Just a bit of some thing I wrote.. with effort, and with heart :] P.S. don't run away by looking at the length lol, I assure you it's worth the read xD This is my best work so far. Title: "And Now I Know This is Not the End" This is what we were given: "When we are unhappy with a situation, we can either accept it or do some thing to change it. Write about a time when you initiated change."

1. “And Now I Know This Is Not The
End”
Fiction
Theme: Siblings
(This story is situated in Hyderabad in the
era when there were cars but not mobile
phones)
“When we are unhappy with a situation, we
can either accept it or do some thing to
change it. Write about a time when you
initiated change”.

2. Ammar was my brother, six years older than me. We were
attatched to each other, even more than we were, to mom and
dad.
“Why does the rain fall?”, I had once asked him, when I was
seven.
“It’s because the clouds overflow”, he replied.
“Why don’t the angels remember to close the taps then? They’re
wasting water, you know,” I said, with a decided grudge against
the angels.
“Maybe they forget and leave the taps open”, he said, with a
hearty little laugh, then added, “or maybe, they want to share
some water with us so that we can also enjoy the rain.”
I thought for a while, then remarked, “You’re right. Angels are not
so bad after all, then,” and that dissolved my hatred for the angels.

3. Ammar had always been mature and sensible, even as a child. He
was sharp, and always had the right answers to tackle my
questions.
Going back even earlier in time, I remember, how just like every
other child, I resented the idea of going to school too.
“I will NOT go to school!”, I said, on my first day, with my feet
jammed to the ground and nose lifted up, with the air of a typical
stubborn child. Mom had tried every way to convince me, from
telling me I’ll be home early, to saying that I would be
accompanied by the best kinds of friends, but nothing had worked.
Ammar was now ready for school and dad had decided to simply
use force, and leave me in the school, crying.
That’s when Ammar came close, sat down on his knees, and
kept staring at me, expressionless.

4. I kept yelling, crying and begging, but when he still sat there
expressionless, I got calm and quiet.
“Are you done?”, he asked. This time, I was the speechless one.
“Now listen, I have a special treasure hidden in your school.”
“Where is it?”, was my immediate excited question, totally
forgetting what I had been fighting for.
“I don’t remember”, he said, which disappointed me, and I was on
the edge of crying again.
“But,” he carried on, “I remember that it was something special,
something that you would like”.
My face brightened again and I demanded the treasure.
“I have to go to my own school so I can’t come find it, but you can
go, search for it, and once you find it, you need never go back
there.”

5. After that, I would go to school everyday in search of the treasure.
I searched every corner of the kindergarten during the time the
other kids slept or wept. After a search of over a month, I found a
charmingly attractive purple-colored kids book, which I decided
was my treasure. I claimed the book, to which, ofcourse, my
teacher objected. She was then informed of my brother’s agenda,
and the book paid for. But by that time, I had already started liking
school and then I went there everyday, happily, with my treasure
book.
Ammar had now turned 18, gotten himself a car, and was
leaving for his hostel in Karachi.
“Bye Boo,” he said, and stooped down to kiss me on the cheek.
“Make sure you write to me everyday”. He then waved us
goodbye, and left Hyderabad by road.

6. Light raindrops were pouring in Karachi, making his journey
pleasant. He was on his way to the hostel, when suddenly, the
car stopped. He looked for a mechanic but there was none
nearby. So he set out to fix the matter himself. After spending
more than an hour on it, the car was finally fixed. By this time,
the rain had gotten heavier. He quickly started moving to his
destination, but in the way, was stuck in a bad traffic jam that
took 3 more hours of his time. The rain was very heavy now
and lightning struck too. Close to his hostel, the rain was even
heavier, big showers of rain water striking the ground with
increased lightning. It was a big thunderstorm. The sky turned
pitch black and the street lights were out. All the people were
heading back to their homes. With only his car headlights and
screen wipers to help him see where he was going, Ammar lost
control of the car.

7. The brake failed and the steering wheel refused to unite with
Ammar. The car went haphazardly swirling in the rain water like
a small piece of stone in a hazardous whirlpool. He pushed
here, and pulled there, tried every way he could, to stop the car,
to get out of it, to protect himself. But the car stopped only when
it hit a tree so bad that the engine was blown up and the tree
fell on the car, crushing it along with my brother. He was
carefully taken out of the car, alive.
He was taken to a free welfare hospital where operations after
operations were conducted to save his life. There was not a
single part of his body that was not injured. But my brother was
a fighter. He always fought for what was right, for what he must
do, for what would benefit some one. And this time, he fought
with death. Fought, till he could fight no more.

8. We, at home, were unaware of everything that had happened, till
a knock was heard on the door, the knock after which nothing
remained the same, because it was from a representative of the
hospital, who had come to deliver the dead body of my brother.
Ammar’s close friend had been one of the witnesses of this
accident, and it was him who had sent the representative to us,
along with other things of Ammar, with the message that he did
not have the courage to face us in this situation of agony.
My brother had become ‘a victim’ of this deadly storm and that
was when I realized what the after-effects of “3 people dead in
an accident” were, how one death ruins a whole family.
Ammar’s death was such a sudden shock that I refused to
believe it at first. “I know that Ammar is in the hostel. These are
all lies. He has to live long, and be with us, he has to mom, he
must!”, after which, my tears were unstoppable.

9. Everything in the house, everything in my life, reminded me of
him. I felt that I had been left alone in a gloomy world where
tears and shadows were my only companions. The pages of my
life stopped turning; it’s colours and voices taken away and
replaced with colourless, haunted silence.
Severe depression prevailed the house. We tried consoling each
other, but would end up crying bitterly ourself.
Gradually, however, with time, mom and dad got better and
started accepting this new way of life. Months passed, but I
could just not accept Ammar’s absence, or maybe, it was
because I did not want to. I did not want to erase the wonderful
memories I had with him, for every good memory that I did
have, was with him by my side. I could not accept the idea of
tearing apart and throwing away, the best, the most important
part of my life.

10. Just at the time when I thought I could not take this
anymore, I discovered a letter. This had been
dictated by Ammar himself, during his time in the
hospital. The precious letter had probably slipped
from other things and had been placed with other
papers by the maid. I softly opened it, and started
reading,

11. “My dearest sister,
You have no idea how much I love you. I
had wished for us to always be together, to see you grow
into a beautiful, wise woman, but destiny says, our ways
must part. But Promise me, you will console mom and dad
and help them in this difficult time.
Promise me, you will not let this tragedy take over you. You
will not accept that you must be lonely and sad. You should
know that, I will always be by your side, Maya, appreciating
you in your successes, celebrating your victories, consoling
you in your bad times, sharing your losses, and your pain. It
does not matter if you can see me there or not, you should
always know that, I will be watching you over from the sky,
always smiling at my brave, my beautiful little sister.
Ever your loving,
Ammar.”

12. With a last sob, I carefully folded the letter, and placed it in my
special treasure box, with that childhood treasure book.
Now I knew that sadness would not be my destiny if I did not
choose to make it so. That I did not have to hug loneliness
every night I sleep. That I did not have to wake up with it
everyday. That I did not have to be so hopeless from life. That
Ammar was still with me. That I did not have to discard his
memories to feel better. I decided that I would change my
attitude towards life, and that I would learn to be happy, that I
would not let my brother down, and I knew just where to take
the start from.
Ammar and I used to go watch the sunrise together
sometimes, in a nearby park. So, next morning, I wore my
jacket and left before the sunrise.

13. It was the beginning of spring. The day was starting and the
cold, dark night was coming to an end. I sat on the grass to
adore the enchanting sunrise. Yellow and orange colours
slowly emerged from the sky. Purple, orange, yellow, blue.. I
could see them all one by one. As the sky started glowing and
brightening, I could feel the warmth on my face. Light breezes
of wind were blowing, making my cheeks red and rosy, and
my body, pleasant and comfortable. Some flowers had
stopped hiding their faces in their buds and were happily
singing of the joy of spring. Chunks of crowds started
gathering, some exercising, some meditating and some just
beholding the beauty of the initial mornings of spring.
With a cheerful glow on my face, I proceeded with the
difficulties of my life, but this time, with a smile on my face.
Because I knew that I was not alone.

14. Thank you 