Nickey NehringCreative WritingApril 28th 2013

It was an early Sunday morning as the Hessler family all piled into the family minivan.Dad climbed into the drivers seat and started the car while mom helped me and my babybrother, Tyler, into the back seat. Tyler still had to sit in a car seat since he was only three yearsold; I, however, don’t need a car seat anymore since I’m seven. I buckled my seatbelt and beganstraightening out my dress so it wouldn’t get any wrinkles.

“Did you grab the video camera?” asked mommy.“Oh no! I forgot! I’ll go grab it,” replied daddy. He then ran out of the car and back into the

house.“Well hurry before we’re late!”Mommy finally got Tyler buckled in, went into the passenger seat and closed the door.

She took her red lipstick out of her purse, flipped down the mirror and began applying it.“Haley are you excited?”“Yeah. Are grandma and grandpa still coming?”“Of course! They wouldn’t miss your first communion for anything else.” Mommy rubbed

her lips together and then threw the lipstick back in her purse. Then dad came running back tothe car with the video camera in his hands.

“Good thing you said something. Now lets get out of here!” Daddy backed out of thegarage and we were on our way to church. We pulled up to a stop sign to get out of ourneighborhood.

Daddy slowly started to go when all of a sudden a car drove right past us and daddyslammed on the brakes. Mommy gasped loudly as her seatbelt hit her collar bone. Tyler droppedhis sippy cup and began to cry.

“Is everyone okay?” Daddy said, “what an idiot! He almost crashed right into me!”Mommy looked at us and got Tyler’s juice for him and he stopped crying. My eyes were huge,scared of what just happened.

“Its alright sweetie, you know your daddy will make sure we’re always safe. Just relax,everything’s fine.” Mommy rubbed my knee as I calmed down. I began to flatten out my dressagain to make sure it looked perfect.

Once we arrived at the church, grandma and grandpa were waiting on the front stairs forus. Daddy dropped us off at the front while he went to go find a parking spot. I ran up to mygrandparents to greet them and gave them a big hug around their knees. Grandpa picked me upand gave me a kiss on the cheek.

“How are you this morning? Are you excited!?”“Yes! Do you like my new dress?”“Oh its just darling!” Grandma chimed in. Grandpa put me back down as mommy was

walking up the stairs with Tyler in her arms. She gave them both a hug and a kiss on the cheekas she said hello to them.

“Well lets go in so we can have the best seats!” Mommy said excitedly. We went inside

the church and sat in the third row. Mommy set Tyler down on the pew next to her, then satdown next to grandma and grandpa. I started jumping with excitement in the aisle when my bestfriend, Sara, came running after me.

“Hey Haley!” she yelled to me.“Hi Sara!” Her parents were behind her with her two younger sisters in their arms. Me

and Sara hugged and began jumping together.“Sit down Sara so me and dad can have a seat. Hey Jenny, how are you?” Sara’s mom,

Linda, said.“I’m great! How are you?” Mommy said back as she got up to give her a hug. “It’s going to

be a great morning!”Mommy started waving her arm to show daddy where we were sitting. He came from the

other side where grandma and grandpa were sitting and gave them a big hug.“Sorry I would’ve been here faster but I almost forgot about this again!” daddy said as he

held up the video camera.“Good thing you grabbed it!” grandpa said back to daddy.“It’s about to start, give me the video camera so I can get it ready!” mommy said to

daddy.Once mommy got the video camera on, the organ started playing and the priest entered

from the back doors up the aisle. The priest then lit his candles on the table in the center of thestage then went to his podium. He began reciting scripture about the first communion and thensaid a prayer. He then called all of the kids up to the stage. We all got in a line across the stage.He then called our parents up and for them to stand behind us.

“Here take the video camera,” mommy said to grandma. Mommy and daddy came up tothe stage and stood behind me. Mommy grabbed my shoulders and gave me a kiss on thecheek.

There was one boy next to me who didn’t have any parents behind him, but hisgrandparents instead. I heard his Grandpa whisper in his ear that his mom and dad would beproud of him. I stared at the boy next to me when Sara pulled on my hand and held it. The priestbegan going to each kid and giving them a piece of bread and a drink from his big cup. Daddyused to never let me drink out of it, but he said I could today. When it was my turn the priesthanded me the cup, I looked at the mysterious, red liquid and took a sip. He then gave me apiece of bread, which I shoved in my mouth to get that awful taste out of my mouth.

Once the ceremony was over we went back down to the pew where grandma andgrandpa were still sitting.

“I got it all on camera so we can watch it,” grandma said with a smile. I gave them both ahug as we headed for the door to go to the parking lot.

“Haley!” Sara screamed and then ran over to me. “Come over to our house! We’rehaving a party in our backyard!” she said jumping up and down.

“I want to go! Can I please mommy?” I looked up at her as she began to smile.“Of course you can. We’ll drop you off there on the way home”Sara’s mom came up to us, “Actually you’re all invited. Steves going to barbecue some

burgers and hotdogs and we have cake! It’s up to ya’ll.”Mommy looked at daddy and they looked at my grandparents.

“It sounds good to me, how about you sweetie?” Mommy said to daddy.“Mom, Dad, would you like to come too?” Daddy said to grandma and grandpa.“That sounds wonderful!” grandma said. “We’ll follow you guys there.”Sara’s mom smiled and grabbed Sara’s hand as they walked out the back doors of the

church. Mommy picked up Tyler and grabbed my hand and let us out with Sara. We waitedoutside the church as daddy and grandpa went to go get their cars. Daddy pulled up first;Mommy opened the back seat door, let me climb across to the next seat and then buckled inTyler.

“We’ll see you there!” she said to grandma. Grandpa pulled up right behind daddy and letgrandma in; then we were off for Sara’s house.

We arrived at Sara’s house where there were cars lined up along the street. We had topark three houses down where we finally found a parking spot. Grandma and grandpa had topark even more houses down. Mommy, Tyler and I went ahead to walk down to Sara’s whiledaddy waited for grandma and grandpa.

Sara was waiting outside for us to arrive. I ran up her front yard and we ran straight to thebackyard. She had everything! A swingset, kiddy pool, bounce house, even a pony! I ran straightfor the bouncy house, took my shoes off and jumped right in. Mom and Tyler walked through theback gate when her jaw dropped with amazement.

“Mommy come jump with me!” I screamed over to her.“I will in a minute sweetheart. I’m going to go find Linda first,” mommy said back to me.

She walked inside the backdoor with tyler on her hip. I ran out of the bouncy house and went togo inside too. i opened the screen door and saw a whole table filled with cookies, brownies, andcake. Mom was at the bar in the kitchen talking to Linda as she was preparing the hamburgersand hotdogs for the grill. I went up next to mommy and climbed in the bar stool next to her.

“Mommy will you come jump with me now?”“Mommys talking right now, I will in a little I promise.” She set Tyler in the gated living

room where all the younger babies were playing together, then came back at the bar and took acarrot from the relish tray beside her.

“So how did you manage to afford all of this just for your daughters first communion?mommy asked Linda as she took another carrot from the relish tray.

“Well actually we’ve had that swing set a long time now, Jerry just never put it together.And i got that kiddie pool at Walmart for only 30 bucks! I figured I’d get it with summer on its way,the girls would enjoy it. But the bouncy house is Jerry’s boss’ and don’t even get me started withthat damn pony. It was all my mother’s idea. I told her if she thought we had to have it then shecan pay for it! So she did,” Linda said as she started to laugh. “Saras always wanted to ridehorses though so that should be exciting for he.”

Mommy started laughing with Linda when she started playing with my hair and said, “doyou think you’d like going on the pony?”

“Yeah but I want to go in the bouncy house first!” I grabbed mommy’s hand trying to gether to come with me when grandma, grandpa and daddy all walked through the back door.

“Hey! Thats quite a circus you’ve got going on back there!” daddy said as he walkedinside.

“Oh yeah tell me about it. Come on in guys, theres plenty of food if you guys are hungry.

I’m going to go run the meat out to Jerry so he can start grilling for when everyone else getshere. I’ll be right back,” Linda said as she walked out the backdoor.

“Can we go jump now? Pleeeeease?” I asked jumping up and down on the bar stool.Mommy started smiling at me.

“Okay lets go!” I ran out the backdoor towards the bouncy house with mommy rightbehind me. I climb in and began jumping as mommy started taking her shoes off. She climbed inand we both started jumping and laughing with contentment. As we continued to jump, mommystarted doing backflips! I never knew she could do that before!

“Do that again mommy!”She did another backflip and landed right on her feet. She started jumping towards me.“Do you want to learn how?” mommy said to me with a big smile.“Yeah! Teach me! Teach me!”“Okay, now just keep jumping and when you want to flip lean back and I’ll flip you over

okay? On the count of 3 you’ll lean back as you jump.” She stood right beside me as i began tojump.

“1......2.....3!” As soon as she said three I jumped as high as i could, and began to leanback. I felt her hands come on my stomach and back as she flipped me over and I landed on myfeet.

“Wow! That was awesome! Can we do it again!?” She began to flip me over and overagain. We spent about half an hour in the bouncy house until I was tired and we were bothhungry. I jumped into mommy’s arms and gave her a hug.

“I love you Haley,” mommy said as she hugged me back and gave me a kiss on theforehead. “Now let’s go get something to eat!”

We climbed out of the bouncy house; there was at least doubled the people that were inSara’s backyard. All the kids from me and Sara’s class were here and all of her family too.Everyone was grabbing lunch and having a good time. Mommy got me a hotdog as I went andsat with Sara.

It was getting late so daddy decided it was time for us to getting going on home. Tylerwas already sleeping on mommy’s shoulder, and I was getting pretty sleepy myself. We saidgoodbye to everyone and began to head out. Grandma and grandpa followed us to our car to saygood night.

“Well that was a lot of fun, I’m glad we decided to come along with you guys,” grandmasaid to us. “I sure will sleep good tonight, its been an exhausting day!”

“Yeah we’ll be knocked out like Tyler,” grandpa said as he started to laugh. He grabbedmommy around the shoulder and kissed Tyler on the cheek good night. Daddy unlocked the vanand I climbed in.

“Good night guys, love you!” grandpa said as I got in the van. “Good job Haley! We are soproud of you, sleep good!”

“Love you grandma, love you grandpa!” I screamed out the door so they could hear me.Mommy started to wake Tyler up while putting him in his car seat. He started to mumble andlooked like he was about to cry, but he just let mommy buckle him up. Mommy closed the backdoor and went in the passenger seat. Daddy started carefully pulling out of the neighborhoodsince the street was filled with cars at both sides. We turned out of their subdivision and started

driving home when it started to rain.“Where is this coming from? It’s been perfect weather all day, I don’t think i ever saw a

cloud,” mommy said to daddy.“Yeah thats strange, its starting to pick up too.” Daddy turned on the windshield wipers as

it began pouring down rain. “Man I can barely see out the windshield.”“Well just take your time honey. We’re in no hurry to get home,” mommy said.Tyler started to cry as he woke back up. Tyler never really was a fan of the rain; anytime

it was raining, somehow he knew about it and didn’t like it. Daddy pulled up to a stop sign.“Honey stop right here I’m going to give Tyler his pacifier,” mommy said to daddy. She

took off her seat belt and reached behind her seat into the diaper bag to grab the pacifier. Shelooked out the back window as two flashing lights started getting closer.

“Honey look out!” Mommy yelled as she whipped her head towards the front. The carbehind honked their horn as they crashed into the back of the van; Mommy flew head first intothe windshield as her whole body followed her. Glass shattered throughout the car and get stuckto my legs and daddy’s face and hands.

I started to scream and cry realizing what I just saw; as if I already knew that she wasn’tgoing to make it.

“Mommy!” I cried as I sat in the backseat holding onto my bleeding knees. Daddy parkedthe car and ran out to help mommy. He bent down to her lifeless body laying on the concrete. Hebegan to put his face in his hands and cried. I unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the backdoor. Istepped out into the rain and ran to the front of the car.

“Mommy!” I cried again as I saw her body.“Get back in the van now!” daddy yelled at me as he got up in front of me trying to hide

the body from me. I started to cry and ran to my dads legs to hug them for safety. The guy fromthe car behind us came running up and stopped as soon as he saw the body. His jaw droppedand his eyes became huge.

“I’ll call the police,” he said quickly as he ran back to his car to get his phone. Daddyhugged me tightly as we both cried.

“Go get back in the van,” daddy said as he turned to go to the front of the car. I ran to theback seat and looked at my legs covered in red. I looked out the windshield and saw daddy onthe ground next to mommy checking to see if she was conscious. He brushed her long, brownhair out of her face where he saw pieces of class and scratches. Daddy started crying evenharder as he put his face up to mommy’s.

I heard the sirens coming as they pulled out in front of our van. The raced out theambulance with a stretcher and ran towards mommy and daddy. Some guys from the fire truckcame to get us out of the van and into the ambulance to take care of my legs and to make sureTyler wasn’t hurt. There were police officers surrounding us and I couldn’t see what was goingon with mommy. Another ambulance pulled up; the paramedics started removing the glass frommy legs when i saw a blue tarp being carried away on a stretcher. All the police officers went totalk with the guy from the car behind us. I searched to see if mommy was okay, but she wasgone. Daddy was sitting on top of the front end of the van with his face buried in his hands.

Once the paramedic was done, I ran out of the back of the ambulance to go to daddy.“Where’s mommy?” I cried to daddy as we both stood in the rain.

“Mommy’s not with us anymore sweetheart,” daddy said to me as he wiped the tearsfrom his eyes. My eyes filled with tears as I started weeping. Daddy picked me up and held ontome tight as we hugged and cried together. I saw the man from the car behind us sitting on thecurb with his hand on his head, staring at the ground. A police officer was talking to him when hestarted crying too. Daddy carried my over to the ambulance so we could get out of the rain. Theother ambulance sped off and turned on it’s sirens.

I awoke the next morning cuddled up next to daddy with tyler on the other side of him. Thefirst thing thats in my mind was mommy. I couldn’t get her image out of my head; I took thecovers off my body and went in my room. I walked right up to my dresser to look at frames of ourfamily pictures. I grabbed the picture of mommy and I off the dresser and held it close to mybody; I rubbed my thumb along the glass where mommy’s face was. My eyes started to tear up,and a single tear falls on mommy’s face.

I heard someone walking down the hall when daddy walked into my room. He saw that Iwas crying and came and sat on my bed. He picked me up and sat me on his thigh, hugging metightly. He grabbed the picture frame from my hands and started to cry himself.

“Daddy, why did God have to take mommy?” I looked him in the eyes waiting for aresponse. He wiped the tears from his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Well, honey I don’t really know. God takes a lot of good people out of this world.”“Why does he keep all the bad people?”“You wanna know what I think?” daddy said to me while holding me tightly to his chest. “I

think that God took mommy because he wanted her up there in heaven with Him, becausemommy deserves to be up in heaven. God says that heaven is unlike anything on earth, He saysthat we won’t even know how to picture heaven because its so perfect. That’s why God takes allthe good people in this world up to heaven with him.”

“Do you think mommy’s watching over us?”“Oh I know she is. She has to make sure that you grow up safe and sound. She’s our

new guardian angel.”“I wish she was still here with us.” I pouted, got up from daddy’s lap, and put the picture

frame back on my dresser.The next couple of weeks were really hard for my family; especially for daddy. At

mommy’s funeral was the hardest part for me. Seeing her being buried in the ground made itreally sink in that she’s never coming back. But I know that my family can fight through thistogether; its just going to take a lot of love and strength from one another. We still have ourmemories of her, and that’s as powerful as her being with us today.

The doorbell rang; it was grandma and grandpa. I let them inside and gave them a hugand kiss. They had our video camera in their hands and walked straight into the living room.Daddy came down from upstairs and welcomed them in.

“We’ve got something here we want you all to see,” grandma said holding the videocamera in the air. Daddy grabbed the camera from her and went behind the TV to connect somewires and cables together so we could all watch it on the big screen. We all sat on the couchready to watch.

Mommy’s face appeared on the screen. It was back to my first communion. She washolding the camera and was zooming in on me on the stage. Daddy gave grandma and grandpa

a stern look, but grandma nodded her head in reassurance.We watched my whole communion all over again, but then mommy takes back the

camera and turned it around to see her face.“Good morning my beautiful daughter. I am so proud of you and just want you to know

that I will always love you with all my heart to the moon and back. I just want to say that you’remy little angel and that when you watch this again you’ll always know how much I love you,”mommy smiled as she blew a kiss into the camera and the tv screen went black.

Tears were running down my face when daddy came over to the couch and gave me ahug. Grandma and grandpa joined in a group hug as I began to cry.

“Mommys always watching over you Haley, just remember that.Whenever times gettough, you can always watch this video and just know how much love and support you have fromher,” grandma said in my ear.

I wiped off my face with my hands and took a deep breath. I knew then, that everythingwas going to be just fine. We still have mommy in our memories and that was good enough forus.