Story

Daniel Mullin- Grade 10 Mrs. Amberg Lesson #7 ELA-“Doors to Stories” Domiciles Project Door #13 Gouverneur High School The War Bang! The gun went off and Jeremy went off as well. “Run Jeremy, run!” Tim yelled as he watched his son run. Tim was never fond of Jeremy running track. He always wanted him to fight for his country like his dad used to do. Jeremy always had his mother’s support until she was killed in a car accident two years ago. After the race Tim asked his son, “What do you think about joining the army like I did?” “Ehh, I don’t know. It was one of my options but I really want to do track in college.” Jeremy said. “Well this is your last year of high school you know; you don’t have much time,” Tim said. “I know, I know.” Jeremy mumbled. In the town of Ogdensburg, when you turn 18, you have to sign up for the draft anyways. Jeremy was 17 at this point, but his birthday was coming up soon. On October 20th, Jeremy entered his name and information to serve in the army. “Not many people get drafted, right dad?” said Jeremy with a little tremble in his voice. “Not really, but it could happen,” said his father. A couple weeks later they got a call from the town hall asking for Jeremy Mines. “He is right here,” said Tim. “Hello Jeremy Mines, you’ve been drafted to serve in the army for six months. You will be joining troop 42 within the next two weeks. You will deploy from Syracuse, New York to Syria,” said the man on the phone. “Umm... Okay. Dad that was the town hall telling me I was drafted into the army,” Jeremy said. Tim was so happy his son was going to serve like he used to. “Well, start packing stuff, boy,” his father said. The day had come when Jeremy had to leave for Syria. His father was sad that he was leaving and was worried that something might happen to him. There was another man named Dylan who was drafted too and was deploying with Jeremy. He looked about 19 and was tall with brown hair. He looked scared and his mother was bawling. Tim was lonely at home without Jeremy or his wife anymore. He had nothing to do except sleep and watch TV. Almost six months had passed by, and Tim was excited for Jeremy to come home, but that day, Tim was watching the news and something came across the screen. It said, “Announcement: a major catastrophe happened today in Syria. U.S. Army land mines detonated and killed five soldiers. They are, Dylan Gibsones, James O’Donnell, Michael O’Brian, Ryan Shaw, and Jeremy Mines.” “I can’t believe this has happened. I don’t know what to do now...” Tim said. Whenever Tim needed to clear his mind, booze was the only answer. That night Tim got so drunk that he didn’t know what was even going on around him. He was too drunk to realize that on the TV another announcement said, “A person has been misidentified. Chad Michael was the fifth person dead, not Jeremy Mines.” “Stop talking about my son’s death!” Tim screamed at the TV. “Awe, crap. I’m out of beer. Well, better go to the store,” said Tim. So Tim got in his car and started driving to the store. Tim was drunk and swerving all over the road, but he didn’t notice that he was until he saw headlights directly in front of him coming his way. He tried swerving away, but it was too late. It was a head on collision. The person in the other car must’ve called 911 because Tim could hear sirens, but was still delirious and dizzy from the blood loss. As the paramedics got Tim and the other person into the ambulance, Tim started to know where he was. “What happened, how did I get here, am I okay??” Tim asked. “You were in a head on collision car accident with this man over here,” the paramedic said. As Tim looked over to see who it was, he said, “Jeremy... is that you..?” “Dad?” Jeremy said with confusion. “I thought you were dead.” “What are you talking about?” “The news said you had died by an exploding land mine.” “What, no!? You don’t look so good, dad.” “Neither do you son...” “We’re not sure if you two have brain damage yet, but if you do, you could die,” said the paramedic. The paramedic did find out that they both had internal bleeding in their brains... but it was too late. Both of them passed away before the doctor could save them. Within the next week, there was a funeral for Tim and Jeremy Mines.