Flash Fiction Winner Johan Jimenez - 7th grade

One winter day I was in class. We were studying poetry and my teacher, Mrs. Dole, had about five

poems that we were supposed to interpret the meaning of. One of which was, "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as great and sudden change." I was skeptical of this and thought to myself "Ya right", "I could think of dozens of other ordeals worse than that."


I soon found out I was wrong.


I guess The saying is kinda evil or something I mean just look at me now. Anyways I had seen a scrap of paper with the saying on it, edged deep into the paper. I thought it was pretty creepy but decided to rip it up and throw it away, as I was unbeknownst to the cruel luck it gave me. It felt like it was watching me but I ignored the strange feeling. Later next hour I saw a group of kids around a part of Mrs. Springfields wall and soon sall it said "Nothing is So Painful" etched into the wall and everyone not knowing who did it. I was the last one to see it as I had been in the bathroom for most of the passing period so people suspected me of doing it and told Mrs. Springfield that I was guilty. Soon I found myself in the principal's office. My mom walked in.


"What is going on here?" she demanded.


Before I could speak Mrs. Springfield snapped.


"Your son just wrote in my wall nothing is so painful with a crowbar for no reason."


"With a crowbar?" I questioned


"Yes Migel found it outside my doorway."


"Is this true?" my mom inquired.


"Of course not" I exclaimed. "Wait I have an idea!", "Check the cameras."


About two minutes later Mrs. Houston (our camera operator) pulled up the tape on a screen and we all huddled around it we watched an empty hallway for a while but when they were about to give up we heard a scrape and and a crash the camera went black.


"See your son took out the camera and then went in my room and vandalized my wall!" Mrs. Springfield shouted.


"But that's not enough proof", my mom returned.


"But think about it it makes total sense."


"That's it." principal Burlington said, "Your are suspended for two weeks"


Soon I found myself in the car going home when "CRASH" My mom hit a tree I called an ambulance. Six minutes later the ambulance came I was unhurt but my mom not so much her spinal cord was broken and had a few broken ribs. At the hospital that night she died from her injuries.


And on the news I had learned my dads work went up in flames only one survived, and it wasn't my dad he was too busy to notice it blocking the exit.


That night I was in an orphanage trying to sleep but I couldn't, I couldn't even focus on anything. My world was changing way to fast I couldn't take it no more so I ran away that night. I ran till I found myself in a dark alley somewhere far away from where I've ever been before. That night I found in sharpie marker "To the mind" scribbled on the trashcan I laid beside.


"What's the deal with that I said aloud", then I remembered the poem in language arts the other day and moved somewhere else for the night pretending like it had nothing to do with my luck.


I was wrong.


The next day I was seeing things my eyes were all blurry and I couldn't see right because everything I see has four words written on it and I see creepy shadow people that say the same words which are Nothing Is So Painful. So if you underestimate the pain of Great and sudden change, guess what? Your wrong.


____________________________________________________________
Minor formatting. Story appears as submitted by the author, unedited.