NEWS

‘Did you watch the news mom?’ Rose asked her mother with an extremely sad face.

‘No. Why? What’s wrong?’

‘A twelve-year-old girl passed away due to getting hit by a bus… a school bus! How can people be so careless? She was the same age as me and now, she doesn’t have a life. She won’t be able to go to high school, she won’t see her friends again, and she’s just gone!’

‘Oh no… that is horrible!’ Jane was truly sad about the news but she could not just stop in time and grieve about it. She had to drop Rose to school or else she would be late for work. ‘Come on Rose’ she said, ‘let’s leave for school.’

At school, the little girl and the news were all Rose could think about. The odd thing was that no one had seen this particular news anywhere on any of the news channels. When she had told her friends about the news, they were utterly surprised to hear about the incident.

It was the last lecture now and Rose was half asleep when she heard the school bell ring. She woke up with a start when her friend Lisa pulled her by the collar.

‘Rose! I want to tell you something. That news you were talking about, I saw it too…’ the rest of the words sounded like mumbles to rose. She was so tired that she just wanted to go home and collapse on the couch. She ignored Lisa and walked out of the classroom. Her head had started hurting by thinking about the accident all day. There was something about it that was too unsettling.

Rose had reached the school gate now when she saw Lisa running towards her. ‘Do you know the girl’s name, Rose?’ Lisa asked her with an anxious face. Rose had had enough of that news ‘Lisa, please, my head is hurting.’

‘No, you don’t understand, this is really important!’ That was it. In her frustration and bewilderment, Rose dashed out of the school gate. She heard Lisa shout her name but she was too agitated to even turn back and look at her crying friend. That was when she heard wheels screeching. The next thing she knew was that she was lying on the floor under something huge and pain shot through her like an arrow and her heartbeat slowed.

‘Rose!’ it was Lisa, still crying ‘I wanted to tell you the name of the girl in the news; it was Rose Scarlett’

The news was telecasted on T.V. and the 12-year-old girl, after watching only half the news, went running downstairs to talk about it with her mother.

‘Did you watch the news mom?’ She asked her mother with an extremely sad face…