Lianna Hamsher

Your local newspaper is running a writing competition, and you decide to enter.
Write the beginning of a narrative called The Storm in which you create suspense involving a dilemma.
Write between 600 and 900 words.

The Storm
Carson thought he had faced every type of storm. He has faced a typhoon, a hurricane, a tornado,

a tsunami, a fire, and all other types of nature he could think of. He had gone through all types of physical

storms, but he never thought he would go through a mental storm. His wife and him had been praying for

the past five years for a child. They tried having a child, but the doctors finally told them that they would

not be able to have one. Carson’s wife, Charlotte, was soon diagnosed with ovarian cancer. They thought

about adopting but the adoption agencies were not working with them. They wanted to give up on having

children.

One day, they got a call from the adoption agency: A Journey of Love, and were able to adopt

from Ukraine. There was a 2 year old toddler who needed a family. They were hesitant whether or not to

adopt. They had tried many different adoption agencies that ended with a lack of success. This would be

one of the hardest decisions that they had to make. With prayer and guidance from their friends, they

decided to adopt. They knew that this had to be a miracle from God. They had prayed for years, and soon

it was answered. After the adoption, Carson and Charlotte were able to spend some of the best times of

their life with their son.

The diagnoses for his wife got increasingly worse as the years went on. Soon, she was at stage 4

of cancer. She would only have about five years to live. Carson could not fully understand or wrap his

head around this. He knew that many people went through cancer, but his wife had only been married to

him for about 10 years. He had his whole life planned with her and their son at his side. To think that she

would die soon, pained him.

 He could not understand. He did not understand. How could his God give him such a wonderful

gift, just to take it away? How could God bring new life, in the form of their son, but take away through

the love of his life, with cancer? It didn’t make sense. It wasn’t fair.

He could not understand all this, there were so many good moments that they had together that he

did not want to let go. The memories were always fresh in his mind.

Later that day as he sat on the couch he kept on hearing the voice that said repetitively, why.

Why, why, why? He still could not understand why God would let this happen. He thought “Why does

God have to let someone so faithful have to go through so much pain.” He wondered. He came to the

conclusion that if God was so faithful and so good, why would he allow for someone to die.

He wanted to have the faith that his wife had, but he could not. He should have faith, but still, he

just didn’t know. The pain that came with his wife having cancer was so hard.

He could not understand why all this pain. All the hospital trips had made Carson tired and he did

not want to think about it or have any idea that she would be gone one day. He wanted to keep her to

himself and keep the memories with him. The one question that echoed in his mind was what would

Nacobee feel or grow up without a mother to nurture him. He had to stop thinking about these thoughts

but at times, they kept coming up.

Every day Carson visited the hospital, he felt like he could not breathe. He knew there would be a

day that she would not be there with him.

One day, Carson went in without Nacobee and just sat there with her. He could not say anything

because tears would start falling sooner or later.

She held his hand. It was as if she were praying for him, when she was the one dying. How could

someone so strong be taken by something that needed a person to live? As she took her last breath,

Charlotte told Carson to trust in the One. Then, her grip loosened…