STEVIE or
NO TIME TO CARE
Yea, it was a painful thing,~ too painful to forget, So I will tell you what happened
There he was, standing in front of me, his eyes full of hope, “Please Stevie, take me with you in your car.”
“Some other time,” as I always said and walked out the door.
But that was not the painful part, in fact,. I felt no pain, It was Freddie he felt all the pain. The pain of being full of love and admiration for someone and that someone leaving you in the dust.
Yes, I cared about him naturally: He was my brother. But I couldn’t let him tag along, what would the guys think of me? He said he really didn’t mind when I left him, but I know be did, anybody would I kept putting him off. But you must see my side of it. The guys would have made fun of me.
I always knew I should take him once in a while. After all, he was always doing nice things for me and helping me out and stuff like that. But be was just a kid.
He begged me to take him bowling with me one day, “I’ll be good, I promise!”
“Some other time,” I answered. I left him with a tear trickling down his cheek. He’d get over it., I’d take him when I didn’t have anything else better to do-someday,
Things went on this way for a long time, Every day I’d come home from school and little favors and things would be done for me, by Freddie of course.
I mean WOW! I knew the kid idolized me and everything, but heck! What did he want me to let him do? Be my shadow?
I tried to ignore the situation for a long time0 But his eyes were always pleading with me, I felt him behind more and more often and kept trying to avoid the situation. But someone like Freddie is not easy to forget.
Then it happened. One day as I was leaving to go to the Malt Shop, Freddie asked if he could go. But as usual, I said no. Since I felt guilty, I told him that I’d buy him a Super Dooper Chocolate malt later on. His eyes lit up, Then I shut the door and went to hop inside my car, I backed out of the driveway and started down the street. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw him running after me. He called my name just as a car backed out of a driveway and hit him. I screeched on my brakes, jumped out of the car and ran over to where Freddie was laying. I picked up his bruised and broken body from the gravel and drove him to the hospital.A
After hours of waiting, the nurse came in and asked if I was Stevie. I told her that what my little brother called me, I saw a tear glistening in her eye as she said, “He’s been asking for you.”
I walked down the hall to room 249, That was the room he was in. That terrible room that I shall never forget,. I went into the room, over to his bedside and took him in my arms. What have I done? He looked up at me and as a tear trickled down his cheek he said, “I’m okay Stevie.” Then he unclenched his fist and there in his hand were two shinny pennies and a nickel, “I wanted to give these to you to help buy my chocolate malt,” he said, I saw pain in his eyes as he said, “Please take me with you Stevie,”
Those five words that I had heard him say so many times and this I knew would be the last. “Take me with you” and there he died in my arms with that single tear still trickling down his chin and his hand on my shoulder.
Now at the beginning I said I felt no pain, but I did and I still do. The pain of being full of love and admiration for someone, and that someone leaving you in the dust, Now I couldn’t take him with me, he was only six years old. He didn’t even get his chocolate
