have possibly done to break her heart.
Mom set me straight immediately. “Not Lisa. Billy, you broke Fay's heart.”
“Fay? What did I do to her?”
“You don't know? Fay has been telling everyone that she is your girlfriend and that she loves you. We thought it was cute, but Billy...”
I don't know how it happens, especially in one so young, but realization hit me with the force of a devastating tornado. She had always been kind; she had always been helpful; she had always been... well, she had always been there. But, love? I looked at Lisa and she was looking at me as though I was the cruelest person on earth. Actually, at the moment, I felt like that description fit perfectly. She handed me her present and ran outside to catch her father before he left. I could only think of getting to Fay so she would, hopefully, stop crying.
She didn't stop, though. Nothing I said would soothe her. She simply left quietly weeping, with her mother's arm around her. The party, of course, was over.
Fay never gave me a chance to redeem myself. She eventually accepted, as children do, that she had only experienced “puppy love”... nothing more.
I, though, had experienced far more. I learned the importance of other people's feelings. I learned how easily we can crush another person without even being aware. I learned that we all need to care for each other at all times, not just when that caring meets our own expectations. At twelve years old I learned a lesson that has molded me into a more tender, loving, gentle adult.
Thank you for that lesson, Fay. Wherever you are, I love you for it.
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Great writing. I felt as if I was right there.
God bless~
Good lesson for all of us.
Well done
God bless~