A Short Story : A Presidential Heist

In Danielle Evans’s collection of short stories Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, the story “The King of a Vast Empire” talks about how traumatic events affect a family’s bond. The main trauma in this story is a car accident that haunts this family. Liddie, Terrance, and their parents got in a car accident one night. The dad was driving the car when he was going around a dark curve in the road and hit another car. The other car was stopped in the middle on the road because there was a fallen lumber in the middle of the road that their dad was trying to remove. The other car did not have their emergency lights on. When the dad hit the car, all of the kids in the backseat was killed

The narrator finds himself confronted with different forms of suffering that encompass both light and dark mechanisms of survival. Upon seeing Sonny for the first time in many years, “He looked very unlike my baby brother. Yet, when he smiled… the baby brother I’d never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like

To begin, in A Separate Peace, a young boy with the name of Finny passed due to a piece of bone from his leg traveling to his heart. His dear friend Gene appeared to be unphased from Finny’s death. “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when I stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral” (194). Gene was not emotionally damaged and hurt because of Finny. Instead, Gene was relieved. A figure he always tried to do better than and wanted to always be better than was finally gone. Gene’s battle that Finny never even

“I don’t feel so well” Jan’s father had suddenly said one morning at breakfast. Her father, a World War II veteran, stood up and went to go lie down. The rest of the family continued with their day. Michael went to see how his father was. When he tried to wake him his father didn’t respond or make a sound. The 11 year old boy was the one who first knew that his father was gone. The memory of her father’s loss is vivid in Jan’s mind. It was a substantial shock after he had survived the horrors of World War II and then just passed away quietly at home one morning. Jan now understands how

The Saturday night party was the place to be. Anyone who is anyone was there. John’s curfew is midnight and its 12:05. Mark had been doing quite a lot of drinking and he was John’s ride home. John questioned whether or not he wanted to get in the car with Mark, but thought about how mad his parents were going to be. He was already five minutes late. Saying to himself “Just this one time,” he decided to get in the car. John never made it home that night. Mark had rolled the car off the bridge one mile away from his house. John lost his life all because he was afraid of getting grounded. There are many situations similar to John’s, and in a lot of them, no one survives. Because of all the death and tragedy as a result of driving under the

There was no end to the force he exerted onto me. It was endless, it was pure turmoil to me. I was weak. The invasion was two years ago, but this proved I was still no stronger. I was still small, still weak, still less than my attacker. A part of me simply wanted to flee, like that day. I glanced backward, looking for an escape from him.

They took a sharp turn over a some railroad tracks and the back door flew open. Jeannette rolled out of the car, she rolled many yards on the embankment. When she came to a stop, she was too shocked to cry and she all bloody and scraped up. She called herself a burden, and said they could do fine without her. When her family turned around and came screeching to a halt, her dad got out of the car, knelt down, and tried to give Jeannette

Learning to fight for your life was easier than this. Though the life was difficult in itself nothing came close to the difficulty of watching someone you love walk away, it seemed to only get harder even if it was your fault in the end. Pushing people away was a specialty of his and when it actually worked it was earth shattering. The silence pointed out the flaws that he’d managed to go without noticing with her by his side but now they screamed at him yet again. He was back to the self-destructive, sacrificial, self-loathing creature he always was. Though he always knew his family was broken it wasn’t even close to this damaged. He wasn’t the only one that felt the loss, his brother had lost someone as well. It was a feeling in the air

In the night, after he fell off the yacht into the warm Caribbean Sea, Rains-ford realized “it was not the first time he had been in a tight space… Rains-ford remembered the shots. They had come from the right…

So this boy by the age of 14, named Tim, lived in the worst neighborhood. There were murders, kidnappings, and even robberies. Whenever Tim witnessed something so tragic as of these topics I have listed above, he started to bawl. He cried and cried and cried until his mother came in with some cookies and warm milk and fed it to him like he was still her little 1 year old. Tim was never allowed to go outside. For 1, there was this gang called, “Victorians”, and whenever someone tries to cross their path, they would rob them of their money and beat the victim up. Tim had once crossed their path, and they tried to rob Tim, but 1 of the members passed out because Tim had thrown a pipe at the member’s temple, which was located on the sides of his

It was Christmas Eve when Stanley’s father, John Woodrow Allen, was driving the car that carried his two young children and his wife, Dorothy. Unexpectedly, the car collided with another, and irreparable damage was done. The young mother suffered a violent blow to the head, yet the rest of the passengers walked away without a scratch. She was rushed to the hospital, but there wasn’t much that could be done to help her. Dorothy’s skull was fractured, and brain was severely damaged. She passed away a few days later on December 27. At just four years old, Stanley was left motherless.

While driving home thinking about the grandson awakened the childhood memories and the constant battle, Andrew wrestled with on a daily basis as he tried not to dwell on them, but to leave them in the closet of his mind. Today it was as if the doors of his mind opened wide and the memories poured out clear and haunting, even though, he had resisted. Remembering how much he detested visiting his grandparent’s during summer vacations. Nevertheless, his parents insisted he go, leaving his elder brother, Joseph at home.

Jarold was extremely proud of himself. His smile could be seen from across the world and he felt powerful for once. Even though he didn’t become the best person on earth after getting this job, he was overjoyed by the fact that he chose the path to climb that steep hill, and he was just as proud as a peacock for overcoming such an awful life experience. His eyes twinkled like stars in a clear night sky, as he felt like a king, watching down on the people who brought him down in the past. When Jarold left his first day of work, he went to walk his dog, Jerry Junior at the park. As they were strolling around in the big, spacious park, the sun was setting and the sky was pink and orange. Suddenly, Jarold spotted a tree in the middle of the park that seemed to be glowing. He silently stared at the leafless and lifeless looking tree as the bracing breeze blew his hair...and he was astonished. Jarold noticed that this tree represented his life. This unique tree reminded him that no matter how much he lost, or how much he has left, he can still get through his life happily, if he tries to accomplish it. Although you may not see it, there will always be a light in life behind you as a

Marius, a Romanian 8 year old boy, lived a life just as every other kid his age. He attended school, played with his friends and his dog, and helped his family with chores. Once the accident occurred, life changed for Marius although he was always positive during his recovery process. Both of Marius’s parents died during the accident, however, he still had a large support system. This support came from both Marius’s older sister and brother who were not home at the time of the accident. Also, the interns at the hospital provided a large amount of help to Marius as did the interns’ parents and other family members. Shriners Hospital for Children in Los Angeles as well as all of the support from teachers, home tutors, and the translator, Teodora, made the entire recovery process possible. So even though Marius did not have his parents, he still had an abundance of support and assistance.

Robert Hill didn’t miss his father, but he didn’t really know him. Robert didn’t remember a lot about his dad, but he remembered that one hyperthermic winter night five years ago when his mother kicked their father out. Robert saw the image of his mother, Melissa, kicking his dad out every time he looked at their red front door. He saw his dad walking down the icy brick front steps trying not to fall. Robert could hear his mom's roaring voice and could hear his twin brother and sister, Sophia and Thomas, screaming and weeping.