A Diamond in the Rough

Chapter 2 " Isabella's sad past"

They walked around for a little bit until they found a park bench to sit on. She took a deep breath then she started on the story of her life, "Well... March 20th will be the eighth anniversary of their death and I wanted to visit them for the first time since that day."

He looks down and thinks to himself, 'Oh that is exactly one month away from my birthday.' He shakes his head and asked, "What happened? How did your parents die?"

Isabella just looked down at the ground sad and told him and at the same time having a flashback of that horrible day.

She took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds then let it go. "I didn't know that my house had been set on fire that day. I was walking home from school and I saw a bunch of fire trucks and ambulances passing by and headed in the direction of my house. I thought there was no way they are going there. I was just down the street I could see that the lights were getting brighter and the sirens were getting louder. So, I thought that they were at the neighbor's house. An elderly man lived there and because his health was bad he always called them over. Eventually, he was admitted and has been there ever since. When I got closer, I saw that my house was on fire. I also saw these men running out fast out of my house with beds on wheels and with people on them. They had a white sheet over their entire body so I couldn't tell who they were. I could feel the threat of hot tears coming into my eyes and saying no over and over again in my head and telling myself that couldn't and can't be my parents. I turned all the way around and stared at my house. I then started to yell for my mom and dad over and over again at my house. When I didn't hear a word, I turned back around to where the people on the beds were. I ran to them as fast as I could. Whenever I reached them, I pulled the sheet away from one of their faces before one of the men could pull me away and..."

She paused. Her voice cracked and tears came flowing down her face like a waterfall. She continued to say, "... and I saw that it was my dad. I pulled the other one and it was my mom."

Tears ran down her face as she picked up her knees. A cry choked out and she hugged her knees and buried her face and started crying.

After crying and a moment of silence she continued the story. "One of the men pulled me away from them and asked me, 'Is this your house?' I looked at them crying. I turned to him all I could do was nod my head. He looked at me with sad eyes and told me, 'I am so sorry, but we got here too late.' He got quiet and looked down for a moment probably thinking, 'how am I going to tell this little girl that her parents died today and were never coming back to her?' He finally looked at me and told me with tears in his eyes, 'I am sorry but your parents are not coming back.' He turned around and started crying right when he said that. At first, I didn't cry. I guess I was in a state of shock. Then it finally came to me what the man told me. I started to yell and cry."

Tears ran down her face. She took some deep breaths. Then continued to say, "After all that happened, I thought and wished that it had to be a horrible nightmare, but every time I would go back to that house... it's black and burnt to a crisp. Some white ash still flying in the breeze." She started to take some breaths so she wouldn't cry again.

He looked down sadly and said, "Wow! That's horrible." He took a pause and said, "If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when all that happened?"

Wiping the tears from her face she told him, "I don't mind at all. I was in fifth grade about 10 years old. After that whole thing, I was sent to live with my grandma and aunt, and many cousins. After eight years had passed and I just started as a senior in high school I started to realize that man was right... my parents weren't coming back. So, when I was old enough, I decided to live on my own. Of course, when I told my family this, they wanted me to stay but I told them that they had a lot of mouths to feed and I can make it on my own because I'm an adult now. Before I left, they gave me as much money as I can and I headed out. Of course, I didn't tell them that I planned to find an abandoned house to live in because they would not have let me leave. So, thank goodness I live in such a tiny village there were a lot of them."

After she said that she sniffled and managed to smile and chuckle.

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