to wait ‘til Derrick came so he could say goodbye.
Overheard that it was time, none of my friends wanted
to see me like this. I guess they’d wait ‘til the fu-
neral. So there, with Momma, Sage, Derrick, the doc-
tor and the nurse, I lay dead.
I felt regret. I ruined Sage’s birthday. Her twen-
ty-fifth birthday. I felt shame, that I died so young
and so unaccomplished. Who would flip through my jour-
nals? Who would tell each person how I really felt
during that last argument? Who would tell the kids
at EduAccess after-school that Ms. Morris wasn’t go-
ing to come back? Who was going to tell me what I was
doing, up here, on the ceiling? I felt my life get
shredded in half before my eyes.
Every eye in the room was wet with my potential.
The fact I had such a bright future. How would Mom-
ma pick up the pieces? How would my friends recover?
Would my exes come to the funeral…? They covered me
with a white sheet, just like they do on TV. Momma
and Sage stayed there for what felt like a lifetime,
Derrick’s arms around them. They murmured things
about loving me. I followed them to the parking lot,
the four of us walking side by side.
.
a
n
e
c
l
A
n
o
s
--Alli
30