Mortality

Mortality

 

When we have good days we must still remember that we are mortal

- Esben Vad Arentoft

 

One day five months ago I was thinking" Yes what a beautiful day" and I really had a fantastic day in school with my friends. We were all happy because of the sun shining with not a cloud in the sky. It was a Tuesday afternoon when we finally was off school. It was so beautiful, so I just wanted to go out in the lovely weather. My friends asked me to go out with them but I had always been a kind of a loner, so I just wanted to go home with my bag and then move on for a stroll. And when I said that to my friends, they was looking at me with that kind of "are you insane" look in their eyes because they were going out to get drunk and I wasn't.

 

When I got home it was three o'clock and for some reason my father was home, and I don't think I had ever seen him so happy. He was also marked by the good weather. As soon as I entered through the door, he Came rushing up from the cellar Yelling "Hi Ben guess what we are going to have for dinner! yes that is right burgers" I quietly answered "Fantastic dad" when the phone rang. When I took it, I could hear my fathers brothers voice in the other end saying with a tiny voice "Hello Ben. Can I talk to my brother please?" and right there I got a strange feeling because he'd always said " Can I talk to your dad?" he'd never said " my brother " so I gave it to my father, and I saw he's smiling face froze as he began to walk downstairs again. Whatever, I thought as I took some music in my ears and started walking.

 

I had only walked two miles, when my mother called me, and said, that the she was driving from London now and asked me to come home too. And now I was really worried because she always came home late in the weekdays. I decided to walk about one mile more and then return. Later when I got home, my mom and dad was packing the car with all kinds of stuff. First I didn't know what was wrong with my dad, but then the lightning struck me and I realised that his once so smiling face was looking sad. But why was he looking sad? I saw that my little sister already sat in the car, and when my dad saw me there was nothing left of the yelling happy man ,from when I got home. He quietly asked me to take a box of food with me out in the car and sit down. My mom and dad now also sat themselves in the car and they started driving without saying anything.         

 

Suddenly I woke up after a bit of a nap, and really didn't know where we were, because we was in the middle of a forest. But then I realized it was my grandparents forest. I was really wondering what we  was doing here. There was one good thing about being here, and that was that I could finish my walk. My little sister also looked happy about being here, and was almost already down at my grandparents which was standing ready to welcome us. But soon I saw that they also was looking a bit depressed. Luckily my sister didn't see that, or else she might have been a bit sorry. She had almost reached the forest to play, if it wasn't for a little weak voice yelling her to come back, and when she turned around to come back, I could see in her face that she now also understood that something was wrong. My dad had silently come up behind me. My grandparents walked up to help my mom pack out the car. My sister now reached us and my dad said "sit down" pointing at some chairs in the middle of the yard.

When we sat down, I now saw tears stream down his face, and then he said some completely horrible words. He said "your granddad, my Father is dead".

 

My sister immediately started crying, and I just sat there, and starred at my dad for a few seconds thinking "how is that possible?" He was one of the strongest, men that I had ever known and it was so unrealistic, that I now never could talk to him again. Nevertheless I started to think that my dad just was joking. "you...you are...you are joking right" I said. "I'm sorry Ben" He said. And soon he and my mother left to drive out to my destroyed grandma. Soon me and my sister realised, that they expected us to stay here at my other couple of grandparents, and it was not so bad if it wasn't because of the feeling, that we couldn't do anything, and that really stole our appetite and made us feel bad. As soon as my mom and dad returned, home they were put in court and the decision was if it ever happened again, we didn't want just to be put aside and then hear the news. We wished to hear it immediately

 

But that was the day I learned how cruel mortality, can be because at this good day my grandfather died of such a simple  a thing as a bee sting.

 

So that day I learned that even when we have good days we must remember that we are mortal.