Amber's Star

by Edwin M. Torres

  “You’re going to Canada,” he said looking into his phone.

  “March 19th, Mr. Sanders has it all planned out. I’m really proud of you Noah,” he said going back to his room.

  The next days were even harder at work. I knew I didn’t have to work as hard anymore since Mr. Sanders was paying for the entire trip, but I couldn’t quit. It took Amber a few days to realize she wouldn’t be able to skydive inside our country. That made the surprise Mr. Sanders had for her even better.

  On March 19th, I arrived at Amber’s early so neither she or Grace could notice. I called Amber from my cell phone while Mrs. Sanders explained the surprise to Grace.

  “Number five today,” I said, talking from her living room.

  “Impossible,” I heard her say. Mr. Sanders came back in the living accompanied by Grace, who had a very surprised look on. Mrs. Sanders handed me the plane tickets and I opened Amber’s bedroom to surprise her.

  “Let’s go!” I screamed, showing off the five tickets in my hand.

  “What?” she asked before Mr. and Mrs. Sanders jumped inside.

  “We’re going to Canada!” screamed Mr. Sanders. Amber jumped up and down and hugged all of us one by one. She packed the first thing she could find and said she was ready within minutes. It was an exciting drive towards the airport. We all talked about the excitement we felt from jumping. It was not until we almost arrived to Toronto that I realized Mrs. Sanders was terribly afraid of heights and wasn’t jumping. Mr. Sanders looked the most excited he called in for a taxi the second we got our luggage and immediately said he would jump off first.

  Skydive Toronto Inc had us take an hour lesson on safety awareness on skydiving. At the end of the lesson, the instructor told us he had a list all those who had lost their lives during skydiving. A cold chill filled my body, but luckily he and his co-worker brought out a blank piece of paper and said no one had ever suffered a major injury inside their facilities.

  The plane was small for all nine of us, we were crowded and it was hard to hear our tandem instructors. Mr. Sanders jumped off first, followed by Grace. It was now my turn and I couldn’t concentrate on all the praying I was trying to do. I could hear my instructor screaming, but I was speaking inside my head at the same time. The nerves build up inside me and I came close to not jumping. I felt Amber staring at me when it was finally time to jump. I was hooked to my tandem instructor who slowly made his way to the open door with me between his legs.

  My heart was close to bursting out of my chest I saw the land underneath us and came close to fainting,

  “Ready?” I heard my instructor ask. I nodded my head and before he leaped in the air I screamed what I had wanted to scream for a long time.

  “I LOVE YOUUUUUU!” I screamed milliseconds before I was in the air. The hot air hit my face and it wouldn’t go away, it felt awesome and I wasn’t afraid of dying anymore, my hands and legs were open wide and I could feel the air trying to separate them even more.

  It was the best sixty seconds of my life. I felt a huge relief seeing the parachute opening on top of us. The rest of the way down was much longer than I expected. The land below us didn’t seem to get any closer and the wind made us glide through the air. Once down, I found Grace and Mr. Sanders running at me.

  “Amber’s next!” screamed Grace. All three of us cheered with excitement as we saw a tiny yellow parachute open in midair. We ran to Amber’s landing spot and the excitement on Amber’s face was priceless.

  “We did it!” screamed Grace. I ran up to Amber and hugged her before she was free from her instructor.

  “That was incredible!” I shouted, remembering the adrenaline I had felt from free falling.

  “I can’t believe we’ve never done that before!” I heard Mr. Sanders scream behind us.

  The instructor showed us the way back to Mrs. Sanders and as we walked Amber confronted me on what I had screamed before falling.

  “Did you say something before you jumped out?” she asked. I tried playing stupid but the look on her eyes told me she was serious.

  “Hmm, no I didn’t,” I said, trying to walk faster.

  “I could almost bet I heard you scream something.”

  “No, no, no I was just praying for everything to turn out okay,” I lied.

  Amber’s eyebrows raised and she knew I was lying. Mr. Sanders took us to a fancy restaurant for dinner and I sat as far away from Amber as possible. She looked at me the entire time and it was hard for me not to drip any food onto my shirt.

  Before dinner I heard Mr. Sanders call in a taxi for us, I’d expect to go to a hotel but instead we headed directly for the airport.

  Amber didn’t say a word to me as we drove to the airport; it was obvious she was upset with me for not telling her truth. I was glad she had heard what I had screamed it made me realize she didn’t feel the same way and I had to get used to it.

  My brain couldn’t get enough of Amber. I dreamed about her as we flew back home and I woke up to Grace moving my arm saying I couldn’t stop saying Amber’s name.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Amber: Two weeks of awkwardness followed after we skydived. Noah was being distant and I couldn’t blame him. He had declared his love to me, and I couldn’t seem to make up my mind on what I felt for him. It was a weird thing having him around knowing what he now felt for me.

  On April 3rd Noah told me it was time to complete number seven on my list. Number seven was to forgive Skylar, and frankly, it was the one I least wanted to complete. I didn’t want to forgive the girl that had made my life miserable for a couple of years. I understood Noah’s point, but it was hard for me to forgive someone who hadn’t said sorry. She had stopped bugging me a long time ago, but the amount of hate she had done to me still existed.

  “I know where she lives,” said Noah when he arrived.

  “It’s a fifteen-minute walk,” he added. I was having second thoughts about visiting Skylar. Maybe she had stopped messing with me because I had forgotten all about her. I still saw her at school, but no longer did I pay attention to her. Noah guided us to a zone in the city I’d never been to. It was an apartment complex that seemed to be abandoned.

  “She really lives here?” I asked.

  “I believe so,” answered Noah. We reached the third floor and came close to a wooden door that had number #389 on it. Noah was getting ready to knock, but before he did the door of apartment #389 swung open. It was Skylar. She had no makeup on and her eyes showed sadness. She wiped her tears and tried to fix her hair.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  Noah froze and so did I. A loud bang was heard inside her apartment and the wooden front door opened a second time. Noah helped me downstairs, and Skylar followed as fast as she could. Skylar looked terrified. I had never seen her this way. Noah was the first to notice Skylar’s bruises all over her arm. It was then that Noah did something I’ll never forget.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her.

  “I’m fine,” she answered fast, trying to get away from apartment #389.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said slowly. Her voice was different and so was her attitude. This wasn’t the way Skylar behaved in school and certainly wasn’t the way she talked to us.

  “Who was that?” asked Noah for a second time.

  “My aunt,” said Skylar. The two of them sat down while I listened.

  “She beats me all the time, she’s ill,” she said sobbing. I couldn’t believe it. Skylar was crying inconsolable, and there was nothing we could do to stop it. I tried to get Noah’s attention for us to leave, knowing how terrible it was to cry in front of others. Noah stood and walked towards me, but Skylar’s voice made us both turn around.

  “What are you two doing here and how did you find out where I live?” she asked in her regular tone. Noah stuttered, so I spoke for both of us.

  “I wanted to talk to you,” I said slowly. There was a frown in Skylar’s face and then Noah continued.


  “They diagnosed with terminal cancer and we made a bucket list,” said Noah.

  There was a moment of silence between us three, and then Skylar looked at me straight in the eyes in a way she had never done.

  “My mom passed away two years ago, she had cancer too,” she said slowly. I shivered, and for the first time, I saw Skylar’s true smile.

  “I didn’t get to say goodbye to her,” she said. Noah looked at me and left us alone to talk.

  “The last time I saw her was when I was just nine. Ever since then, my life has been a nightmare. I’m sorry I was so mean to you all these years. If only I’d had someone to tell me how bad and nasty I was being, I would have stopped.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” I said. “Noah found your address with some of your friends and I came here to forgive you. At first, I didn’t know what I was doing, but now I get it. You were going through something harder yourself, and for that I forgive you.”

  Skylar didn’t want me to go, I could feel it. She told me how lonely she felt and told me it was getting harder for her to stay in school. She confessed she only had three pairs of pants and a couple of t-shirts.

  “Please don’t tell Noah,” she begged. “I won’t, I promise.”

  Noah insisted on me telling him what we had spoken about but I couldn’t, it was too personal.

  We came back to Noah’s to find our pup with no name lying close to the front door. He greeted Noah and me with a wet sloppy kiss, and went back to sleep. He wasn’t like other golden retrievers according, to Mr. Paxton.

  Once home, I got my list out and crossed number eight out of it.

  Number four got crossed out by mom when she asked to see my list.

  “You can cross number four out as of right now,” she said.

  “There isn’t one day that your father and I aren’t proud of you. You’re so brave and that my dear makes us very proud,” she said.

  A visit to Dr. Nahal made up my entire Saturday. We spent more than an hour talking about everything except cancer. Dr. Nahal had turned into my friend rather than my doctor. He believed it would be harder for me to keep up with all the activities I was up to. I told him all about my bucket list and he agreed it had been a good idea.

  A week after my visit to Dr. Nahal, I began feeling what he had warned me about. My back hurt all the time and it was harder for me to get up from bed in the mornings. I had no appetite, and the only thing that kept me from staying in bed was my family and Noah. I couldn’t help yawning, and I began taking naps every time I could.

  Noah spent more time in my house than he did at his, both he and I knew it was a matter of time before Nick and Grace told me and him they were boyfriend and girlfriend. According to Noah, he had seen them kissing at his house on multiple occasions.

  Mr. Paxton was a wise man, he didn’t speak much, but when he did it all made sense. I loved being at Noah’s and talking to Mr. Paxton, he saw way beyond the cancer and always had the perfect words for me. The morning of April 14th Mr. Paxton came up with the perfect name for our puppy without him knowing.

  “Your doctor might have said you only have a couple of months left but hope is a powerful word and sometimes even doctors can’t fully now,” he said.

  “Hope,” said Noah. “That’s going to be her name,” he added.

  “Hope,” I called, and for the first time, our pup responded.

  “She likes it,” said Mr. Paxton.

  “It’s good she has a name before your trip to the Rockies,” he added. “I wouldn’t want to take care of her not knowing what to call her,” said Mr. Paxton. I saw Noah trying to avoid Mr. Paxton to say more, but he already had.

  “What trip?” I asked.

  “Please tell me you already knew,” he said.

  “She didn’t dad!” shouted Noah.

  Back home, dad and mom told me all about the trip they had been organizing and how Mr. Paxton was paying for it.

  I was knocking another point out of my list, and it was all thanks to Mr. Paxton.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Noah: I can’t tell you how much I regret saying what I said to Amber. It only made things more awkward. It took me a few days to assimilate that I couldn’t change what I had said, and it shouldn’t bother me anymore. I spent Thursday afternoon trying to figure out where Skylar lived. After speaking to several of her old friends, I got her address.

  She lived with her aunt and grandmother according to one of her ex-boyfriends and he warned me not to go alone.

  “It’s dangerous down there, I’d go during the day,” he suggested.

  I figured if Amber was going to forgive Skylar; it was better to do it outside of school. Inside school, Skylar was still a popular girl, and she was never alone. She always had her army and her new boyfriend next to her.

  “Number seven,” I said as soon as Amber opened her door. She refused at first, but agreed once I told her where she lived.

  It was a fifteen-minute walk towards the most dangerous part of the city, and the apartment complex we had just walked into gave us a second thought about going inside. Most of the walls were covered with graffiti, and part of the building looked like it was close to falling down.

  “She really lives here?” asked Amber as we reached the third floor.

  “I believe so,” I answered. Apartment #389 was the one we were looking for. When I finally found it the door opened before I could knock. I saw a girl that at first didn’t realize who it was. Her hair was messy, and she seemed to be crying. It was Skylar, in a way neither of us had seen her before.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked. Before neither of us could answer, something hit the wooden door behind us and loud screams shouted different things we couldn’t understand. Someone poked their head out, but neither of us could tell who it was. Before we realized it, Skylar was jumping downstairs and asked us to the same. Skylar looked ill. Her hands couldn’t leave her hair and I could hear the way she scratched her skull. Skylar had a huge purple bruise close to her neck. I tried not to stare at it but it was hard not to. I had never seen Skylar this way, and now her wearing long sleeves to school almost every day made sense.

  “Are you okay?” I finally ended up asking her.

  “I’m fine,” she answered walking away.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said pointing at her apartment.

  “Who was that?” I asked.

  “My aunt,” she answered. Amber stood close to us as me and Skylar sat on a have broken bench.

  “She beats me all the time, she’s ill,” said Skylar, ashamed. This wasn’t the Skylar I knew. For a second a thought it could be a joke and that a mean comment would come out of her mouth at any time, but this was real. The girl was heartbroken.

  “What are you two doing here and how you did find out where I live?” she asked.

  “I wanted to talk to you,” said Amber slowly.

  “They diagnosed Amber with terminal cancer and we made a bucket list,” I said, stepping in.

  “My mom passed away two years ago, she had cancer too,” said Skylar slowly.

  “I didn’t get to say goodbye to her,” I heard Skylar say. Amber sat next to Skylar, and I walked away for them to talk. Skylar was heartbroken. So heartbroken she spent the next ten minutes talking to the girl that had bullied for so long. The conversation between them went on and on, turning more emotional each minute. I never imagined Amber talking to Skylar this way, or vice versa.

  I saw Amber stand and say goodbye to Skylar as if they were friends. I asked multiple times for her to tell me what they had talked about, but she never did.

  The rest of the week went well for me; I walked our puppy every afternoon and thought of a name for her every time I could. Dad said she wasn’t a normal golden retriever. To him, she was a cat living inside a dog’s body.

  Amber visited her doctor, and I knew her too well to know what he said to her wasn’t any good. Amber didn’t like talking much about her health or anything relate
d to that. It was hard for any of us not to worry about her. Dad was the only one who seemed to understand the correct way to have a fluent conversation with her. They got along so well that it was hard to pull either of them off the couch once they sat and talked.

  Dad liked Amber so much he was thinking about selling his classic car to help me with Amber’s list. At first, I thought he was joking, but the next day I saw a man looking at dad’s old Ford Mustang out in the garage. The man handed dad a pack of money and drove the car out of the driveway.

  “Dad what did you do?” asked Nick.

  “I sold it,” he said slowly. “And I’m already regretting it,” he added. Nick’s face said it all. Dad loved his car. It reminded me of when Nick and I were just kids and he would make us wash it at least three times during the week.

  “Dad, you told grandpa you’d never sell it,” said Nick.

  “I know, but this is more important than a bunch of steel,” said dad.

  It was until late that afternoon that I realized why dad had done it. He was paying for a trip to the Rockies for Amber’s family. Nick and I would go with them, but he would stay behind.

  “Go have fun,” he told me and Nick. “I’ll stay here and look after your dog,” he added.

  Everything was settled and again all of us knew about the trip except for Amber. It was going to be a surprise for her, but on April 14th dad told her all about it.

  “Your doctor might have said you only have a couple of months left but hope is a powerful word and sometimes doctors can’t fully now,” dad said as we walked in.

  “Hope,” I whispered. “That could be our pup’s name,” I told myself.

  “That’s going to be her name,” I said a little louder for them to hear.

  “Hope,” called out Amber and our little pup stood up and raised her ears as she’d never done before.