Because I Love You

This story was written by both Tiffany and Esther, at Esther's birthday sleepover. Yes--that's what writers do sometimes! Write when they come together for a birthday celebration! Enjoy. (And I hope you'll get something out of it!)

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Mae rose from the chair to take a closer look. Something was slowly creeping across the lawn! The long furry body slowly sneaked toward the porch. What? She though, it can't be! She leaned tiptoe over the verandah, the bushy tail had just slipped behind a small shrub. Mae leaned harder. Was it a…? She squinted, all of a sudden the top three verandah boards gave way and Mae fell the six feet drop and landed on her back, the lower half of her body on the concrete, the rest on the grass bank.

She cried out in shock. Her legs wouldn't obey her command! “MUM!” She screamed, staring at her lifeless legs.

Suddenly, a head popped up from behind the bank, exposing a red head, green mischievous eyes, and a freckled nose.

“JEREMY!” the yell came almost to a scream. It ended in a moan of fear. She almost sobbed, but her voice came in a whisper. “Get Mum. NOW.”

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Mae was quickly but gently wheeled into the emergency room. People in blue robes lifted her onto a table. A large black machine was hoisted down and moved over her legs. One of the people, a nurse, reached over and squeezed her hand. “You're gonna be fine, honey. We just need to X-ray your legs to see what's wrong.” Mae lay very still, thinking how this whole day had completely turned around. She was disturbed from her reverie by an agonized scream coming from the X-ray viewing room. Some pale faced nurses walked through and took her off the table.

Just as they were wheeling her out she saw her Mum, tears streaming down her face. She was talking with the Doctor in the door to the viewing room. “WHAT!” She screamed, “You mean my precious daughter will never walk again!”

“The fall damaged her lower back, causing paralysis. I am very sorry, Ma'am, but yes. She will never again walk.” While her Mum wailed, Mae stared at the ceiling in shock. She would never again walk!?

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Gently, she was placed on her bed by strong arms. Her father crossed the room, opened the closet, and extracted two more pillows. He carefully placed them behind her and exited the room.

A once cheery—now grim—face appeared in the doorway, and she watched as the little boy quietly crept to the chair by the bed. “Are you hurt bad?” The boy asked, gazing at the lifeless legs resting on a cushion. She wanted to scream, to tell him to run away, but she couldn't. It wouldn't be kind—or fair. He didn't know what was going to happen when he had done it!

Bitterly, she replied, “Yeah. I won't ever be able to walk again.”

A pained expression flitted across his small dirt-streaked face. “I was just joking!”

“Oh, yeah?” She wanted to say more, to say that it was a dirty joke, but she refrained. Mum wouldn't like her to talk like that to her brother. She would just keep quiet.

“Yeah.” the boy glanced again at her legs, then up to her face. “Tommy gave me that wolf skin. He said that his uncle got it on his last hunting trip! Isn't it swell?”

“Well,” Mae raised her voice but caught herself just in time. “I think you'd better go.”

A truly mournful face looked up at her. “Are you mad?”

“JUST GO!” she shouted. A tearful boy ran out.

Huh, some joke! She muttered to herself. It cost me my legs. Now I'll be stuck in a chair all my life!

Over the next few days Mae had nothing to do except be sorry for herself and blame Jeremy. You might have said she had the right—she would never be able to do the same things again. But thinking these things was not making Mae's home a nice one. She was constantly talking to herself, and she would not let anyone in her room. Darkness had crept into her room, visitors learned to keep well away. Mae's life and beauty—had turned into a stinking pit of blackness, bitterness and selfpity. Her family crept lightly round her.

One night, Mae was seriously thinking of somehow taking her life. She fell into a dream. In the dream, the walls around her bed were crumpled by thick black searching fingers. An overwhelming stench filled the room. The smell of something long dead or dying. Mae felt exposed. She heard moanings, groanings, shrieks and laughs. She was glad her bed was still there and she pulled the covers up to her ears, but the sounds did not stop. She could now “feel” the air—a deep violent stirring invoking utter terror in her heart. The stench became overwhelming. She felt the air being robbed from her, and she began gasping for breath. There seemed to be many things around her, gathering on her bed. She could feel their hairy, slimy touches as if there was no covers.

Suddenly, there was two claws that dug deep into the flesh around her shoulders. Two wide sickly yellow, green flecked eyes stared into her own, and she sensed they were smiling and she realized those eyes belonged to the claws that were drawing yet deeper into her skin. Yes those eyes were smiling—enjoying the pain they were inflicting. About now she became aware of the worst noise in her life, the sound of herself screaming. Something she would never forget. The pain became indescribable, those claws felt as though they'd reached in and grabbed her heart, and was squeezing the life out of her. “HELP!!!”

She screamed hoping like never before, the hope of someone desperate. She could feel herself crumpling like paper.

“Put your hand up!” a soft voice whispered. Hot, thinking dimly, she put her hand up. The relief was immediate. She felt like she was being pulled through lots of layers of dirt really fast at a speed much faster than an aeroplane. She looked up and saw the best face she could ever imagine, coming toward her, FAST. All of a sudden, she was at His feet.

“MAE” He said.

All of a sudden, Mae felt very dirty. Very ashamed. She suddenly realized what she had been doing to people during her “sickness”. She tried to get away from this man who was giving her those feelings.

{Photo Credit}

“Don't trust your feelings, my dear, for the feelings come and feelings go. Mae, you have something to tell me.” He added.

She poured out everything to Him and lay herself at His feet. “Sir,” she said, “I know not why you take such interest in me. Why, you took me from that terrible place below, when punishment was what I really deserved.”

“Because,” He said, brushing away a tear, “Because,” He said as he tossed her up and spun her around, “Because, I love you!” With that, the dream faded, but the love she had come to see continued and she jumped out of bed and ran into her Mum & Dad's room and jumped on their bed saying, “Mummy, Daddy, I met the greatest person…”

Her parents looked at each other in the eye, both with tears filling their eyes.

“Darling,” her Mummy cried, “You're walking!”

THE END

Blessings,

-Tiffany and Esther-