An Unforgettable Experience by Michelle Cham

Read this in Daily Express (May 4, 2009), Express Child section (page 15). Written by a brilliant secondary 2 Michelle Cham. She won the first price of, er, perhaps story writing contest, for the entry with this essay. :D So I put it here (obviously without permission) for you to share. ;)

An Unforgettable Experience by Michelle Cham

Experience is a hard teacher as she gives the test first, the lesson afterward. And I surely had an experience – an unforgettable experience.

It was the end of May coming to June when we were having our school holidays. My friend came to sleepover with me one night. Before we got onto bed, I climbed up onto the table trying to grab two blankets from the top of huge, tall wardrobe.

As I was grabbing the blankets, my friend sat on my bed when she suddenly saw a cockcroach on the floor. She screamed out loud and held on my legs tightly. She was trembling in fear. She then knocked on the edge of the table when the cockcroach went near her. That was then I fell onto the floor. Ouch! What a terrible pain! I was sent to the hospital soon after that.

I was in the hospital for about two days as I had strained my back and broken my left knee. One morning, a little girl came into my room. She sat on my bed, introducing herself, “Hello I’m Lily from room 205 just next to yours. May I know your name, please?”

I looked at her frowning and rolling my eyes. She then looked around and spotted my my patient card on the table. “So, hello, Annie. Nice meeting you and what a nice name you have,” she said.

She asked me to wait for her before rushing out of the room and at that time, my mother had just arrived to visit me. Not long after, the little girl stood by the door, knocking on it. “Can I come in?” she asked while peeping her head into my room. My mother was about to allowed her when I replied rudely. “Can’t you see that I’m busy talking to my mother?”

She then spoke in low voice, “I love drawing but nobody has ever drawn with me. Can you draw with me later?”

I was annoyed and replied, “Better not as I’m going to be busy for the whole day. Furthermore, I hate drawing.” “Oh, sorry for the disturbance then.” She then left my room sadly with her head down looking at her box of crayons.

My mother was giving me a certain look which she always did whenever I had made a mistake. She was about to say something when I interrupted, “I’ll apologize to her tomorrow. I’ll draw her a card of apology. But I’m tired now. I’ll do it tomorrow.” And a smile wiped across my mothers face.

The next day, I woke up early to get my drawing done. I took the card and went to Lily’s room next door. I opened the door silently and was surprised to see people packing up the bags. I asked surprisingly, “Is Lily here?” One of the people shook his head sadly and answered, “I’m her father. She passed away last night due to cancer.”

My jaw dropped. And I immediately asked, “Cancer? Since when?” “Lily has had cancer for three months already. Uh, are you Annie?” I nodded. “She left this for you,” he said and handed to me a piece of paper with a drawing attached. I read the words on the paper:

Give me the eyes of an owl,
To look at you everyday, every night.
Give me the ears of a giant,
To listen carefully to everything you talk about.
Give me the heart of a friend,
For me to touch, for me to understand,
The true meaning of friendship.

From dearest Lily

Tears were rolling down my cheeks as I went out of the room and hid at a corner. I cried loudly as the pain in my hear deepens. Every friend is a chance to open your heart, but whether you take it or not is your own decision. Therefore friendship is a test. I learnt that friendship is what people always talk about but friends give it the meaning, the definition.