Chapter 1
If you like a feel good story with some suspense, drama, love, a tribute to the wonderful buddy dogs and a happy ending? To read a story of a strong girl who May-Zi is despite of or maybe because of what she’s gone through and her loving friends and family. Then stay here!
This story is written in first 〽️ and third person 〽️〽️〽️
I
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May-Zi
😄😄😄 Yep that’s my name with the dash, may see 😂May-Zí, and I was born in, you guessed it: May. I’m also called May. Only when my parents or brothers are angry they call me by my full name and then with the emphasis on zi. Easy for my parents because all our names start with an M and so they didn’t have to invent so much.
I’m accidental, leave the church before singing, doesn’t work, :) ieuw😱 My mother was very happy that I was a girl. If she had known that, she would have done that ‘leaving the church before singing’ sooner, she says. Especially if the guys are annoying. 😂 Again: ieuw.
My mother’s name is Maeve and my father’s name is Mats. I have three brothers. My youngest brother Mexz, strange name I know, that’s what my parents like. He just became fifteen for a few months now and has already been scouted for professional basketball. No matter how far he is from the net, he always scores. He also measures almost two meters and is still growing. We’re all tall, but not that tall.
Up there is Maczym, I said they like unusual names, but he’s mostly called Macz and he’s very technically inclined just like my dad who owns a garage business. After his pre-university education, he went on to study automotive at the University of Applied Sciences. My eldest brother’s name is Meaz. Pronounced plain and simple Meezzz😂. Not Mees, but Meezzz. My parents love a ‘z’ in the name, apparently.
Meaz is working on his bachelor’s degree in medicine, just like our mother. She is a pediatrician. How she does it... Sometimes she has such a hard time, but she can also be very happy when a child is born, she has to see if it is healthy or when a child can go home healthy, that’s what she does it for, she always says.
Our family is pretty smart. And me? Also, I think, I want to study to be a veterinarian, I think. I also really like to draw, but of course I can always do that as a hobby, my father says. He’s right about that. Of course. But when an animal dies, I’m upset for weeks. My dad tells me to make sure it doesn’t happen or to let him go as gently as possible. He has a point. Of course. Did I mention that in my family they are very smart😁?
We’re all in the kitchen because we’ve just baked cake for tomorrow. Then I’ll be fourteen. Meaz and Storm, - son of our neighbor, have been friends since they were little and now also fellow students - are leaning against the counter making a salad for later. When you see them like this, you would think that they are a couple. I can’t resist saying it out loud. “You are such a nice couple together.” I have to laugh out loud at the expression on their faces when they look back at me with a jerk. “Don’t you have something to do?”, Meaz growls.
“I’m waiting for you, guys.”
“Let’s have a nice coffee first,” my mother says.
“I’ll take some juice and go to the swings outside until you’re done. Will you take the ball with you?”
“Yep, we’ll be right there,” Mexz says, as he goes to prepare the cups.
“Nice.” I immediately drink my juice from the bottle and take an angry look from my mother. “Sorry.” I quickly screw the cap on and put the orange juice back in the fridge. “See you soon.” There is a murmur and I walk outside into the sun.
The weather always seems to be nice on my birthday. It’s the day before, but because my mom always takes that day off, our birthday always seems to last two days, even if it’s a regular school day. This time my birthday is on Sunday and she doesn’t have to take time off.
My dad was also planning to be there, but a good customer had bad luck and needed the car badly on Monday. So he went to work today. That’s how he is, super sweet, always willing to help someone out. I breathe in for a moment and step out of the garden onto the wide sidewalk, which lies between our garden and the playing field. The field contains children’s equipment including the swing and a large tiled basketball court with one net.
A white and gray cat darts past my feet, very hurriedly and reminds me of the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I look at him with a smile and hear: “I have to hurry, hopefullyi I’m not too late. Soon they’ll be gone.” I squeeze my eyes shut for a moment and shake my head in surprise. I open my eyes again and see him, still in a hurry, running around the corner. Well, what ever. I cross over to the field and walk to the swing.
I love swinging. Ever since I was little. I couldn’t stand the fact that I couldn’t do it myself, that I had to wait for someone to push me. I relax on the swing. As high as possible and then jump off at a dead point or just like now pushing myself off a bit with my feet. Alone or sometimes together with Summer, Storm’s sister.
I rock a little, musing, the sun on my black curls. Nothing special. All black, well not blue black, but brown black. Not a gorgeous blonde or red. Although my curls are pretty cool. Maybe hearing that cat was a sign. My mind is always running from one thing to another. Maybe I should study to be a veterinarian after all. I think it would be cool to work in a zoo.
I’m curious to see what theme my mother will put on the cake. She does that when we’re in bed. Then she makes a surprise from it. She’s pretty good at that. Fourteen years old. Then I finally really belong. It would be nice if they would stop bullying. They call me lip-biter because I often bite the dry skin off my lip. Or they whine about the clothes I’m wearing. I once got a nice suit from friends of my parents. I thought it was so cool. I was the only one, well, not quite, at home they also thought it looked good.
Just jealous, Mexz said. He’s my best friend. We’re apart eleven months. I was born a month early, otherwise there would have been a year in between. My father said that even then he could see that I like to live my life because I was in a hurry to get out into the world. 😊
Just not so much in the mood for school. That’s not true either. I like school, but not my class. Well, four more years. Maybe I can ask if I can be assigned to a different class next year. Hey, that’s actually a good idea! I have to take that up with my parents.
I push myself a little harder on the rubber tiles and enjoy the wind and the sun in my face with my eyes closed. I rock backwards. My head shoots forward because the swing is suddenly held still with a jerk. “Hàh, hàh, funny.” I want to see which annoying brother stops my swing, but suddenly I am pulled off the swing with a thick arm around my waist. I close my fingers tightly around the chains in the hope of... But the creep continues to pull. I don’t give in, even though fear grabs me by the throat. Who does this? I want to scream, but he says threateningly in a hoarse, whispering voice, “Don’t you dare scream and let the swing go.” He inserts something sharp into my neck and I feel something moist sliding along my skin.
“Oh, my God. Okay, okay.” I immediately let go and he roughly pulls me of the swing and away from it. I try to make it as difficult as possible for him to walk, with every step trying to stand on his feet.
“Stop that,” he growls, clenching his arm tighter around me. He pokes my neck harder. The fluid, I refuse to call it blood, I refuse to be scared, flows faster along my skin as do my frustrated and anxious tears. I have to do something! I don’t want to be one of those kids who will never be found again...
〽️
Mexz
“Shall we finally go, May has been waiting for so long.” I’m asking for the umpteenth time and I’m impatiently bouncing the ball, for some reason I don’t like the fact that May has been waiting for us for so long. Even if it’s only fifteen minutes. It also bounces so nicely on the tiles.
“Mexz, don’t bounce with that ball in the kitchen. Guys, please go now. Mexz gives me the creeps,” my mother grumbles. Maczym gets up, pulls the ball out of my hands and rubs his knuckles on the top of my head. I cower to avoid him.
“Just a little growing,” he says, “and I won’t be able to reach it anymore.”
“Well great,” I grunt and make sure I get out of his reach. We all run to the field, almost in front of our door, an unspoken competition to see who gets there first. I get a knot in my stomach and suddenly feel that something is wrong.
May-Zi is not on the swing. He still moves a lot. We look at each other and scan the environment at the same time. We see the creepy forty, slightly more, years old neighbor who still lives with his mother, at the end of the field. Storm screams her name, the first to realize that the guy is holding her.
I pull the ball out of Macz’s hands and start running. The nerves are rushing through my body and the knot in my stomach is now beating in my throat. I hear them all running after me and hear Storm talking. I pull my arm backwards with my fingers firmly pressed into the ball and I aim at the creeper’s head, I swing my arm forward... A direct hit! His scary head flips to the side. My tough sister reacts immediately and lashes out with her fist to the back.
〽️
May-Zi
I hear a dull thump and I am pulled to the side. A sharp twinge of pain shoots through my neck. The arm around my waist, which he had dropped eerily close to my lower abdomen, his fingers painfully in my skin, comes loose and I immediately react by ramming my hand, which I had clenched convulsively into a fist all the time, my nails painfully pressed into my palm, up and back.
He screams and I feel a brief jolt of relief. I immediately, finally, stomp his foot. He screams again and completely lets go of me now. Another hot shock shoots through my neck and I hear something fall to the floor. I automatically reach for my neck to cover the pain.
With the utter of a terrifying primal scream, I hear my brothers behind me and I see them out of the corner of my eye with the man - I see to my horror in a flash that it is the neighbor from a little further away - slapping on the ground. How often it is an acquaintance, crosses my mind.
There is a lot of screaming and the crazy sound of a fight, fists hitting the target, one of my brothers saying, Maczym I think, my head is getting more and more dull, that Mexz has to stop. I start to see black spots, I realize that I have dropped to my knees. I seem to fall forward in slow motion and reach out to catch myself.
Before I hit the ground with my face, I am caught by a warm trembling arm, for a moment I think it’s that creep and wants to scream and try to struggle, but I am soothingly spoken to by the deep voice of Storm, he can always so much calm me down and I am gently laid down. “Shit, an arterial hemorrhage.” I hear that Meaz is panicking. Storm repeats it, a lot calmer, I think he’s on the phone. Meaz puts me on my back. Something is immediately pressed into my neck. I hear myself moaning. I’m not a moaner. A hand is pushed on the other side of my neck and the pressure on the wound increases. “It’s not that bad,” Storm murmurs. He presses a reassuring kiss on my head. “Stay awake, May-Zi.”
“I’m tired.”
“I know, but you have to hang in there. Are you cold?”
“Nope.” At least I don’t believe so. I hear Meaz telling Mexz to go get mom. “But bring it calmly.” The two boys snuggle up to me. Probably to keep me warm, but I’m not cold. I think. I don’t know. I feel... I don’t feel anything.
“Go on,” Macz says, “I’ve got it.” I hear the neighbor groan. Almost at the same time as me. Bizarre, I’m not into moaning, did I mention that? I always just say ouch. Now, I don’t seem to be doing anything else.
“Ambulance is there in no time. Hang in there, baby.” Storm strokes my hair off my sticky cheeks and now looks at my brother. “I’ll take it from you Meaz.” Meaz appears before my eyes. He also presses a kiss on my forehead.
“It’s going to be alright, May. It’s going to be alright.”
“I love you guys.”
“Me too,” they say at the same time.
“I’m going to miss you. I’ll come to haunt you once in a while.”
“Nope.” Meaz comes again in front of my sight.
“Okay, I’m not haunting.” I try to pull up the corners of my mouth in an attempt to laugh. My eyes want to shut.
“Stay awake, May-Zi.” What a beautiful voice Storm has, even now that he sounds worried. He always says my whole name, sounds so beautiful coming out of his mouth. Can’t be any other way with such a beautiful voice. I’m really dying. I have weird thoughts.
“No, I mean you don’t have to come and haunt because you’re not going to die.” I puff.
“I have an arterial hemorrhage. Do you know that my throat has been cut? Bizar. And I have weird thoughts.” When I hear them chuckle briefly, I realize I said it out loud.
“We’ve closed it tightly, you’re barely bleeding,” Storm says.
“I’m not going to die?”
“Not for the time being.” I do not believe him, but I hope he is right. I would love to go to sleep now, I don’t care what happens anymore. I’m too tired...
