Who would believe my younger sister? No one in the world would believe her, not even me. The adults took it that it was just pure luck. Could that be just luck? Escaping from death while the other children had a terrible death?
Dark clouds had gathered in the sky. From the distance came the low rumbling of thunder. Soon, a sudden shower was released. I was on my school bus, on the way home from school and staring out of the window. Rain pelted against the windows where I was enjoying the beauty of the nature when it rained. It reminded me of a beautiful story my grandmother had once told me. She said that when it rained, it meant that our love ones in Heaven missed us.. At the thought of that, it broke my heart. My grandmother passed away three weeks later after telling me the story. She was in the pink of health when she told me the story. However, she suddenly ran a high fever the next day. The doctor could not explain what had caused the fever but we all knew why. It was because of my sister. She had the ability to know who would be the next one in our family to die and our aunts and uncle blamed her and believed she was a jinx. My sister had dreamed of my grandmother every night since she told me the story. I knew that everyone would have to leave this world one day but I knew that no one would like to be that one who knows when that would happen. Tears filled up my eyes uncontrollably; there was a kind of pain that was beyond description – a pain that you could feel only if you had lost your loved ones before.
At that moment, the bus suddenly came to an abrupt stop I was almost thrown out of my seat. Burning with curiosity, I looked out of the window and to my horror , I saw a gigantic tree collapsed about a hundred metres away ahead of my school bus, so that was the reason why the bus driver had stopped the bus suddenly! I strained my eyes to see through the rain. The downpour reduced the visibility to zero. The fallen tree had crashed onto a mini school bus. The school bus looked very familiar – that was the school bus transporting my younger sister home! What should I do? I began to gnaw my fingernails in nervous dread. I knew the kind of pain you would feel when you lost your loved ones and I did not want to feel that kind of pain again anymore. I rushed down the school bus and ran towards the mini school bus that was transporting my sister home. Even though the distance was just a hundred metres away, I felt as if running a few hundred kilometers- it was like I would not reached that mini school bus forever. As I ran towards that school bus I thought of my sister. She was not a normal nine year old child. She was haunted by the ability to foresee the future since she was born, and she had never smiled before. She always sat in a corner and was in a world of her own. There seemed to be an invisible wall separating her from the rest of the world. As I thought of that, I wished I could share her pain.
When I reached the bus, I could feel an atmosphere of death. The gigantic tree had collapsed onto the bus and it was terribly destroyed. I knew that it was too late and I could not go in too. I knew I could do nothing but I could not give up. I used all my strength and used a metal rod I found lying by the road to hit the front door of that bus. To my surprise, the door gave way and I rushed in the bus. For a moment, I thought that I would not see my sister alive again and the next moment I was filled with hope again. When I was searching for my sister, I felt so disgusted – the bus was full of blood and corpses! I even accidentally stepped onto the corpses of the bus driver. If it was any other moment, I would have run out of the bus immediately, but not now. I had got to save my sister!
At that moment, I heard a weak voice, “Sis, is that you?”
I turned towards that voice and saw my sister hiding and crouching under a seat. I flew towards her and tried to pull her out as the fallen tree had just missed her by a few centimeters. We hugged each other close to our chests and wetting each other cheeks with our pouring tears.
“It is alright now,” I consoled her.
“Sis, did you see Grandma?”
I stared at her in total amazement, mouth wide agape.
“H…huh? What did you say?”
“I say ‘did you see Grandma?’ Look, she’s smiling at me.”
“B…but Grandma had already passed away. You must be imagining things again.”
“N…o, sister, you have to believe me. She’s here. How could you have not seen her?” my sister said as she pointed to the left.
I cocked my head to the left but saw no one but she acted as if there was. While I was still in a state of stupor, my sister spoke again.
“It was Granny who had stopped the tree from falling down at me. She said that she was here as I am not fated to die yet. She smiled at me, a smile so gentle and compassionate. She told me that she was an angel sent by God to protect me as I still have a mission yet to accomplished, but she didn’t tell me what it was. Do you know what it is , sis? ”
“W…what?” I could hardly accept every word she had said. All I could do was to frown hard and starred daggers into her pair of sparkling black eyes.
Somehow, deep down in my heart, I knew that my sister was no lying to me from the look she gave me when she spoke but that was simply unbelievable. I did not believe her till this day, even though I knew perhaps I should but anyway, who would? Will you believe there is an angel of death?