Cameron’s Story

I’ve been living up in Waterford, Wisconsin with my father for awhile, and while I’ve been here, I’ve met some pretty incredible people who are changing my life every day.

The most important of these people has been a little girl by the name of Cameron.

I met Cameron in one of the most unique ways I’ve ever met another human being, especially considering this one is an eight year old girl: inside a bar.

My father was inside working his magic with the bartender, being all friendly like he always is, and he decided to drag me along that day, so instead of meet all his drunk friends, which i had no intention of meeting, i went instead and sat on the back steps outside, watching the clouds roll across the big blue sky.

I didnt even when a small figure came up behind me.

“Hi”.

I jumped up, not having heard anyone come up behind me, the way she had slunk up and spoken directly to me kind of gave me the creeps, like she was a ghost or something.

“Hi” I breathed slowly.

She smiled meekly at me, her small frame seemed even smaller somehow as we were standing on the bar’s patio.

“What’s your name?”

I sucked in my breath, where had I heard that line used in the very same tone before?

“Violet” I said, a deja vu feeling taking over me.

She nodded, “that’s a pretty name. I’m Cameron Stoker, my mom works in the bar”. Her eyes were squinting into the sun even though I though I was blocking it.

I nodded at the small little blonde thing with curly hair and sparkly blue eyes, “shouldn’t you be in school, Cameron?”

She shook her thick hair around her head, “no, my school year ended last week so now my mom has to take me with her to work all the time”.

“What about your dad?”  I asked her.

She shrugged, “Don’t have one”.

I nodded, adding “join the club” inside my own head.

“Hey, you want to go clumb on top of that old army tank over there?” she asked me, pointing to the thank that had been donated by the military to the bar as a remembrance.

I bit my lower lip,  I knew we weren’t supposed to play on that, the owner and my father would have a fit of they sae me anywhere near it, probably called me a vandal or something of that sort.

Cameron rolled her eyes, stepping down and taking my hand in hers, “come on we won’t get in trouble, i swear”.

I had to admit that sitting up on the thank with Cameron looking at the clouds was a nice change of pace for me, much better then sitting in my fathers house all day where I felt like a prisoner to my own personality.

“I like sitting up here a lot, it clears your head of things”, Cameron sad, closing her eyes that had glazed over with the warmth of the afternoon.

“What things?” I asked, noticing how the cloud above me looked like a giraffe.

“bad things”, Cameron sighed, swallowing a lump in her throat.

I sat up, “Cameron?”

“hmm?” she breathed slowly.

“Tell me what’s wrong”, I felt my chest tightening.

Cameron’s eyes opened and she jusst stared up at the sky again, “you don’t want to know, Violet”.

I couldn’t even begin to describe to her how much I didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t help myself, curiosity killed the cat.

“Yes I do”, I gritted my teeth.

“I’ve had Cystic Fibrosis since I was born”, she groped to get out the words.

I groaned, closing my eyes. Cystic Fibrosis is not something to take lightly. It’s deadly to kids, highly deadly. Most kids who are born with it don’t live past……eight. I couldn’t take it anymore, first Alyson, now Cameron. And to top it off Cameron is younger! Shes just a little thing, barely out of the third grade! How many more little children would I have to see die before God or whoever finally realized that I got the point already? I just didn’t want to see anymore death in children, not the ones I know. It wasn’t fair to me, its like everywhere I go someone has to die, like to make room for me in the place where I am they have to kill off someone else, like there isnt enough air for me to breathe or something.

“This isn’t fair”, I said in a hissed tone.

Cameron shrugged, “life’s not fair”.

i wanted to slap her right then even though I felt bad that she was dying, just like Alyson. Life’s not fair, what a stupid, cynical way to look at things. I wanted to be the optimistic one for once and protest to that very sentence, the one i detested and loathed, but i knew it was true. Life’s not fair, that’s why Dex died, that’s why I was raped, it’s what Steven left and Drake left and Alyson has cancer and Cameron has Cystic Fbrosis. Life’s just not fair, and that’s all the explanation needed.

Cameron and I have been spending lots of time together lately, and even though Alyson seems happy that I have found someone to talk to while I’m up here, I think she feels like I’m trying to replace her because she thinks she’s going to die soon and I am going to need some other innocent soul to lead on, but I really just like Cameron. I think Alyson knows well enough to understand that.

My family at home asks me how I’m doing, but im not going to mention Cameron to them. My mother is always getting on my case about how I don’t hang out enough with people my own age, she also thinks I surround myself too much with death, which is why I’m so depressed and imminently bound to take my own life.

On second thought, maybe I will tell her. Won’t she just be pleased to know that while I’ve been up here my best friends been an eight year old dying girl named Cameron 🙂