Cole: A Narrative Fiction

“Oh, there you are.” My mama said, peering in at me from just outside the room’s archway. “Come on upstairs and pick out which room you want to be yours.”

“That’s why they were only taking a few things at a time; they weren 't really coming for ivory and paintings. They wanted me!” Even when she wasn’t in her room she was always afraid of something. “I always dreaded that my parents would divorce. It was my third biggest fear, right next to the fear that one of them would get abducted by heartmen on the road to Sugar Beach, or my first fear, that I would get sucked into the lagoon by neegee.” Out of all three fears only one seemed to happen. Her parents relationship finally came to an end after a lot of fighting, disagreement, and cheating. “Daddy, I hold your foot, don’t leave us. Daddy, please, I beg you” she cried that day. From then on, except the servants and cook, “it was only women at Sugar Beach.” Even after dealing with something so hard in her life that wasn’t even what affected her the most.

Gigi notices her mother is starting to get weaker and less able to walk and run like she used to. This worries Gigi but her mom says she is okay so Gigi just thinks its cause she is getting old and doesn’t think much of it. A month loater Gigi’s mother gets diagnosed with pancreatic cancer which is really imparing her mother from helping figt off the bullies. But she is still giving Gigi her words of supportand

“ MARIAM! YOUR ROOM! NOW! Baba yells. This time, I listen. I drop down on my bed. I know I am crying, but I am to numb to feel the tears

It was that time of the year again. Her daughter, Daisy, and husband would pack up the minivan with everything she could possibly need. Each time they embarked on this journey, there was a sense of silence and unknowing in the air. She would be there for a couple months, unable to feel the fresh autumn air and using all the strength left to just simply brush her teeth. Daisy hated seeing her mother this way. She hated the way the chemo made her mother weak and fragile, she hated knowing that she could lose her at anytime.

She sighs and feels at herself in the cold. I watch her breath. She leans

The room is lavishly furnished, with the curtains drawn wide. Hedda sits on the sofa and

“The hosp-” and then she remembered. She remembered the waving trees and seeing the bedroom roof in the middle of the field. She remembered her midnight run to the neighbors’ house. But worst of all, she remembered her mama’s battered frame pinned under the bed. “Mama!” she gasped frantically. “Is she okay? When will she come back?” Suddenly the chaos of the night overwhelmed her and she subdued to the sobs racking her body. In a calming voice, Ms. Katie reassured her. “The doctors said they could heal her, remember? If you get up, we can go see her this morning at the hospital.”

Sitting on the couch, four-year-old Gia was enraptured by the Disney movie playing on the television. Enthralled by the scenes occurring in front of her, she watched as the charming young prince returned the glass slipper to the beautiful maid, transforming her into a princess. Looking up at her mom, Gia said in awe, “Mommy, when I grow up I wanna be a princess and marry my own prince!”

Darkness inside the cabin intensified her fear, but she didn’t dare risk a light. Long minutes crawled by before she summoned enough courage to feel her way to the bed. Drained, she curled on the bed and pulled the patchwork quilt over her head, blocking out painful memories and chilly night air. Vigorous thumps from the baby loosened the iron grip of panic. Rachel's arms instinctively curved around her belly. At first, she despised the child, but now she loved it

It was a calm summer morning as Shirley’s golden hair tossed in the wind as she walked with her father, her emerald eyes glowing with joy and pleasure. She wore a scarlet short sleeve-shirt and jeans that came to her thighs. But this was only the cover. For if you looked deep into her emerald eyes you saw the remains of pain and suffering. If you could see through her cover of scarlet you could still see the scars of torture she could not run from.

She leans forward to pick up her glass, sips and smiles, adjusts the pillow so she’s upright. She speaks, first in English, and then in French.

After Hazel reflects on how her illness may impact her whole family, she thinks “I wanted to not be a grenade, to not be a malevolent force in the lives of people I loved” (Green 154). Unfortunately as Hazel’s cancer returns, not only her, but her entire family begins to feel the pain and suffering it causes. As she experiences the effects of the disease, she sees how much her family actually cares about her and how hurt they would be if cancer were to take her life. This outlook on her difficulty gives her a new type of contentment due to the recognition of how much her loved ones honestly value

Scarlet fever leads to death in almost every case, or at least that’s what doctor Stanton says. Mama has endured this sickness for

“So if your father is still alive, then why aren’t you guys together?”, I ask as we all sit in the living room in front of the warm fireplace of the old home. “My father isn’t well.”, she says abruptly with a stern, but sad tone of voice. Ray and I glance at each other then look back at Colleen, “He’s sick and I don’t think he has long, I’ve been out here trying to find more supplies for him.”, she says looking down, “When the sun comes up, I need to go back to him”. I feel so bad for her and I can tell Ray does too, I don’t even want to know what happened to her mother or any other family she may have had. I can’t think of anything else to say but, “I’m so sorry”. She looks up at me and says, ”Well, what’re you going to do. No one exactly