Why Did She Have to Die? Read Online Free PDF

begin to thud. “Mom. Dad. How’s Kathy?” Thoughts of her sister in a wheelchair sprang up in her mind.
    The Rowans exchanged nervous glances. Mrs. Rowan leaned closer. Mr. Rowan kept his gaze focused on a spot on Elly’s pillow.
    “How’s Kathy?” Elly asked again.
    “Honey. . .” Her mother’s voice sounded raspy. “We wanted to tell you together.”
    “She’s hurt really bad, isn’t she?” Elly blurted, fighting panic.
    “Elly, Kathy didn’t make it.”
    “Make it? Make what, Mom?”
    “Kathy died in the accident, honey. Kathy died.”

SIX
    T ime froze. Elly felt air come into her lungs. She saw sunlight slant through the blinds. It cast narrow shadows across the pots of pretty flowers. She stared at a crack in the corner of the wall. At last, she turned her attention back to her parents’ faces. Tears had pooled in her mother’s blue eyes. Her dad looked frightened and hurt.
    Elly said, “I don’t believe you.”
    “It’s true, Elly. I wish it weren’t, but it’s true.”
    “You’re lying!” Elly cried. “I saw her! I saw Kathy dancing.”
    “You were dreaming.”
    “No. I saw her.” Elly twisted her head on her pillow, trying to block out the horrible words her mother had spoken. She remembered Kathy’s strange and graceful dancing. “I tried to follow her—” A sob choked Elly’s trembling voice.
    “Take it easy, Elly. Your leg—” Mr. Rowan reached to stop the bobbing of the pulleys.
    “I don’t care about my leg!” A low cry ripped from Elly’s insides. Mrs. Rowan held Elly’s arms, making soothing sounds, patting her, and holding her. “It isn’t true. She’s my sister. The pretty one. The smart one.”
    “She was killed on impact,” her mother said. The words felt like hammer blows to Elly’s doubts, driving them out one by one. “We—we buried her four days ago.”
    “You put Kathy in a hole in the ground? You had her funeral without me?” Elly gasped. Her eyes widened. “How could you?!”
    Mr. Rowan grabbed Elly’s shoulders and shook her gently. “You were in a coma. They thought you might die, too. How could we lose both of you?”
    Tears streamed down Elly’s face. “I’m sorry, Daddy. Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry.”
    He held Elly while she cried. Her tears soaked the front of his shirt. When her crying quieted, she smelled the clean fragrance of his clothing and felt his muscled arms around her. She remembered the photograph of her and Kathy swinging on his biceps. In her mind, she ripped the photo in half. All that remained was Elly. Silly, goofy Elly. Ordinary, slightly kooky, a-little-bit-sloppy Elly. Kathy’s kid sister. The only child of Mike and Helen Rowan.

    * * * *

    Elly went through the motions of the hospital routine. She met her doctor and listened while he explained about the pins in her leg and about the therapy that would help her walk “just fine” again. She ate the food the nurses brought and she met the therapist. She read her cards and get-well messages. Elly did all the things she was told to do. But from one small corner of her mind, she kept hearing: “Kathy’s dead. Your sister’s gone forever.”
    When her parents came that evening, they looked tired and strained. “We can take you home next week,” Mrs. Rowan told Elly.
    “I want to go home.”
    “You’ve got schoolwork waiting for you there. But in a few weeks, you can go back to classes. There aren’t too many weeks left in the year, but your teachers didn’t think this would set you back too far. You’re a good student.”
    “Yes. At school everybody can sign my cast.” Elly made small talk because she didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t care if she ever went to school again.
    “Would you like a visit from Joy?”
    Elly picked at her blanket. “Yes. I think I would.”
    “She’s dying to see you.”
    Dying
, Elly thought bitterly.
What a funny choice of words.
    “I’ll tell her to come tomorrow evening,” her mother finished.
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