The Day I Died Essay, Research Paper
?Hold on?, I said lazily to my mother,?I?ll be there in just a minute.? Today was the day we would go to the beach for our family reunion. It was the third family reunion this year! Right now I?m fourteen, and so far in my lifetime, I have had twenty-six family reunions! That?s two every year! As I got into the van, and my started to take off. The trip to the beach takes about and hour, and three-fourths of the way there I realized I had forgotten my swimming trunks! ?Mom, I forgot my trunks!? ?Well, I guess you won?t go swimming today.? Well that ruined my ride there. How was I supposed to have any fun? Swimming was the main thing my family was going to do there. ?Five miles to go,? said Dad. Already my trip had started out bad.
Finally, we got there, only to have my cheeks pulled at by my grandmothers and aunts. I would rather be dead than go through this. It seems that somehow I got my wish. I fell right out of their grubby hands and fell to the ground. I got back up, only to see myself still on the ground! ?I must be out of my body!? But just as quick as I had got out of my body, I was back in it. ?What did you do that for?? asked Grandma Betty. ?I couldn?t help it, my soul just popped out of my body and I was standing right there and then I thought I must be out of my body and I said it was cool and then I just popped right back into it,? I said excitedly. ?You need a rest,? said mother, ?Maybe the sea air has gotten to you, come over here.? ?But honest, mother, I really left my body, I?m fine!? She didn?t buy it; she made me sit on the bench until she thought I was better.
By the time I had ?gotten better?, the reunion was half over. We were eating now, but I didn?t feel one bit hungry. ?I?m going to go for a little walk,? I told my father, ?It won?t be long.? He said O.K. I went along the beach and thought of how that out of body experience had happened. Then out of the blue, a dog bigger than I started to attack me. I started to yell, but no one was in hearing distance. I continued my struggle. I couldn?t do this much longer. It tore at my neck. I screamed again. But still no one could hear me. The pain was unbearable. It felt like I was thrown into a pit of fire. I kept fighting it for over ten minutes. There it was. Just what I needed. There, about two steps away was a piece of driftwood. I tried to reach for it, but I was too far away. The dog was still attacking. Now the dog was really enraged. I tried to inch my way over, but I could bearly move. Finally, I grabbed it. I quickly jabbed it into the dog?s side. I got up from the ground. ?That was close,? I mumbled, out of breath. I started to head back.
When I got there, everyone was yelling my name. I yelled back to them, but they just couldn?t hear me. I yelled a little louder. Still, no reply. I started to walk back to a group of people standing over where I was struggling with the dog. There was a whole group of people standing around a dog and a young boy. I saw my mother crying, so I went to her side to comfort her. I asked her why she was crying, but it was like she didn?t even see me. Then I looked to my right and saw the reason why she was crying. I was dead. That explains the boy on the ground, and the dead dog. I didn?t know what to do. I was dead. What do dead people do when they?re ghosts? I decided to leave my family, and go to the town there. I walked around the streets for a long time, not knowing what to do.
As dusk approached, I decided to do what most ghosts do. I would scare the town folks. First, I took a piece of paper that was on the ground and waved it in front of a person walking by. He screamed so loud, and ran so fast, his shoes came off, and he tripped over his bare feet and hit his head on the cement. Poor guy, I didn?t mean to do that.
After a while, I got very bored of doing this. I think I scared 23 people and they all got some type of an injury.
I decided to go back to the beach where I died. I thought about how I had gotten into this mess and how I would love to be home with my mother and father right now. As I kept on walking along the beach, I got bored of this too, so I decided to take a swim. Since I was a ghost, I could float on the water, but I couldn?t float in mid-air. This was actually kind-of fun.
I don?t know how long I just floated there, but it must have been seven hours. Just as I was getting out of the water, I saw the sun rise up. I thought of how my second day of being a ghost would turn out. In the distance, I saw a ship sail across the blue, sparkling ocean right in front of the sun. A most beautiful sight. When you?re a ghost, you don?t have to dry off at all, so I decided to started going back into town to try to get a ride on a car heading west-bound, to my house. I found one and hopped on.
On the trip, I saw a lot of things that I wouldn?t have noticed when I was human. I guess when you?re a ghost, you pay attention to things more closely. Your hair also doesn?t move because you?re not made of matter. One doesn?t feel anything.
When I got there, I found my house and decided to check on my family. They were all still asleep. I guess they had a very hard time last night with my death. I went to my old room. Everything was the same as I had left it. My clothes on the floor all wrinkled. I looked at my calendar and saw the date. It had been two and a half years since I died! I couldn?t believe it. It only felt like days! Time passes a lot more quickly when you?re a ghost than I thought. Then, it sounded like someone was calling my name. Yes, there in the distance I heard my name. It said come home.
What was that suppose to mean? I already was home! Then I knew what the voice was telling me to do. Go home. It wanted me to pass over to the other world. I understood. Then it felt like an invisible force was pulling on me. I couldn?t resist. I went with it. Now I felt more peaceful. I went out of my house and saw all the other souls who were giving in to the voice also. It kept calling me. The other souls were going up towards the sun. I said good-bye to my family and went with them.