Eighth: A moment

Or two. I'm going to share one hard moment in my life and one awesome moment in my life.

First, the hard one. The moment my childhood, as I knew it, vanished. I wrote the following piece as a school assignment in my advanced media writing class a year ago. It's called "Awakening."

***We all can remember an incident or two where we experienced an awakening, a crossing over from childhood to adulthood. I startled awake so quickly I forgot I had been asleep.
'Why is the hall light on?' I thought.
My sister and I liked to sleep with the door open just a crack, to let the light from the bathroom softly peel in to scare away the boogie monsters. But tonight the hall light was on. It was brighter than the bathroom light.
I sat up, trying to figure out why I was awake when it was still dark outside. I was excited for the next day of first grade. It was my first week of school and I already loved my teacher, Mrs. Perry. She had the same last name as I did.
It didn't take a second of sitting until I heard the shrieking coming from my parent's room.
"Brian! Brian! Brian, what is it!?" The screams ripped from my mother's lips; she was panicked.
I glanced over at my little sister's bed. She was still sleeping. I pushed the covers away from me and slowly tiptoed to the hall to investigate.
'There must be a really big spider in their room. Mommy wants Daddy to kill it.' I imagined a spider the size of my dad's fist clinging to the ceiling above their bed.
I slowly peered around the corner of my parent's open door. But it wasn't a spider. My mom stood at the side of the king-sized water bed where my dad lay shaking, convulsing. I took a few more steps inside the room and stared at my dad from the foot of the bed.
"Brian! Talk to me! What's happening to you?!" Can you talk to me!?" More shrieking from my mother. Terrified, uncertain sobs escaped from the woman who knew everything.
Something had taken over my daddy. H was not in control of his body. I watched him as his entire body made violent movements. His face was purple. He was biting his tongue. Why was Daddy biting his tongue?
My mother rushed around the bed, lunging at the telephone. We lived in Germany, and in our German home only one phone could be plugged in at once. Mom had forgotten to unplug the phone downstairs.
As she turned to run downstairs she spotted me.
"Pray girls, pray!" she yelled as she disappeared into the hallway.
'Girls?' I thought. I looked behind me and saw my little sister.
Side by side we dropped to our knees at the foot of the bed, drowning in our over sized t-shirts, the shirts Daddy brought home from work sometimes. We loved wearing our daddy's shirts to bed.
"Heavenly Father, please don't let our daddy die. Please don't let our daddy die. Pleeeeeease. Don't let him die," we begged over and over again.
"They won't come! The ambulance won't come! We're too far out in the German territory for them to send an ambulance!" My mom was running back up the stairs. We were helpless. My dad was shaking. We couldn't do anything.
Finally, the Andersons showed up. Sister Anderson was my mom's best friend and a nurse at the military hospital. My dad was awake. He wasn't shaking anymore.
"What the hell are you guys doing here at 2:00 in the morning!?" my dad yelled.
"Brian, do you remember anything? We think you've had a grand mal seizure," Sister Anderson informed my dad.
I stood in the corner, watching my daddy. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, stood up, grabbed his pants with both arms, put them on one leg at a time, zipped them up and then buttoned them. All by himself. He was fine. He was my daddy--at least for one last night. That was the last time I'd ever see my daddy stand, walk or put his pants on by himself again.
They left us with Sarah, Sister Anderson's daughter, and drove Daddy to the hospital. It was time to go back to sleep.
"Leave the door open," I told Sarah. The reality was, the light couldn't scare away the boogie monsters anymore, but I still wanted to pretend it could.***


Ready for one of the amazingly awesome moments in my life??? This happened exactly one year ago. Performing at the Best Of Guitars Unplugged in front of close to 5,000 people.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One of the most exhilarating moments of my life! :)