• She looked like a doll...
    Her ebony curls draped gracefully down her back like a thick curtain, decending down around her heartshaped face. Her skin looked like fine china; pale and smooth. But now her face was drained of color, the rose in her cheeks was not visable. The black velvet ribbon that was tied around her neck clung to the hem of her skirts.
    "Nicole, could you please read the speech you've written about your sister?"
    My name was called to the front of the stage. I stared at the dark box that enclosed my sister. And as I climbed the steps, I didn't look away from it.
    "Even in this dreadful place," I started, "a cold home deep in the coffin, soon to be closed and buried deep into the ground, she is the most beautiful creature I have ever laid my eyes on. She was my sister, a sweet, caring figure. She was always someone I could count on, and as I became older, she was an increasing source of comfort."
    "Poxie. It was a pet name only she was allowed to call me, and since I was young it was a name to resemble affection, the purity of the relationship I had with my sister."
    "I can still hear her voice. I can still smell her breath, a sweet scent of cinnimon and maple syrup, the aroma of autumn. I can even remember the way her long hair swished when she walked, and how I tried to mimic her. The way her voice could make any pretty song become beautiful, the way she could help anyone."
    "But I guess she couldn't help herself. The doctors told us it was a small cold, every single one. That she would recover almost as quickly as she does any other time. But she didn't. She didn't wake up the morning her Cancer had taken the most effect on her. I remember sitting on her bed with her, crying, pleading for her not to leave and to wake up. I remember how quick she left. Like the way time goes by. How quickly a blade of grass can be swept up into a gust of wind, never to come back again for a visit."
    "But I think maybe if she had stayed, I wouldn't have had the time to write this. Right now I would walk out of school, and see her smiling face waiting for me at the gates."
    "So now, I think I have to say these two words that I have always dreaded saying. Goodbye, Anna."
    As I finished the speech, I heard someone cry, and then everyone clapped; bringing tears to my eyes.