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So here is one of my attempts at a short story....

Autumn Leaves

The leaves begin to turn from green to brown, as autumn makes its presence known throughout the small town of Brighton, Colorado. Leaves scatter on the sidewalk, children wrap up tightly in wool sweaters while couples enjoy each other's warmth. A small girl around the age of five walks with her mother down to the park. She drops her hold of her mother's hand and runs up ahead. She sets her sights on an overgrown sycamore on the other side of the park. A worn down tire swing is extended from the exhausted branch, beckoning the child's curiosity. She climbs up onto the monster swing and grips the back trying to keep control. Her mother follows shortly behind her, and looks up into her daughter's eyes.

"Will you push me?"

"Sure sweetie," her mother replies.

An innocent, playful smile is left on the young girl's face, while the wind flows through her hair and moves throughout the rest of the park. A slight breeze grabs hold of an unsuspecting leaf, carrying it along for a quiet journey through town. Breaking hold of the wind's grasp, the leaf drifts down beside the window of a third story apartment. Inside the window's reflection a clock flashes 10 A.M., as a slight buzz pours through the glass.

"Time to get upand start my day," Patricia thinks to herself.

She reaches over to the nightstand beside her bed, switching the annoying buzzing noise to the sounds of the radio. She moves her hand around trying to find where she set her glasses during the night, blindly sliding her hand along the nightstand. She places them comfortably on her nose as she pulls herself up from the bed and onto the cold tile floor. She slowly makes her way to the kitchen and begins a pot of vanilla roast.

"GodI need coffee," she thinks while pulling a strand of hair from in front of her face.

A queen-size bed takes up a large portion of her small room. In the corner is a desk where she spends most of her time working on projects, papers lay scattered in disarray on its smooth surface. A small, leather bound, diary lays open to the newest entry:

Dear Diary,

Wow, a lot has been happening over the last couple days. I have been getting to know Lyndsay a lot lately; we have been hanging out a lot. I met her through a friend of mine about a week ago and ever since then we have been spending almost every Saturday together going to new and interesting places.

Friday night I got a call from her and she wanted to know what I was doing. I told her that I did not have any plans and if she wanted I could come pick her up and we could go out and do something. So I got ready and picked her up. We went out to eat at this really nice Mongolian Barbecue, I think she really enjoyed it, she seemed like she was having a good time. We decided that we would go to a show, my friends band, "Public Display," was playing, so we went and checked it out. Lyndsay stayed pretty close to me the whole night. She is really shy and quiet when it comes to being around new people.

Saturday I had to work most the day on site layouts and flyer designs. I went out and tried to cash my check but by the time I got there it was closed, so now I am going to have to wait till Monday to cash it. I went down and visited my friend, Emily, at work for a little bit. I stopped by "Hollywood Video" on my way home. I ended up renting "Requiem For A Dream" and "Trainspotting." I came home and pulled out a blanket and curled up on the couch to just relax and enjoy the movies. I fell asleep half way into "Trainspotting"

Sincerely,
Patricia

The sound of the shower becomes prominent in the background, blending in with the sounds of the brewing coffee and the radio. An ancient record player sits comfortably on the floor, a stack of vinyl records propped against the wall. Leading the collection on the front line is The Clash "London Calling" followed closely by an "Overcome" seven inch that she had bought before the band broke up. The shower stops, leaving only the sound of the radio in the distance. She comes out of the bathroom, and into the living room.

Her hair falls down gently, resting comfortably on her shoulders as the embers of fire cascade with the warmth of fading sunflowers. She reaches up and brushes a strand of hair from her eyes, pulling it tightly behind her ear. Her small-rimmed glasses hang down on her nose. A view of her eyes lingers behind them. An innocent smile makes itself at home on her soft face, as she pulls down her shirt over her belly ring.

She makes her way to the kitchen and pours herself a cup of coffee. She reaches up into the cupboard, pulls down some sugar and stirs it into her drink. She makes her way back into her bedroom, sits down in front of her desk and begins sorting though all the work she has to do. She takes out a ruler and starts sketching out some ideas for web site design, "Cleansed By Grace" has been wondering how their new site has been coming along, but her mind isn't up and running quite yet. She turns her chair around, boots up her computer and signs online, her screen name pops up and asks her for her password. There are fifteen new messages, mostly new and up and coming bands looking for some one to build them a site or design flyers. She sits down and begins to write out an email:

Hey Cleansed By Grace,

I am sorry that I have not been able to work on your site, I have been swamped with work but I will try to get it up and running as soon as I can. I have some time next week where I can really focus all my attention on making this site the best it can be.

I have a few ideas on how to do the layout. I am thinking about having a really neat flash intro with your song "Name Among Names" being played as snap shots of you playing flash in and out. I also want to have a really nice cursive font that looks hand written for the rest of the site. I am thinking of using a really dark color scheme, probably a lot of blacks and grays.

Let me know what kind of sections you want to have on there as well, or do you just want the basic, News/Home, Bio, Discography, Media, Merchandise, Guest book, Contact, Links. Send all the photos you have of the band, I could use them to make cool wallpaper or use them to create a really neat design for the rest of the site.

Sincerely,
Trisha

She hits the send button as she takes in a deep breath. She opens her favorite menu and checks to see what bands are coming to town, no one seems to be planning any tours for June. She shuts down her computer and gets ready to go down to Rosewood Cemetery. She checks to make sure everything is off before grabbing her purse and heading out the door.

She walks out to her car, an old Camero that has seen a lot of years. She heads down to a small flower shop right around the corner. She walks right in and picks up nine red roses and does not say much other than thanks when handed back her change. She climbs back into her car and heads off towards Rosewood Cemetery where her mother is buried.

She pulls up and parks her car, and sits for a minute with the radio off. She slowly climbs out and grabs the roses from the passenger's side. She walks toward an overgrown sycamore that is shading her mother's grave. She walks out towards the tree, the roses rest by her side. She kneels down beside the grave and closes her eyes. Tears begin to form in her eyes and make their way out from underneath her glasses and lands on the grass beside her. The roses prop themselves up against an engraved monument of death. She says a prayer and then slowly stands up looking up as if to speak to her mother. Rain clouds slowly move in and she walks back to her car turning back one more time to blow her mother a kiss.

"I love you mom," she says.

She heads back to her apartment. She walks over to her kitchen to check the answering machine. She has three new messages.

"Hey it's me Chelsea from "The UnVamps", give me a call when you get in."

"Hey Patricia, it's Josh from "Showbread" I wanted to talk to you about the show coming up I am curious if you are still interested in selling merchandise? Give me a call back."

"Heyit's me Lyndsaygive me a callif you can."

Lyndsay's voice sounds desperate and full of despair so Patricia grabs hold of the phone and dials her friend's number in haste, wondering if she is all right. She can't get through.

It would not hurt to stop by and check up on her.

She locks up quickly and heads out the door and jumps into the car, starting the engine before she has a chance to finish fastening her seat belt. Her mind starts racing and coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas about what is going on, but she keeps coming back to the same one, wondering whether or not her friend might have taken her own life.

"The last few months have been really hard on her with her battles with depressionand her problems at home with her parentsI hope I am not to late."

She pulls up to the house and parks. The house looks bleak and deserted, but that's not the case because Lyndsay's car is parked outside. Patricia runs up the steps to porch and begins knocking on the door in hopes someone will come to the door and everything will be all right. She waits a few minutes before trying again this time she pounds harder. She finally tries the door and it opens. She walks through the house calling out to Lyndsay and she reaches the young teen's room. Lyndsay is lying down on the floor with her hands grasping hold of her wrists, trying to stop the bleeding .

"Make it stop," Lyndsay says through tears, all of her strength being drained with each wave of new blood.

Patricia pulls out her phone and dials 911, she waits for an answer from some one on the other end. She reaches down and rips off a piece of her shirt and wraps it tightly on the girl's wrists using it to try to stop the bleeding by applying pressure.

"911, what's your emergency."

"I am here with a young girl who had just tried to commit suicideshe has cut both of her wrists pretty deep and seems to be going in and out of conciousnesswe need an ambulance."

"One is on its wayjust keep putting pressure on her arms and keep her awake."

"Please sweetie, stay with meI don't want to lose you!"

Sounds of the ambulance become noticeable outside the small house. Tears mix with blood as Patricia continues to apply pressure to Lyndsay's wrists. In a blur, a stretcher comes in through the doorway and two tall men pick her up and put her on the stretcher rushing her out of the house and into the ambulance Patricia follows closely behind. It has only been a few weeks since they formed their friendship with one another and now everything could fall apart in a matter of minutes. The ambulance pulls into the urgent care, and rushes her inside. Patricia parks her car and rushes inside after them.

The women at the counter shouts, "Only family beyond this point."

Patricia falls back with defeat, and walks out into the lobby. Pacing back and forth, her hands still covered in blood, she waits to hear the news. A doctor comes up to the front desks and begins chatting with the secretary and walks away. The secretary waves Patricia over and lets her know that Lyndsay is in stable condition and that she can have visitors. Without hesitating Patricia heads back into the long corridor and walks up to the bed where Lyndsay is laying and grabs hold of her hand. The glossy look in the young girl's eye sends a chill up Patricia's spine. She kneels down beside the bed and just holds her hand until Lyndsay falls asleep from exhaustion.

Sunlight pours in through the blinds of the hospital room. The light comes across Patricia's face causing her to squint her eyes, as she slowly wakes from her name. She has been there all night making sure Lyndsay made it through. She removes her glasses and rubs her eyes. Out of the corner of her eye she sees a sign of life coming from the hospital bed. Rushing over to the bed, Patricia leans down and gives Lyndsay the biggest hug of her life