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We both were on the bank of the river watching the sunrise. She looked so pretty under the scarlet sky. Her skin had a surreal glow. She closed her eyes eyes to feel the fresh air. This was the only place she wanted to go before her heart transplant.
"This place has some power, Meghan! Some kinda positivity. Everytime I come here I forget all the pain inside me" Chrissy said.
" Yes, Chrissy you're right" I said.
We are best friends since second grade with really no boundaries, I mean I can possibly tell you how many zits she had her whole life!!
We have always been together and I really hope that we will be together in future!
Since a few months months, she had been feeling a bit dizzy and tired. The worst part came three months back, when she wasn't able to do breathe in the P.E. class after finishing her exercise and then she collapsed in the school ground.
After tests and medical examination, we got to know that she suffering from "Coronary artery disease" which has made her heart walls and vessels very weak or I should say chronic. That's why she needs to get a heart transplant. But that can be only 75% effective. But it could help her live a little longer. But at that time for us something was better than nothing.
After the struggle of three months , finally she got a matching donor heart . The day I got know this news I danced around her hospital room like a crazy person.
Days passed like a waterfall , and the Big day came . Christine has been prepared by the nurses and doctors since a week. The syringes, medication, antiseptic smell everything was making me nervous trillion times more than her. And then I was wondered what will happen as the forceps , cuts and bleeding will happen. I haven't been to school since a week. Because I can't leave her anyhow. She is like a sister to me.
Finally when she was about to go to the OT. Doctors let only two of the family members meet her before the transplant . My eyes showed a sign of worry that I will not be able to meet her. Christine's father went to talk to the doctor about it and finally he came to me and said, "You should go with Christine's mother , at this time she needs you more than me."
My eyes were filled with tears as he said this to me. I said, " Thank you so much, uncle". And then hugged him.
I went towards her and looked at her, her half opened eyes recognised me and she held my hands. I was crying but tried to control my tears at my best. I said, "Chrissy! You have to come back healthy and strong. We have to dance on our annual function together. We promised each other. Okay! You can't leave your bff Meghan alone ...You can't do that...."
Christine's eyes filled with tears and she nodded. But couldn't say anything because of the oxygen mask. Her mother then kissed her forehead and hugged her. Then a nurse came to make us leave the OT. As I got out of the room I couldn't control my tears anymore. I cried a lot. Chrissy's mother hugged me and tried to make me calm but couldn't control her tears either.
"Will I ever see you again in your bubblish version?". The only question wriggled around my mind. The operation took about 11 hours. This struggle between life and death is inescapable. But if the struggle doesn't give you a fruit it breaks you down into thousands pieces.
"Christine couldn't make it"
As the doctor said these words. I felt lifeless. As if my soul left my body. I was beyond devasted. My Chrissy is no more! My sister! Why God why? Why you took away her from me?
Christine's parents were sitting on the other bench shocked and shattered. Her mother was so weak that she couldn't even cry properly. Her father put his head on his laps and cried a lot. I went towards them and hugged them. Both of them held me tightly and soaked my t-shirt with their pain.
Then Chrissy's body on the bed came out of the OT. It was getting transferred for the paperwork. I nearly jumped to see her. Her eyes were closed. Her body was lifeless. I shouted like a million times, "Chrissy stop acting, I know this is your Oscar winning performance....you can't leave me like this.....get up Chrissy! Get up!" . Some of the nurses came and held me aside so that her bed can go forward. I struggled to get myself freed from those hands. I shouted but nothing could help she is gone. Gone Forever.
Now it's been three years since she passed away. And every evening I come near this river and read the paper that Chrissy wrote for me days before her operation.
It says,
Hey Meghan, I know you will be reading this a billionth time since I died. Because if I am alive you probably wouldn't have seen this paper in your life. I just wanna say bestie that you are an angel!! You take care of me so much even more than my mother. This operation can never separate us in anyway. Because I am always with you sister. Even if I am a ghost!
And if there is a hard time and you wanna talk so much about it just come to our favourite place near the river and sit right there. My soul would be there, wandering to listen to your shit talk everytime.
I love you Meghan. Always be like this in future.
Your bff
Chrissy
I can't say that I talk to Chrissy soul when I come right here. But I can say that, I feel calm. The air around this place has her scent. When I look in the river, the moon's reflection has her face engraved on it. It feels she is here with me.
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Wow, beautiful story! An incredibly heartrending conclusion, but I still love it! You brought me as a reader into what Meghan was thinking and feeling and that really made the story come alive. Awesome job and can't wait to see more of your work!
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Thank you so much Grace for your kind words.
It's really great to know that you felt the emotions I was trying express through my words.
Means a lot!
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Wow!! It was such a heart-wrenching and emotional story.
The way your conveyed Meghan's pain was simply amazing. Great story, Srishti! Keep writing! :)
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Thank you so much for sparing your precious time to read my story, Akshaya!
Means a lot....!
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It was my pleasure! :)
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Thank you for writing this story. It's hard losing a best friend. I haven't lost one, thankfully. But I've lost family members, relatives, and parents of friends. And each time it feels harder and harder to go on without them.
I thought that there were some mistakes, but maybe it's just because we don't write the same way (and maybe I should just read stories without noticing each and every mistake; including when I reread my own stories).
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First of all, Thank you so much for sparing your valuable time to read my story.
(You don't know how much this means to me)
Secondly, this is my first time writing on such a big platform. I am still learning and growing.
When I was submitting this I thought this was the best story ever (that I wrote) and due to this excitement I forgot to check all the errors.
But I will take care of that next time.
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You're very welcome.
I've been on this website since July, so I know how it feels to stick your neck out and submit stories that may very well fall flat on their face, be disliked, rejected by the judges of the weekly contest, etc. I was worried that my first story submission would be ignored completely (no likes at all). But then I saw (and heard about) interest in what I wrote. And when I wrote more, that interest slowly grew (not overnight; something more like at least a week or two). However, the more I read and responded to other writers' stories, the more it seemed that they responded by reacting to my stories. Some were encouraging and asked for more stories (sequels usually) and which characters they were interested in. I tried to include their interests along with my own, and I'm not sure if I've entirely succeeded in blending them together, but I've tried and I'll keep trying. In some cases, I was flabbergasted that a story I thought would likely get either ignored or receive a lot of negative responses didn't get either reaction, and that was "Breaking with Tradition" (which, if you've read Harper Lee's book, you'll see how much that story was inspired by her book, "To Kill a Mockingbird"). It's still not what I would call massively popular, but it's still more popular than I had any hope that it would be.
My recommendation is to just go at your own pace. Write the best you can, and try to learn from each story that you write. Both from what the writing/editing process was like, and from what readers say after reading your stories. You don't have to write a story or more a week if you don't want to (or don't find any prompts that inspire any stories). Some people have told me that they've waited more than a week before a prompt popped up that got their creativity going.
I think I was a lot more nervous when I submitted my first story ("Tea for Two") to this website than you were. I don't think I could say I was excited. Nervous, anxious, uncertain, hopeful, yes.
Editing may not seem like much fun, but I believe from my own experience that the time and effort you put into improving your next story's rough draft into something amazing will be worth it. And don't be surprised if you reread a story (hopefully before the end of that weekly contest's end time (in my time zone, it's midnight every Friday night)) and still find errors to fix and sentences or paragraphs that need rewriting to make them better. It's happened many, many times to me, and I'm not what I would call a professional writer. I would still call myself an amateur (I haven't even been published online for any amount of money). But I'm learning as I go along, learning what works, what doesn't, what can be done within 3000 words, and what can't be done within 3000 and has to be reduced, while not hurting the overall story.
As your stories improve, I think your "cheerleaders" will be cheering you along more and more. And, quite likely, I will be one of them. I do like reading other writers' stories more than reading my own stories. It's eye-opening to look from another writer's point of view. You have the chance to learn things you might not have been able to learn otherwise.
Happy writing!
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Woah!! The word "thanks" just feels so insignificant in reply for such kind words.
I literally woke up in the morning an saw the notification of your comment. And as you said, that you were also not expecting any responses on your first story , the same case was with me. But really, this reply do give me a positive vibe from your side. I feel like I am fuelled up to write a dozen of stories. It's really good to see that there are people who are ready to share their own experiences to other fellow writers who are just beginning their journey.
Keep doing this!
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I can get rather verbose sometimes (only sometimes? yeah, right). I wish I could be more concise in my responses, but when the thoughts get going, it's hard to get them to be more structured and to-the-point. As Winston Churchill once said, "I apologize for the long letter. I didn't have the time to write a short one."
I try to encourage other writers. Otherwise, what will I have to read? My own stories? I can do that anytime. But I really prefer reading other writers' stories and seeing what they come up with. Some stories have been absolutely amazing and maybe someday I'll be able to say the same about my own stories. Sadly self-confidence is something I don't always have a lot of. It's great when it's there and I try to make good use of it, but so often it just isn't there at all or there's only a little of it.
As long as the writer of the story I've read doesn't mind a sometimes lengthy response, I'll definitely keep trying to share my thoughts with them. Because when they share their thoughts in return, a conversation can develop. Conversations can be wonderful conveyors of thoughts, feelings, etc. between two or more people, often showing them and teaching them things that they might not have seen or learned otherwise.
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