Shelby Althuizen

Althuizen 1

Ms. Gardner
English Period 4
31 August 2014
Drowning in Memories
It was a winter morning the air crisp from the smell of the pine needles that
floated in the icy Petaluma breeze; I remember the exact date it was December 14, 2065.
Although most people would like to forget their past, mine lingers in my mind ever since
that one winter day. Now that years have passed and I have grown weaker, I felt it was
appropriate to share the story. Although the miracle made it hard to lie my head down at
night, it was truly amazing experience.
Around one thirty, I was slowly trying to gulp down the last pill I had to take that
afternoon. I was surrounded by the cozy walls of the nursing home at room one hundred
and twenty-seven because they moved me to a less supervised room since my heart was
acting normal again. By moving rooms I also was accompanied by a new nurse. As I
finished up the pill the new nurse came in, her shy and warm smile brought a million
flashbacks of my childhood. She grabbed my wool slippers with her hand and slid them
over my pale wrinkly feet. She assisted me from the long bright hallways to the park only
a few steps from the nursing home. As we walked closer to the park I lost sight of the
home almost as if the fog isolated us from this chaotic world. As we sat down on the
bench the water that was once flowing stopped, frozen, making time freeze with it. No
more wind to blow my hair, no rustling leaves from animals skittering in the woods, no
icicles dripping, and the leaves that had piles of snow laying on their surface like white

Althuizen 2
ant hills stopped falling; fore they found strength to freeze with their surroundings. Even
though I was with the nurse, I felt as one, all alone in the park. Not only did I feel alone
but I felt that I had experienced this event earlier in my life. As I sat there not saying a
word the nurse curled her hair with her finger asking if I was okay. She twirled with so
much force that her finger turned white from the blood not being able to travel to the tips
of her fingers. It was the habits I had as a child, I would twirl when I was nervous, tired,
or bored.
I am okay, I said, are you okay, I notice you are twirling your hair is that a
habit?
Yes, its a horrible habit, I do it when I am tired, bored, and most of all nervous,
she said, I was nervous because I wasnt sure if something was wrong, this is my first
day of nursing school, but I have lived in Petaluma all my life.
Where did you grow up? You remind me of someone I know very well. I asked.

I grew up on 1554 Henry way, a small but cozy house, she replied, my family
lived there since 1994 and my parents are currently still living in the same house.
If you grew up on 1554 Henry way, then you must be a part of the Althuizen
Family, I said in an utter state of confusion, Does your name happen to be Shelby Ann
Althuizen?
Yes, how do you know? she asked puzzled.
As I got a flash back I couldnt help it, but to point out that if I had been able to
time travel back to my nurses age again it would be like looking in a mirror. She

Althuizen 3
resembled the young me, but now my hair had gotten snow white, my body thin from
muscle loss, my skin wrinkly; but even though my hair wasnt dark as the night, my skin
wasnt glowing, and my body had no muscle I still resembled her.
I can prove that I am you, an older version. It might sound crazy, but I
know stuff about you a stranger couldnt possibly know. I explained feeling desperate.
Throughout your lifetime you had a horrible immune system. One night on your
birthday, December 15 , you slept walked to the hallway. You fell asleep on the cold
th

white tile floor because your fever had risen to one hundred and six degrees that night.
On the way to the doctor you had trouble breathing, it felt like your lungs were being
pinched and pulled out of your chest. As I was laying in the hospital the doctor
announced my right lung had collapsed and the other one wasnt in good condition, I
thank god for the medical treatment I receive; fore I knew that if I was born in a different
era, I may not be able to get adequate treatment to bring me back to health. The days of
your childhood still haunt you. That is why you wanted to be a nurse all your life, you
wished that no child would have to miss four months of school a year due to sicknesses
and you wanted to help them go through the pain you went through.
Even though I had the evidence she still hid in the shadows of the truth.
No, that is crazy; this has to be a dream. This cant be real life, I must be dreaming.
Dreams make you remember thing you want to forget. She said with an uneasy tone to
her voice.
sassy tone.

What if your dreams come to a reality? I said with my usual

If I dont wake up then I will not listen to any of the

words you say. I dont want to know what my future holds, she exclaimed while taking a
deep breath, There are two
Althuizen 4
of us. You have the key to my future and my heart.
I grew with excitement at the sound to her agreement to accept this hectic point in
both of our lives. I was so happy that she trusted me that I started to blurt out all the
different monumental events that are soon to come in her life time. You will marry a
man named Scott, have three baby boys who will be your pride and joy, you will bicker
with them often and you wont always have a good relationship with them, but remember
they will always love you. One of your children.
STOP! she yelled, I dont want to know anything that is waiting for me down
the road.
Even though it is very tempting to keep going on because I loved the feeling I got
when telling her all these secrets. I felt almost like a fortune teller, her life was in my
hands, but just like fortune teller, I was the one that could mess up her future with the
secrets. As they say dont mess with the future, or it will mess with the person reading
into what comes next. Let everything play out the way it was and is suppose to be. I could
tell by her facial expressions she wanted to know how everything would play out, but I
knew that she would resist listening, so I contained my overpowering emotions.
What is your memory like? She asked anxious to start with a different
conversation. Even though I remembered the old me I really couldnt answer this
question. Once this experience happened I got a rush of memories as if I had transformed
back to my nurses time. That is what I wanted to see in myself; even though, growing old

is a part of life I missed my young vibrant self. As the minutes passed, I knew I was
getting older, but in a sense I felt like I was getting younger, younger than I will ever feel
Althuizen 5
again.
I dont really know. I remember important events usually, and I am getting old,
so everything is starting to fade. I explained. The excitement I had pounded on my chest.
It was just like the pain I had been in all these years. Yet she was the one that caused all
this emotion, she was my only medication, my only reliever from this crazy world. As we
got up from the bench, I reached in my pocket and slowly slipped a card in her clammy
hand. The card held all my information; my age, condition which was far from superior,
my features, my birthday, place of birth, and place I lived before the home. She placed
the edges of it in her finger tips and ripped it right down the middle. She kicked a hole in
the thin sheet of ice on the river and plopped the card in the water.
I dont want to remember you like this, she said with such a soft voice I
could barely make out what she was saying, You will forever be young, bold, and brave
in my heart.
As we walked away it wasnt the doctors that had cured me, nor the medication,
but such a simple thing like love. Love was the most important necessity in life because
its the thing that keeps a persons heart beating.