Renewal

Here's another piece of creative writing from my english class... This one piece had to have a theme of renewal. Not a favourite of mine, although it makes me smile all the same.

    The nights were growing longer; the cold was seeping into my bones. My senses were hibernating and my soul had shriveled. It is like I was frozen under a lake, able to see through but unable to touch anything, cut off from reality and slowly losing the energy to stay at the surface. Colors had faded, sounds were only echoes; the world around me was dull. I kept wondering each night if it would finally be the last time I fell asleep with the weight pressing on my chest. Passively I went through the motions each day, only to collapse each night and wake the next morning.
    I continued on, trudging through the mud of life, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Exhausted, my steps faltered and I stumbled. The streets were cold and the hard ground below me provided no comfort or reprieve from the despair. My eyes fluttered shut and I drifted off, finally free from my bondage.
    I woke up in a room of white. Warmth had spread through me, and the world around me was alive and busy. I sat up, and a lady walked towards me.
    "Ah, you’re awake” she said, picking up a chart from the end of my bed. “Glad you’re feeling better. Police brought you in last night—It was a cold one out there. Do you have a place to stay, sir?” I shook my head slowly, ashamedly looking down at my hands. They looked odd; filthy, calloused hands resting on crisp sheets of white. The nurse left me, and I was alone with my thoughts
    Suddenly I sensed someone watching me. I looked around, and saw a little girl one bed over.
    “Hi Mister!” she exclaimed enthusiastically before jumping down from her perch and coming to stand beside me. Her parents were nowhere to be seen "My name is Daisy. How long have you been here for? I just got here this morning, but I come here a lot.” I gnawed on my bottom lip before I told her that I had been there for the night.
    “Oh, did you have dinner here? Whenever I stay in the hospital they always have really bad dinner, but I always like dessert. It’s hard to screw up ice cream, in my opinion.”
    I laughed, surprising myself. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed. I asked the young girl why she was here.
    “Well, I have leukemia. I come to the hospital every few days for a check-up. When I’m not in the hospital though, I do lots of other things. Mom and dad are letting me skip school for the rest of the year before my time comes. Doctors think I have six or seven months.”
    I didn’t know what to say to her, was embarrassed that I even asked. I had not expected her to be so openly honest when I had inquired to her stay. I wondered how she could be so alive when she was so close to death. I sat there, trying not to stare at her, but unsure of what to say next.
    “I know it’s scary…” she said quietly, playing with the weave of the blanket on my bed, “But I try not to let it beat me. I don’t have time to be sad or scared. That would be a waste of time. Quite literally.” Instantly she was the bubbly excited girl again, and began talking about her best friend’s birthday party that was coming up.
    Eventually, the girl’s parents returned, and they laughed when they realized their daughter had made a new friend. I told them that she was a very sweet girl, and noticed the tears in their eyes as they looked at their daughter, who had skipped down to the next patient to say hello. A short while later the nurses released me, with directions to a local shelter. I stepped outside into a crisp breeze, the cold weaving its way through my clothes and tickling my skin. I looked around at the people hurriedly walking down the street, bundled up from the chill. I turned down the street, following a path of orange and red leaves, left over from the trees. And then, with the sun shining through the fluffy winter clouds, I saw a little white flower, growing up through a crack in the sidewalk. I bent down to pick it, and then stopped myself. Smiling, I walked on, deciding to let the daisy live out its life.