Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Courage

here is another story i have written, i have had a few comments on mistakes I've made, and thank you! but i want you all to know i will make mistakes! everyone does! so please do not criticize my writing based on a few spelling mistakes! thank you very much! enjoy...<3 :D

Courage
Josh could hear the girl breathing hard and heavily. But he could also hear she was breathing slower and slower. Josh put his ear to her chest to hear if the heartbeat was still at a normal pace. Her heartbeat was slowing down. Not good. Josh raced to get more bandages and came right back to the poor girl. He had found her last night lying in the middle of the forest path. She was as pale as snow and when he saw the wound on her leg he knew what he had to do.

She had lost a lot of blood. Josh didn’t need to be a doctor to tell that much. Luckily Josh was a doctor though, and he girl was lucky Josh had come when he had, if not she might have bled to death. It felt strange tending to a child he did not even know the name to. He had to help her though. She needed help, just like he had needed help.

As Josh tied the bandages around the girl’s leg he could hear her breathe faster again. She must have been through something really tough. Its not every day you find a girl lying in the woods past out and bleeding.

When he had seen her he had started to think back to when that was him. Lying there, completely helpless. That was why he didn’t want to help her at first. It had hurt too much. But he couldn’t just ignore the poor child. So he had brought her along to his cabin. That’s where he was headed anyway.

It hurt looking at the child. Every time he looked at her small face he though if himself. It had been almost twenty years now. But it still felt like yesterday. The thick heavy air of the cold and dark rainforest. Josh and his father had been on a trip. Josh’s father was at work, but for Josh it had been a vacation. Until everything went wrong.

His father had been a zoologist. His team had been assigned to go to Ecuador to study some animal behaviors in the rain forests there. Josh had begged and begged to come along and finally his dad had said yes. Now he wished he never would have gone. If so, his father might still have been his best friend. Josh had beaten himself for years after what happened. He always felt it was his fault. But when he gave his life to the Lord he felt forgiven. Since then Josh hadn’t worried about the guilt. He knew the pain was no longer his to bear.

It had been a regular day. Just like all the others. Everything was going great until they got to the inner parts of the forest. The air had gotten really thick so Josh had sat down to catch his breath. Soon enough though, he was alone. He couldn’t see his father, or the rest of the team. He couldn’t hear them either. He started to call out to them, hoping they would hear him. It was no use. He kept on shouting as he walked in the direction he hoped they had walked in.

Josh was getting dizzy from the thick air. He needed a break. He kept telling himself he needed to rest. But he had to find his dad. He knew how dangerous it was in the forests, his dad had always told stories of all the dangerous things in a rain forest. So josh knew how to stay away from all the dangerous animals and obstacles if he had to. It was getting dark and josh knew it was very dangerous on the ground at night. He found a tall tree and climbed up it. Finding a comfortable spot was hard, but not impossible. Knowing that any snake could bite him and he could die instantly was a frightening though. But he had to sleep some if he wanted to keep searching for his father in the morning.

The night had been rough. It felt as if Josh had awoken every time there was a sound or a movement somewhere. But at least he was alive. Just as Josh hit the ground with his cold bony legs, he heard a growl. And there, about twenty feet away from him was a big and fattened tiger. He was growling and Josh which made him nervous. Was the lion going to eat him?  Or was he just going to kill Josh? He didn’t know. Tigers, that was something his dad had never gotten to. Why not? Tigers were so commonly seen. And now he needed his fathers help more then ever.

Why had josh ever sat down? If he hadn’t been lazy this wouldn’t have happened. He would still be with his father. Probably eating breakfast instead of being the breakfast. Josh panicked and as soon as he did he knew he had just made matters worse for himself. He started to run. The tiger just stood there for a few minuets but soon enough Josh was being chased as a mouse by a cat.

Then josh tripped over a branch and he yelled. He knew this was the end. Then he heard his father yelling from a far, “Don’t move son, stay completely still!” Josh froze, and as he did the tiger stopped running. The orange and white beast strode closer and closer. As he did Josh felt fear climb through every limb in his body. He could hear his own breath loudly, he was shacking violently and his eyes were burning. Then he saw his father coming from behind the tiger with a gun. Josh stared into his father’s eyes. They were as black as nigh, the dark colors of them almost made him look evil. His eyes were full of anger, but they were also full of fear.

After that everything happened to quickly. Josh’s father had stepped on something and made a sound and the tiger had turned around at lighting speed. Josh yelled out to his father and his father lost his concentration. His father shot once, but missed. Instead of hitting the tiger he had hit the only other thing in his way. Josh. Josh felt pain rush through his arm. Josh’s father shot again just as the tiger jumped on him. The tiger clawed him right on the chest and in the face holding his grip firmly and fell dead, putting all his weight on Josh’s father.

Josh could hear his father screaming. He saw that his father was bleeding, badly. Josh wasn’t able to move or make a single noise. He saw some of the crewmembers moving the tiger of his father. He saw their faces when they looked down at their dear friend. Then he saw them taking their hats off, and closing their eyes. That’s when josh realized it. His father was gone. Forever. Josh’s father’s best friend had come to Josh to help him. He had taken care of his wounds as well as he could and gotten him home on an emergency helicopter right away.

The years passed quickly. Josh had been badly wounded by the tiger. He’d had surgery to remove the bullet from the bone in his arm. He’d decided to become a children’s doctor. He would learn everything from giving a shot to doing surgery. One of the patients he had helped was named Kiah. She was only five and needed heart surgery. Even though the charts said her heart was failing, she had the biggest and most loving heart out of all the people Josh had ever met.

The day before the surgery he had come for a visit to talk to her. He was hoping to calm her nerves, but instead, she calmed his. “Dr. Josh? Do you remember that story you told me, about the tiger?” Josh didn’t reply, he just nodded his head. “That was very brave. So I’m going to be brave like you Dr. Josh, I want to be like you.” She smiled up to him. Josh pulled the small child close to his body and hugged her. “You want to be brave? Well I know you’ll make me proud and do amazing tomorrow.” Kiah smiled up to him, and with a small chuckle she added, “I wont let you down Dr. Josh! I promise!” the bell for supper rang, “Run along now, go eat your food so you can be strong for tomorrow.

Josh watched Kiah walk slowly inside and through the hallway to her room. It was a miracle she even had the energy to be walking. After she was gone he though of what the little girl had said. “I want to be like you” Kiah’s words had played over and over again in Josh’s head. Then he smiled and went back into his office
Even though it was long ago, he could remember it like the back of his hand. It was thanks to Kiah that Josh had given his life to Christ. Josh still saw Kiah sometimes. Kiah and her family were going to come for a visit to his cabin next week. They were going to go fishing, go on long mountain hikes. They were going to attend a church meeting there was once a month at the top of one of the mountains and they would swim in the cool refreshing water out back after the long hike back.  

Josh was sitting beside the hurt child when she awoke. She sat up and Josh could immediately see the fright in her eyes. He stood up and held her closely and helped hey lay down again. “There you go, just lie still and try to relax. I’m Dr. Josh, are you hurting anywhere?” Josh learned that the child’s name was Ellie. She told Josh that last night she had been running in the forest and she’d tripped. She’d hit the ground hard and landed on a glass bottle, what was left of it anyway. Her leg had started to bleed a lot and it had hurt badly. Ellie said she had tried to go back home but she couldn’t feel her leg and she had fallen to the ground again.

Josh told her that everything would be fine. He would fix her sores and take her back home. The child smiled. He could see some color come back into her cheeks as she lay there peacefully. Josh had always read about people saving lives and being a hero, but with his job, and the courage Kiah reminded him of, he knew he was also a hero. Every person on the planet could be a hero. If the knew how to have courage.