Two Truths & A Lie

1. Auntie Chelsea:

I practically danced through the halls that day. Skipping and turning, with a little twist here and there to avoid elbowing a freshman in the head. Nothing could bring me down that day - Nothing! Today was the day I was to become an aunt. That date had been penciled in - with a pink colored pencil, of course - like a dentist appointment. "Megan becomes a mom!!!" screamed out at me from November 23rd, 2005. The due date had actually been the 22nd, but I had accidentally entered it on the wrong date. The baby must have known I hate to cross things out in my plan book.

I couldn't hide my excitement. I squirmed in physics, prompting strange looks from my fellow class-goers. I fiddled in history, and I tapped my foot twice as fast in band. "Almost time," I mouthed across the room to my friend. It would only be a few more hours until I would evolve from "Chelsea Dunford: Average Teen" to "*Auntie Chelsea*". Of course, the time limit was merely an approximation. A few hours was just a rough estimate - left up to the discretion of my nearly-here neice. These things are never 100% predictable - the forces of nature hardly ever conform to our human prescriptions for events.

It was nearly seven hours later, twelves whole hours after her birth before I got to the hosptial. Once I'd arrived, I paced back and forth while my parents signed us into the maternity ward.

Room 34, down there, on the right," The night-shift nurse instructed us. Those were the most beautiful words I had heard all day. I forced myself not to run down the hall. At long last we reached her door, and before I turned into it, I could hear the joy in the voices of family and friends already in the room. We entered, and my eyes could barely take it all in. Could I really be this lucky? Apparantly, nature didn't want to follow any rules that day, but leaned more in favor of surprise. As I grinned, I squeaked out the only word I could think of - "Twins!"

2. The Sweetest 16th:

We hadn’t been getting along lately. Every conversation we had ended in recitations of lines such as “Is it still worth it? Is the badgering ever going to stop? Why can’t they just be happy for us?” My boyfriend of nearly four months sounded as hopeless as I felt. My family accepted him – actually, they liked him quite a bit. Why couldn’t my friends accept him, too? Nothing seemed to be working out anymore…
On June 14th, our four month anniversary, we had another one of our famous conversations. I was crying, and he felt like it. 5 days before my birthday – so much for sweet 16. This time things didn’t work out like they usually did, and the relationship ended. I felt awful, even though it was a mutual decision – he sounded so torn apart on the phone afterwards. It hurt so bad to think that I’d not only lost a great boyfriend, but a terrific friend as well.
Needless to say, I spent the next couple of days in a slump, wondering if the right choice had been made, and missing the familiar tones of his voice. One day after a particularly miserable day of finals, and with a cold that was not loosening its grip despite a very sedating dose of so-called “Dayquil”, I dragged my heavy feet off the last step of the bus and crossed the street. My mind was so buried in the fog of finals and antihistamines that I didn’t notice the maroon Taurus (lovingly dubbed “Horus”) parked in my driveway until the driver met me at the front door I was attempting to unlock. “Hi,” I said.
“You ok,” He replied?
“Mhm…sleepy..sick..yep.”
“Well, I won’t stay long, I just wanted to give you your birthday present. Sorry it’s late, I had to wait for the shipment.” He produced a long envelope from his shirt pocket, and handed it to me.
“No way,” I thought. “No freakin’ way!”
I tore into the paper flap, and slid out the two Journey tickets.
Way! Not only was this concert going to be the best day of my life, but I knew that any guy who would give me such an amazing gift even after we broke up wasn’t the kind of guy to run away even when things were rough. Even though we were no longer “a couple”, I knew that our friendship was going to be harder to shake.

3. You Never See It Coming:

I sat in my desk chair, the breath stolen my lungs before I’d even had a chance to say “How are ya?” The shock washed over me again and again, bringing with it each time a renewed sense of dread and hopelessness. You had loved her…You had seen her only last Saturday… how could something like this happen only 24 hours later? I can hear your voice wavering, you who are so strong for me all of the time. As you explain what details you know, I see the lives of my friends and family running looped in my mind.
“She was insulin dependent,” you say. “She wasn’t always careful with her sugar levels, and I guess she was just too tired to check them last night.” I processed that slowly. Too tired to check the level of something, which, if it were wrong, would put you in a coma, or worse? It didn’t make sense to me – she had children! I bent my silent head in prayer as my own tears welled up – I never knew her, but you did, and that’s enough to make it hurt. They say love means that you share everything – joy and pain - with other people. I can’t think of a stronger love than that shared between close friends.

It’s not even that you’re upset, either. It’s more than that. If this could happen so suddenly to someone I don’t know, couldn’t it happen to someone I do? Couldn’t it happen to…you? I sat there thinking about everything; life, death, after death… That song is right – I can only imagine. I just never thought I’d be imagining it today. It’s hard for my brain to even form the words. “Yesterday, Tammy died.”