Runnin’ On Adrenaline

I’m amazed at how much energy I can muster after that dreaded phone call. It doesn’t matter it’s 3:00 AM. I can sacrifice sleep. I’m dressed in a flash and on the road racing to the hospital, running through hallways, arriving before your final breath, “I’m here Dad, I love you.”

You whisper, “Always remember Helen, you’re my queen of queens.”

And after arranging your funeral, packing your clothes, arguing with my siblings about who gets what, I drag myself home, plop down on the bed thinking I’ll pass out from exhaustion, instead, I think of you and tears erupt.

From Guest Contributor Charles Gray

Not Hurt

At 11:30 p.m., Mother woke and found her son Bin wasn’t in bed. She scurried into the living room and found the siblings watching cartoons.

“I was so worried, my baby. Go to bed with Mom,” Mother said to Bin gently. She then glared at Lan, “Don’t be a bad influence on your brother!”

“But Mom, it is Bin who wanted to watch cartoons. He begged me to stay with him,” Lan tried to explain.

Mother shouted, “You are the elder sister. You are supposed to take good care your brother. Never do it again!”

Lan pretended she wasn’t hurt.

From Guest Contributor Huina Zheng

Huina either coaches her students to write at work or write stories for fun after work.

Siblings

“Stop it, Sis. Mom and Dad can’t even hear you and there is no one else around. It’s just you and me. You’re making a fool of yourself...again. Get real, it would do you some good. You’re a pretty lousy actress. Stop pretending you’re having a cramp because you are definitely not. I am waiting, missy. Nobody will believe you, you know. In fact, come to think of it: you slipped, I did not push you in the pool at all. Anyway, you can keep your head under water as long as you want to. See if I care.”

From Guest Contributor Hervé Suys

Hervé Suys (°1968 – Ronse, Belgium) started writing short stories whilst recovering from a sports injury and he hasn’t stopped since. Generally he writes them hatless and barefooted.

The Turning Point

The crash jolted them awake, as they careened into the seats in front of them. Later, the doctors would say that the fact they'd been asleep upon impact is what saved them. 27 dead, only two survivors.

The siblings would always look back at that bus crash as the turning point. Not the decision to run away, not what they were running away from, but the accident that sent them to the hospital, months of rehabilitation, and then life in a foster home.

For Megan, it was the perfect escape. For Matthew, he'd forever regret not having died that night.

Acknowledgement

He shouldn't have to insist on special treatment. It's no longer special at that point. Besides, he wanted to maintain the same humble demeanor as before. Success and fame shouldn't change who he is, right?

But here he was, waiting with everyone else. Not one person had acknowledged his big breakthrough.

"More eggs, Brian?"

"Yes, please."

He appreciated the gesture, but you'd think a guest appearance on CSI would bump him to the head of the table, not stuck in between his siblings while breakfast was served. Besides, the eggs were cold. Some Christmas this was turning out to be.

The Way Things Played Out

We looked around at each other and it was clear that we all shared the same sense of panic. We'd all been shrunk down to a few inches tall, and what had once been a rather shaggy lawn was now a thick forest. Our pet rabbit, Olive, was one hop away from killing us all.

If this were a Disney movie, my siblings and I would have set aside our differences and we would have worked together to overcome a string of comical obstacles before returning to normal height.

This played out more as a Lord Of The Flies scenario.

Sibling Rivalry

They were both failures in life.

His brother was the one destined for greatness, until his inner demons and thirst for heroin derailed his ambitions.

For some reason their parents, his brother's girlfriend, their mutual friends, his therapist, they all blamed him for his brother's failures. They never seemed to realize that he was also a victim. He was always being compared to his brother's lofty standards. His success in school, his victories on the baseball field, his general affability.

So yeah, he'd gotten his brother hooked on heroin. But couldn't they see it was actually a cry for help?

The Junk Yard Kids

Scottie and Claire loved the junk yard. To other folks it may have seemed a dire place to grow up, but for the two siblings, it was paradise.

Sure they had to worry about disease and oxidation and rats--man were there rats--but they had never known a moment of boredom their entire lives. Despite the other parents looking down at them, to the neighborhood children they were practically royalty.

Modesty had been instilled in them at an early age. Their parents made it very clear they were never to mention they were from the richest family in town.