The Last Day

         "Riiiiing" the school bell went off signaling the end of the day. Ruda jumped out of her chair and began to hurriedly stuff her belongings into her backpack. She paid no attention to the other students as they trickled out into the hall. She was excited because today she did not have to ride the bus home as her mother was coming to pick her up. Ruda hated riding home on the packed bus as some of the other kids could be extremely rowdy after school and she was a small girl, not very tall yet as she was only ten years old, but her tiny frame made her look even smaller. She was easy to push around in a crowd. Her short black hair only came down to her chin and her bangs hung in her eyes, which she used to cover them whenever she didn't want to look at someone.

       She brushed her bangs out of her face now as she slid her last book into her backpack, zipped it up, and slipped it around her shoulders onto her back. Then she exited the classroom and started walking down the main hall to the front entrance, where the car loop for parents picking up their children was at. Her mother wasn't there yet when she got outside, so she just stood there watching the other kids board the buses from afar. Then she watched the buses pull away. There seemed to be noone else getting picked up by their parents today and she soon found herself all alone, waiting in the car pool lot.

       Soon after, she watched the teachers pile out and get into their cars and leave. Noone seemed to notice she was standing there as they all pulled away and began heading home. Her mother had gotten her a cell phone for her birthday last month and she pulled it out of her pocket now to check the time. School had ended twenty minutes ago. "Mom is probably running late again" she thought. Ruda's mother worked in an office in a high position and often came home or showed up to events late due to her job, so this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. 

       Instead of being worried, Ruda just opened a game on her phone and began tapping away. When she got bored of that she played some music, dancing and singing along by herself. When she got bored with that she checked the time again. Another half an hour had passed! Where was Mom? She went to her contacts and selected her mother's number and held the phone up to her ear, waiting for the ringing to start. "She better answer.." Ruda thought as she listened to the rings.

       "Hi!" Her mother's voice came through, but it was just the voicemail. "Sorry I can't answer right now, please leave a message!" Ruda was immediately disappointed and her voice couldn't hide it at all as she whined into the phone, "Moooom, where are you? You're supposed to pick me up at four today, remember?! Please answer, I already missed the bus.." she hung up after recording her message. She dropped her arms down to her sides and stood there, shoulders hanging, trying to figure out what was going on. Worry and anxiety began creeping into her thoughts. "Mom wouldn't get so caught up at work that she would forget about me, right?..."

       "Oh!' she exclaimed, "I'll try dad" she muttered to herself as she selected her father's number and began ringing him next. Unfortunately there was no answer from him either, not even a voicemail. The phone just rang and rang and rang. Ruda counted nine rings before she gave up and hit the red button to end call. She sighed heavily then put her phone back in her pocket. Seemingly stranded she got the idea to take the city bus but found she had no change, even after rummaging through her backpack and all her pockets.

       "Guess I'm walking then." She thought and began heading towards the main gates. This is when she realized how quiet it was. Normally you could hear the traffic outside the gates, there would be people outside the school talking, airplanes going overhead but, right now there was absolutely nothing. There wasn't even any wind. It was very eery and a little bit creepy as the only thing she could hear was her own footsteps. There was also some kind of weird tension in the air. She felt it very heavily weighing down on her body.

       Ruda reached the end of the car loop and stepped out from under the awning into the grass. She was going to cut across the schoolyard straight to the main gate but she paused as soon as she came out from the loop. "What the heck?" She thought, throwing her arm up over her face to quickly shield her eyes. "It's SO bright out today!" Indeed the sun was brighter than usual, making the whole courtyard look like it was being lit up by stage lights. Everything was glowing, all the colors looked brighter than usual. It was very intense.

       Arm still covering her face, Ruda began to walk across the court yard through the grass, when suddenly, she paused again. She had to this time because amidst all the silence she thought she'd heard a voice. Or maybe voices. She wasn't sure, it was very faint. She stood there, rigid, head cocked to the side trying to locate the sound. Suddenly, she heard it, there it was again! Some people having a conversation, but they sounded faraway. She looked around the courtyard and couldn't see a single soul, not even a person walking on the sidewalk outside the school perimeters. Still no cars or airplanes. But the voices were definitely there and now they were getting louder and she was getting a better idea of where it was coming from...

       Her head snapped up and she tried her best to look into that sun. She stood still and listened again. Yes! She could hear it now, the voices were coming from the sky. She knew it was, she couldn't explain it but she knew those voices were coming from up there. She stood and listened, stood and listened. She couldn't make out what they were saying yet even though they were getting louder. Then something even stranger began happening.

       As she stood in that one place and kept her head tilted up toward the sun, she suddenly realized it had gotten brighter, and stronger. She looked around now and the courtyard, the school, the streets and even the trees were gone. There was nothing but white light all around her. She was floating in a completely white blank space. Immediately once she realized this, the voices became clear. They were arguing and in the background there was a long low beeping sound. 

       "DON'T go until I say, you got it?" One voice shouted out. "Ok, I'm ready on your mark!" The other shouted back. Both voices were shouting but they didn't sound angry, more like worried or concerned. They seemed to be in a rush about something. She could hear some rustling sounds, like people moving things about and the footsteps of people rushing around. "Get the machine ready" she heard the first voice command. She heard more rustling sounds, it seemed like something was being rubbed together. 

       "CLEAR!" the first voice shouted. Ruda heard a loud 'POP' and then suddenly, all the white space she was floating about in turned completely black. Instead of bright white light, she was now enveloped in total darkness. A strange sensation began to overwhelm her at the same time. Her body had tensed up and she couldn't move at all but at the same time she felt as though she was shaking or having some kind of convulsions. Her teeth and eyes were clenched closed. "Am I having a seizure?" She thought. 

       After what felt like several minutes but in reality was only a few seconds, Ruda's body began to calm down and she no longer felt the shaking sensation. She still couldn't move or see, but she felt calmer now. She realized the voices and the beep had gone away but was replaced by something else. Instead of shouting the voices were now speaking normally, someone was saying her name. The long low beeping sound had been replaced by several short, high pitched ones that seemed to be repeating themselves in some kind of sequence, "Beep... Beep... Beep..."

       She felt calm and relaxed now. She didn't want to open her eyes but that voice kept calling her name and it was getting kind of annoying. Finally giving in, she slowly opened her eyes. She was laying in a hospital bed, there was a nurse standing over her holding shock paddles, but the most shocking thing of all is, when she looked down at herself, she was no longer ten years old, but a grown woman. That's when she remembered her parents were dead and she suffered from Thalassemia, a genetic disease that affects your red blood cells. She must've had an episode and almost died.

       Ruda was going to be okay though. She was released after one more week of monitoring and her husband came to pick her up. She was relieved to be alive, but would never forget her brief strange trip to the other side. She wondered if her parents had experienced something similar upon their deaths or not, and after that day she made it a point to talk and pray to them and visit their graves every single day; and she promised herself to live in every moment, as though any day could be her last day.