Personal Narrative: A Short Story

to realize that what I knew in my head about Jesus, I did not believe in my

was driving home from physical therapy for my knee. It had been aching for the past few days. I had never felt a pain like it before, so I played it off as nothing. As soon as I hit the highway, I went underneath the Lowry Hill tunnel. I lost reception on my radio and I soon realized that it wasn’t just the tunnel that was making me lose my reception. A massive storm had loomed over my head. The sky was green and looked like it was turning sideways. Rain splattered against my windshield. Not just droplets of rain, but the ones that look like they had been shot out of a paintball gun. I immediately felt the wind blow my car to the right. I had to swerve hard to the left to avoid clipping a jeep that was next to me. Boy, were they in trouble. The jeep had it’s

I just want to start this off with saying I'm sorry for arguing and the attitude issues. Lastnight's not how I wanted to spend it. I didn't get a hug or a kiss, all I got was how did you do tonight as if money was the only thing you seemed to care about. Then you tell me to either get out of the car or go home and I said give me a minute because I was on my feet all night at work. And I didn't wanna,stand around the outside of the gas station. People always say never stop fighting for the person you want once you finally get them. And I feel like you don't want to fight for me because you have me now. You know you always tell me that you want the rayann that I was in st. Pete to come back it's hard for her to come back when the last couple of days/week we've done nothing but argue.

After what seemed like a long day, Ryder was finally given time to himself. Of course, it wasn’t a lot of time because birthday insured cake and ice cream time, but Ryder was able to unwind from all the stress built up from this special day. He was sitting at his desk, pressed up against the wall under the window that looked out at the front of his house, and he had his light on- only giving so much light in the room. The sun was coming down too, which Ryder thought was the perfect opportunity to write in his journal.

They say to take the pitch if it’s coming after you. They say it will only hurt for a minute. They say to get on base however you can. They say it will help you succeed.

BEEP BEEP BEEP screamed the alarm set on my phone. I rolled over and silenced it as swiftly as I could. I sat up and looked around the humid garage and sighed, and scrunched up my nose in distaste at the odor of vomit and day old pizza filled my nose. I sighed again and got up off of the thin mattress, walking to the door and picking my bag up as I left the garage, and headed to the bathroom. I sighed and looked in the mirror, pulled my hair back, brushed my teeth, and left, thinking the words over in my head on how to tell Hailey that this friendship needed to end because I did not like how it was starting to wear at me. We fought almost constantly and lately she kept trying to pressure me into doing things I really did not care to do and had told her from the start that I was okay with her doing them, but I just did not want to get involved in.

I am greeted by a crisp, cold, wintery, January wind. The gust of wind propels my hair back, while simultaneously sending chills down my spine. I walk out to a darkening sky. It is now around six o’clock in the afternoon. I continue walking to my car. I reach for the car door, and as I grasp the handle it feels as though I am holding an icicle. I open the door with a swift movement, eager to get in the warm car. I shut the door, and wiggle in my seat as I try to get comfortable. I sit back pleased with myself for warming up the car five minutes prior to my departure. I inspect and adjust my side and rear view mirrors making sure they are to my liking. I place my left hand on the steering wheel, and my right hand on the gear shifter. I slide

In my search around the nearby parts of the building, I find something that brings back a heavy, sickening wave of memories.

“A society that gets rid of all its trouble makers goes downhill.” Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

“Sir, why was she standing up in the car with no seat belt on?” the short chubby officer asked in a firm voice.

Saturday, November 15, 2014. By all accounts, it was a day like any other. The sun rose and set between the barren branches of the trees as my family and I took shelter from the cold. That night, my father, mother, and brother were watching curling downstairs as I nestled in the dark of my room, listening to music through my headphones. At one point, there was a loud crash from the next room over – my parents’ bedroom – and my cats went wild, hissing as they sprinted out like a shot. I went to go investigate, but didn’t notice anything amiss. I figured my cats had just knocked something over and had gotten freaked out, so I walked back to my room. As I plopped back onto my bed, I happened to glance out the window. That’s when I saw the ladder in my backyard, leading up to my parents’ bedroom.

“Suddenly there was a crash”, Tia’s grandma exclaimed. There the broken floor was broken, and she was never heard from again”

I can’t recall the exact day, all I can remember is the pain from embarrassment. I was the first guy to ever be beaten by a girl. In my defense, her brothers held me down but that made the story less “Breaking News”.

“I’m pregnant” the words swirled through my mind, my emotions started to build up, tears ran down my young face in excitement and confusion. I was silent and speechless. “How?”, “when?”, “with who?”, these questions built up in the back of my head before proceeding to respond with a blunt answer of “no way!”. Smirking faces showed up in the room to view my reaction from the news and we all started hugging the mommy- to-be. This news was exciting, but we all had many detailed questions.

This story was repeated over and over the past couple of weeks. The ending of another semester provided a natural vista from which to gaze back over the previous months and years to see how significantly the Spirit of God had been working and how much growth had taken place since we have begun meeting.