Jim and I were two kids growing up in the foothills of North Carolina. We were the best of friends. We did everything together. We even had numerous inside jokes. We very seldom disagreed. When we did, it was always over something stupid. In the end, we would always make up and laugh about how ridiculous we were. Jim and I loved each other in a way that only best বন্ধু could. We even had the same birthday. We never thought that we would ever separate, but one day, we did. One day, when we were only twelve, we were riding the bus to go home. Suddenly, the bus slipped on a patch of ice. The পরবর্তি thing I knew, I received a hit to the head, and everything went dark. When I woke up, I looked over at Jim. "Aubrey," he murmured faintly, "are আপনি okay?" I said, "I'm fine. Are আপনি okay?" He said, "I don't think so. I'm in pain here." After a pause he said, "I want to tell আপনি one last thing." I said, "Jim, please don't talk like that. You're going to be okay." He said, "Aubrey, you're the best friend I ever had." All I could do was watch as his life ebbed away. I held my lifeless friend in my arms. I wept like I never wept before. As for me, I had a mild concussion, but it was nothing compared to the pain of losing my best friend. It felt as if a part of me had died. I told my mother, "It's not fair. You're not supposed to lose your best friend at my age." She hugged me and said, "I know, dear. Life isn't fair." I said, "I miss him." She said, "I know আপনি do. I think that Jim would want আপনি to be happy. I'm not saying আপনি can't miss him. I'm not saying don't cry over him. I'm saying that Jim wouldn't want আপনি to be so depressed আপনি can't enjoy life." I found those words comforting, but there were so many things I would have liked to tell Jim, but I never got to tell him. As a result, I slipped into a depression.
TO BE CONTINUED
TO BE CONTINUED
When I had entered the fifth grade, I was dreading it. I had heard rumors that the teacher was really mean. When I met her before school started, she seemed really nice. On the first দিন of school, I was wearing one of my Beatles t-shirts. She noticed it, and she said, "Darling, I প্রণয় আপনি already!" I said, "Okay, then." She would take up for me all the time. The other kids often called me glasses. She heard them and said, "She has a name, guys. Her name is not glasses. It's Winter." There was one দিন when another girl kept picking on me. I finally had enough and said, "I might look sweet and innocent, but that shit is for suckers, and I'm no lollipop." I looked at the teacher. She winked and said, "I heard nothing." I would have had her for the sixth grade, too, but unfortunately, I moved to Tennessee as soon as the school বছর was over. We both cried. We promised to keep in touch with each other, and we've kept in touch to this day.