Hope Runner

Chapter 1: Hope Runner

Thank you all for reading! Before we get started I would like to let you know I will be uploading every 4 days this holiday season! Please save this and continue reading, because you won't regret it! Enjoy!

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My legs burned, my heart ached, I was out of breath and sweating, but I was still happy.

This is why I love running. Because even though it can be painful you can still find joy in it. Grandma always says it’s because of the endorphins. I agree, but I think its also because it resembles life. Bad things happen to us, but if we keep running anyway there is hope of reaching a higher place.

As I ran the Atlanta streets in the heat of August I reflected on what happened exactly a year ago to change me for the better. Summer had started out normal. I spent every day at the neighborhood pool with my friends. We would only leave for lunch to go to Grandma’s and she would always have food ready.

Some days she would have sandwiches, quesadillas, salads or chicken nuggets. No matter what she made, everyday there would be her famous lemonade.

She was my only real family member. I have lived with her since I was 3.

My mom’s name is Marci. She left me and my dad when I was 2. I didn’t know why she left for a long time. We never talked about that, but the fact is she left. There isn’t an excuse for that. 

We kept in distant touch. She lives somewhere in Oregon. Most of our contact is simply from the cards she sends me for my birthdays and Christmas. She even calls every once in a while on holidays. She used to call on Mother’s day, but we both know she is only a mother by blood. To me she was just Marci, the women that abandoned me.

I have tried to search my memory for the days before she left. I only knew her from what I’ve seen from her on Facebook. I usually ignore her messages though.

My dad still lived in Atlanta. He visits occasionally. He is more like an uncle to me though. He suffers from depression. He didn’t think he could raise me on his own.

It seemed so obvious love never works out. It’s an idea not a reality. People love themselves more than the people around them no matter how hard they work to hide it.

In mid-August, August 17th to be exact, my friend Megan and I came home in hope for some lemonade to find ambulance all around the house. I remember not knowing what to do or who to talk to.

“Are either one of you Sofia Elliott?” Asked someone in a white shirt and black pants who seemed to be a medic.

“Yes I am, what’s going on?” I asked in panic.

“Your grandma had a heart attack. I was told she had a granddaughter named Sofia, but I didn’t know where to find you. I’m glad your here. Do you have any other family we can contact? Oh, and how old are you?”, he rambled.

“Is she okay?” I asked ignoring everything he asked me.

“I don’t know. But can you please help me out here. This is important." he pleaded.

“I’m 15, and my dad lives about 15 minutes from here. Do you need his contact information? If you want I can call him.” I said trying to remain calm.

“Yeah, yeah. The ambulance is about to leave, and we can’t wait for you to change. Can he bring to St. Josephs Hospital?” He asked as he signaled to the other doctors.

“I’m not sure, we don’t talk much.” I said unseemly.

“Well, hurry. We only have a minute until she is in the ambulance.” He said.

I sprinted to my house. I grabbed an over-sized t-shirt of my grandma’s and put it on and put on some shorts I had laying at the bottom of the stairs that I was supposed to take to my room. I slipped back on my flip flops and ran outside.

Megan waved to me and yelled “I will see if my mom can bring me there. I hope everything is okay.”

I yelled back, “Can you get my phone in my room and lock the house?”

She nodded while saying, "Of course,"

That ride in the ambulance was the scariest thing in my life. All the doctors yelled in a fog. I sat there soaking it all in.

Everything that happened in the next few hours was a blur. The only thing that was clear to me was when my dad came and sat by me after talking to the doctors. The words that I feared most came out of his mouth, “She is gone.”

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