Category : Stories

Sub Category : YoungAdult

The loud ringing of the monitor drained a middle aged man’s hope.  His brown eyes were worn and tired of being drenched with sorrows.  He sat on a simple white chair as he leaned over a young boy, resting in a bed.  

The small boy had his eyes shut and breathed heavily as he slept.  He had short brown hair as his hands were wrapped around the clean blanket keeping his body warm. 

The man stroked the boy's head, brushing away the hair on the child’s forehead, pushing it aside.  He pulled the blanket up to cover the boy’s neck and held his hand.  

“You will be fine my son,” he said.  The heart monitor ridding him of the joy he had, and replacing it with dreadful, never ending fear.  Fear he would be alone in a big world.  He was afraid he wouldn’t be a grandfather holding his grandchildren in the air and showing them the sun setting.  He was frightened he wouldn’t have a child to care for, to teach.  

His palms began to sweat and his eyes started to flood with tears.  He turned away, standing up in his disheveled jeans and his stained boots.  He had a white shirt, unkempt as well.  He gripped the white “L” shaped handle, and gentle pulled the door open.  

Awaiting his exit was a short thin nurse with light caramel colored hair, tied in a ponytail.  Her hazel eyes followed the glistening tears streaming off of the man’s cheeks like water pouring stone.  She wore a dark red outfit with a small pocket in the top of her shirt, holding several small pens.  She was carrying a small clipboard in her left hand, which she carefully placed in a white folder attached to the very light  blue walls.  She turned her gaze back to the demoralized man and held his rough gnarled hands with her amiable fingers.  

“I am so sorry,” she started.  Her voice sweet and comforting.  Something the poor father needed.   “The stress you must be going through, must be absolutely traumatizing.”  

The man said nothing, just stared at her with worrying eyes.  He slowly pulled his arms away as he walked past her.

She turned around facing his broad back, “I...am so so...sorry,” she called to him.  As she spoke, her voice became dry, gasping for breath in the never ending barrage of sorrows.  “I will watch over him tonight and make sure he will okay.”

He paused.  His voice cracked as he spoke with melancholy, “I know, and I am so incredibly grateful, but I have no faith that he will be okay.”  he continued through the hospital as the nurse stared as the trail of powerlessness, and without cheer and joy.  

She entered the room where the boy laid motionless in the soft comforting bed.  




The man woke in his bed to the waning calls of the chicken behind his house.  He forcefully heaved the sheets off his bed and he stepped out of his old bed.  He leaned forward and applied pressure to his back, stretching his sore muscles.  He stood up from where he slept and heard the floorboards creak in agony beneath him. 

He made his way down the stairs into his small kitchen where he found a slender young man.  

“You’re up,” said the man.  “You know Frank sometimes I think you will never wake up.”  The man had short wavy brown hair with dark eyes.  She had a slightly trimmed beard and thick eyebrows.  He wore a white tank top and cleaned jeans.  

“Don’t say that Andrew,” said Frank, heavily dazed from his slumber.  He slowly dragged himself across the room into the hallway, heading for the damaged white door.  It shrieked as it was forced open, and Frank slapped his feet against the old wooden planks that made his porch.  

He seated himself in a rocking chair as he gazed into the endless fields of tall, thick, brown grass.  He leaned back as he stared at the towering mountain that loomed over his cramped home in the distance.  

The sun rose over the mountain peak, as it painted beautiful rays of purples, pinks, and oranges in the sky.  The milky clouds curled and danced in the vibrant colors of the sunrise.  

Frank closed his eyes as a weak breeze pushed against him.  He heard the hinges of the door slowly cry as it was pushed open.  

“You okay?” asked Andrew.  He carefully placed his hand on Frank’s bulky shoulder.  A small tear slowly raced down his face.  

“He is your nephew Andrew,” replied Frank, his eyes still locked shut.  “Please care, just a little bit.”

Andrew’s eyes widen, bewildered by his brother’s declaration.  “How dare you,” Andrew said as he flooded his eyes.  His voice was stern, yet fueled with outrage.  “I want James to have a future just as much you do.”

“I am sorry,” Frank replied.  “I just want him to know what it is like to feel the breeze of the wind.  I just want him to know how to throw a ball or ride a bike.”

Andrew nodded, “I know.”  His face grew red as he wiped the tears off his cheeks.

“I want him to watch the rising sun and know what beauty,” Frank said, wishing he could remember how optimism felt.  He abruptly stood up and walked past Andrew back inside.  

He stopped as his feet stepped through the doorway.  “I am sorry,” he said, his voice low and tainted with the pain of his sorrows.  “Will you take care of him?”

Andrew lowered an eyebrow.  His face began to sweat and his eyes widened.  “No, don’t you dare!” he cried.  

Frank walked into the house and called, “Just take care of him please.”

Andrew stared at his bold brother through the front door as he picked up the small phone resting on a small set of wooden drawers.

Andrew turned to the sun rise as he heard his brother say, “Help...I...I need an ambulance.”

Frank hung up the phone and walked over to a stained green couch.  In front of him was a dark brown table.  He carefully place a camera on it the stared at his face.  

“Hello my son…”




James woke to a bright blazing white light that shone in his eyes.  He struggled to use his arm to push his back off the bed.  He felt a heavy palm gently push on his chest, laying him back down.

“Rest, you need it,” said a man.  

James’s head fell against the pillows that  pushed to to the back of his head.  His vision began to blur.  He shut his eyes firmly as he slowly fell into a deep slumber.

He woke once more to Andrew’s slim body towering over him.  

His voice was solemn as his words tumbled out of his quivering mouth.

“Hey, you okay?” he asked.  His attempt at sounding overjoyed was masked by the depression in his eyes.  

“Yeah,” James mumbled.  His skin was a pale milky color.  Andrew gently pressed his hand on James’s forehead.  

The same nurse entered the room from before.  “As long as he doesn’t have a fever, he’s good to go,” said the nurse.  She attempted to obscure her worry behind her positive words.  

James lifted his hand, only feeling the cool skin towards the top of his nephew’s head.

James was pushed out of the hospital on a dark wheelchair.  Everything seemed bright as the dazed boy watched the small drops of rain crashed down onto his body.  

When he was young, he believed it would rain if the clouds were sad.  He thought rain would only pour if sadness flooded the hearts of many.

Andrew pushed James to a small yellow car lined with black stripes.  He pulled opened the rusted door to the vehicle and carefully place James in the rough leather seat.  

As the car sped down the narrow roads, the dazed boy watched as the light naked trees flew by.  

The road led the car from forest to the side of a grand mountain.  The falling rain gracefully turned to snow, descending as it was caught by wind.  

The car dove down the hill of the mountain into the more rural lands.  They approached the small house surrounded by tall brown grass.

Andrew parked the car in the dirt road, and opened the door for his nephew to exit.  James dropped his feet to the rocky ground.  He stood up and followed his uncle to the porch, then sat down in the old wooden rocking chair.  

He noticed another rusted car, though this one was filled with ash and the front was destroyed.

Andrew opened the door and paused, “I need to show you something, so come inside when you’re ready.”

James turned his gaze the Andrew’s disquiet face.  “Where’s dad?”

A tear rolled from Andrews’s eyes off his cheek.  “When you’re ready, I have to show you something,” he repeated.  He walked through the door.  

James turned his gaze to the mountain that gawked back at him.  A small thin blanket of snow covered the land.  The sun began to set, transforming the beautiful blues, pinks, oranges and purples into utter darkness.  The ebony colored night extirpated the the peace and joy from the sky.  Similarly the home seemed devoid of joviality and merriment.  When the glistening stars were the only source of illumination, James walked inside.

Andrew sat on the rough couch waiting for James.  “Sit please,” he said.  

James sat next to Andrew, confused at the sight of his uncle’s red face, wet drenched from tears.  He placed a small camera in James’s hands.

“Open it,” Andrew said.  “Watch the video.”

James did as he was instruction, opened the camera and watched the screen.  On the display, Frank looked the the camera with joyous eyes.  James tapped the play button and the video played.  

“Hello my son,” Frank started.  “I found you a new heart.”  James’s eyes widened as his face turned a crimson shade.

“If you are seeing this, you are gonna have a fantastic life.”  James watched the screen from behind his flooded eyes which blurred the screen.

“Whatever you do, stay close to Andrew...because he is the only family you’ve got.  Oh, and make good decisions.  No matter how hurt you are no matter how angry you are, do the right thing, and make good decisions.  Don’t let this weigh down on you, because...you’re going to have one brilliant life.  I love you so much.”  The video stopped as James crawled into a tiny ball, crying.  

Andrew stood by the doorway, now watching the night sky.  He spotted one bright star in the otherwise empty night.  

“This is what you wanted, right?” asked Andrew.  “For him to have one fantastic life...”