Post by jemima on Jul 8, 2006 22:04:25 GMT -5
The Death of Charlotte
“Don’t die,” choked Roy, trying to hold back his tears.
“She’s gone, Roy. It’s not your fault. It was destiny,” comforted Helena.
“Maybe it was, but still, why’d she have to go? Why Charlotte?”
“The world… she…”Thinking of nothing else to say, Helena only said, “God wants her now.”
Roy’s tears and emotions fell onto the roses and tulips in Charlotte’s hands, which were folded over her chest. She lay silently in the silver coffin, located in a deserted church; the only ones there were teenagers Roy Jucker and Helena Williams. They mourned alone, though together, in the almost-midnight night.
“So much she went through, all for me. I’m the one who made this happen. I’m such a jerk! Why did I have to go there?!” Roy exclaimed, his voice echoing off the banisters and the high ceiling in the church.
“Don’t yell! Someone will hear!”
“I don’t care! Let them hear! Let them all know that she’s dead, let them all know that I killed her! I hate myself! I hate the bastards that did it; I did it, I’m the cause!” He wept even more. “Please come back, Char! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get you killed!”
Helena ran to hold Roy down. She covered his mouth, and blandly, but sympathetically, told him, “Shut up! You can yell all you want, but it won’t bring Char back. If you had some real respect for her, you wouldn’t swear and you wouldn’t go berserk in a church. You know she always wanted things to be calm and clean. Don’t ruin it now. Her spirit’s still with us.”
Roy gasped and said, “You’re totally right. I shouldn’t… I shouldn’t be crying right now. That’s what funerals are for, right?” He turned around and took a long look at Charlotte. “We should probably go now. It’s pretty late.”
“Yes, it is,” Helena said. She sighed. “Do you want a few more minutes? I can go get the car and pull up front.”
“Well… I… no. We’re seeing her tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
Roy petted Charlotte’s soft, raven black hair, wiped the tears off of the flowers, and closed the casket door. It was time go; it was time for the two to leave Charlotte in peace.
Helena and Roy walked down the isle without talking. And to the car without talking. And to Roy’s apartment without talking. They went the whole way in silence, besides Helena’s, “Goodnight. Call me if you need to talk about anything.”
Roy nodded as a sign of his okay, and walked up to his room alone. He entered his room, with the ‘click’ of the lock, and stepped into his pigsty room. ‘Charlotty always hated my messiness,’ Roy thought. A little smirk appeared on his face for a second. Why should I always think about the bad stuff that happened? She was always in a good mood. I should be like her for once.
Roy suddenly remembered that he had to write a speech for the funeral the next morning. So he got out a piece of paper and a pen, and sat down at his desk to begin.
“Charlotte Jucker,” he started to write. “A loyal friend. A wonderful big sister. A beautiful woman. A girl who always played with those kids in the neighborhood we always thought were annoying when we were little.”
Roy decided to scratch that part out.
“She was amazingly pretty,” he continued to write. “Everyone liked her in school, even the teachers. Of course, who wouldn’t like her? Charlotte was a perfect girl. She always looked out for me, when Mom wasn’t around. And sometimes she was just a friend to me, not some sister that got paid to baby-sit and do other boring stuff. And she was a safety-geek. She never went anywhere unsafe, so no one would think that she’d end up with me there that one day….”
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“I’m going out for a while, Charlotte. Can I borrow your car?” Roy asked Char.
“Heck no, you always wreck my stuff!” Charlotte answered from the living room.
“I do not!
“Wanna bet?”
“Oh yeah?” Roy argued.
“Sure! See my books over there? I bet you couldn’t carry them the whole day without dropping them in the toilet, or totally ripping a cover off of one. Remember your freshman year?”
“Grah, don’t remind me.”
“Pfft. Anyways, if you really want my car, I can drive you somewhere. What were you going out to do, anyway?”
Roy groaned and heaved a sigh. “I, er, had a date with Helena tonight. My girlfriend, you know?”
“Ah, so you want a hot ride for her, hm?”
“Exactly.”
Charlotte thought for minute and then said, “I’m still going with you. You can drive, though.”
“Char,” Roy argued, “that’s not fair! I never have to go with you anywhere when you drive! Except to the store when Mom makes us do chores. But that’s totally different.”
“Hey, do you want the car, or not?”
“Grr. Fine. Let’s go, I’m gonna be late picking her up.”
So Charlotte got ready and they left the apartment. Roy finally had a chance to show off her car to Helena, which was a nice crimson convertible. They pulled out of the parking lot, and into the evening traffic. It was pretty busy, and Roy wanted to race in it, but Char kept giving him stern looks whenever he had the chance to rush. Roy didn’t have too many chances anyway, because the traffic soon got super-slow, and with the time the evening turned to night.
“Urgh!” Roy moaned. “This is slower than a snail in caramel! I need to find something faster!”
“I know it’s really annoying, but you-”
She was broken off by the sudden movement of the car going into a dark street. The wind practically knocked her out of the car. She was so upset at Roy she yelled, “What the heck do you think you’re doing?! You could’ve gotten us killed! You can be so irksome sometimes, Roy! Will you ever-”
She was broken off again from Roy, who was looking at a man, who was staring at them, on the poorly lit sidewalk. The man looked very suspicious, and not friendly at all. He was a grunge-type. The man was bald, and on his head they could clearly see a tattoo on his head- a knife and a gun crossing each other to form an “X.”
“Char, I think we’re in gang territory,” Roy slowly said.
“What gang?” Charlotte gulped.
“The worst around this city. X.”
“What can they do? What do they do?”
“What every gang does, they kill whoever gets in their ghetto if you annoy them.”
“Roy Philip Jucker, you better turn this car around right now!” she loudly whispered.
Just then a few more members of "X" emerged from the door the man was standing by. They talked with each other for a minute. The first man was talking, and pointed to Charlotte and Roy a few times. The other members looked at them while he told them something. Roy was rushing to get out of their territory, but there wasn’t enough space to back up. The gang started to walk towards them. One pulled out a handgun as they walked.
“Hurry! What’s wrong with the car, is it out of gas?”
“No, I can’t just back up on them and drive away! That’s like a hit-and-run!”
“They’re going to do a lot worse if you don’t get out of here now!”
“Hey, whatta you doin’ here? You in our territory!” the tattooed man yelled.
“Ignore them, go!” Charlotte pushed.
Ignoring Charlotte, Roy shouted, “Why don’t you shut up? We’re not doing anything anyways!”
“Why don’t you shut up, you mindless--”
Just then the sound of a gunshot filled the air. Roy finally got the car going, but the group ran after them and shot at them more.
“Duck!” Roy told Char.
“What else do you think someone would do right now?!”
The next shot whizzed right past the two. The one after that was deafly close to Charlotte, and when it ended it sounded very muted. Roy concentrated on the on road, and finally he got out and turned the corner into what seemed like heaven. Roy took a look back behind him to see if the gang was still following him. They weren’t.
“Phew! That was really close, Char. Too close. I’m never driving in this city again.”
Roy waited for a cynical reply from Charlotte, but there was no answer.
“Char?”
He took a look over to his right side and saw that Charlotte was sleeping. Roy pulled to the side of the street and hit the hazard button. He leaned over and tried to awaken her, but it was no use. Roy was in complete bewilderment and had no idea what was happening, until he felt the back of her head. It was wet, and a little sticky.
Dreading what he expected, Roy whispered to her, “Charlotte? Are you okay?” He pushed on her a little, but she didn’t wake up. “Charlotty? Wake up! It’s me, Roy! Can’t you hear me?”
“No, no, this hasn’t happened. She’s… NO!”
Roy cried in agony for a few minutes. Realizing that he was in traffic, he drove to Helena’s. Helena was going to be mad at Roy for being so late, but then again, she would cry, too. Everyone would grieve, because everyone liked Charlotte.
Roy called the police, and an ambulance as soon as he arrived at Helena’s house. Helena did cry, and Roy and Helena mourned together. The hospital immediately knew that Charlotte could not be saved. It was too late. Charlotte was gone.
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The ink stains from the tears on Roy’s paper pulled him away from a terrible memory. But the memory would never fade. It would stain Roy for his life. It would stain everyone’s. For who could not cry, when they heard about the death of Charlotte Jucker?
I had to write this for school and half of it was written in the morning at 5:30. Old and cheexy for me, I don't appreciate it that much. Feedback appreciated, though.