Hannah Yamuni
Concord Academy Petoskey 6th Grade
Sherry Jensen
It’s Never Too Late
I quickened my pace as I sped down the road, keeping my head low and hood up.
Navigating with the little image of the sidewalk I could see, I briskly turned down the
dark alley. “Just a few more turns.” I whispered to myself, trying to sustain my emotion
for the last few minutes before arrival. As I reached my destination, I let out a sigh of
relief as I entered my safe house. It was a small hut that I had built when I was a young
girl with my best friend Sam. Just on the edge of the city, it was a perfect place for the
two of us to talk, play, and most of all, paint. The bittersweet memories rushed into my
head as I felt the warm tears, along with my running mascara, trickling down my face.
She was gone. My light, my best friend, and my life.
My parents had gently informed me that Sam was in a drunk driving accident. She
had gotten her license a week and a half ago. She was such a proud young woman, never
afraid to be herself, and always held her head up high. The light had turned green, and as
she carefully gassed the pedal, looking both ways, she noticed a second too late a car’s
increasing speed was advancing towards her. The driver hadn’t stopped at the light, and
he rushed into the passenger side of the car. Upon impact, the glass of the window flew,
hitting the adolescent driver in the neck. “If only I had been there for her. Then maybe it
would have hit me…” The thoughts rushed into my head, all too much to handle. The
warm, gentle tears soon turned into a more rapid flow, staining my cheeks as a reminder
of the pain I would have to live with forever. My body was fiercely shaking, not only
from my tears, but the climate dropping as night came. The sight of the night was
impeccable, with the sun setting above the tree line and the silhouette of the geese flying
above, yet nothing could cheer me up at a time like this.
I knew Sam, she would not want me to be depressed over her death, but I didn’t
know what else to do. She was the one who knew me, the one who could make me smile
in a time of pain or confusion. What was I to do now? As shy as I was, I could never
find someone like her, and never would I be able to replace the empty gap that had been
increasingly growing bigger as I yearned to see her smile one last time. I smirked,
remembering the cheeky grin she always flashed at me, as I could read exactly what she
was thinking. The memory seemed to warm me up. This is how Sam would want it to
be. Suddenly, my mind began reeling, so many thoughts at once, I couldn’t control
myself. I knew what I had to do. “Where did we leave it?” I urged my mind to help me
remember. “It has to be here somewhere…” “In the tree trunk, below the cedar.” She
seemed to whisper as I ran, not wanting to lose any time. This is it. I could do this for
her.
I sat, my hands trying to keep up as my thoughts seemed to rush through my blood,
my veins, to get the job done for her. The sun was quickly setting, but I knew what I had
to do. Adrenaline kept me awake as I was finishing my last goodbye to her. The sun was
now out of sight, leaving a warm, tingly feeling on my skin as day turned to night. I
sighed, and a smile emerged from the corners of my mouth as I realized what I had done.
“Come on Cupcake! I have surprise for you!” I giggled as Sam called me by my pet
name, as I tried to keep up with her exquisite agility skills. “I’m trying, Sam! I’m stuck
in a rose bush!” Appearing from ahead of me, Sam looked at me with playful annoyance
and she shook her head at me. “What am I going to do with you?” She set her hands on
her hips as I giggled and crawled out of the thorny bush. As we approached the fort, she
ordered me to cover my eyes. I nodded obediently as she led me to her final destination.
Opening my eyes, she showed me the unbelievable. “Sam, you can’t be serious! These
are your favorite paints! You can’t leave them out here! And your canvas!” I fussed as
she showed me the hidden art materials from beneath the cedar tree. “Don’t worry your
pretty little head, Cupcake! I know you love to paint, so I want to share with you! I had
an idea, though. We are going to save these for the prettiest sunset ever and we will
paint it together, as a team to prove our friendship! We will make the prettiest picture in
the whole wide world and we will grow up and be famous artists together!” Her
enthusiasm had me convinced. “Sounds great! Every day, we will watch the sunset and
one day, when we agree that it couldn’t get any prettier, we will paint as a team!” We
sat down on a log, talking about how we will become the most famous artists ever and
how we will be best friends forever. Soon, we fell asleep cuddling together with a smile
on our faces.