Another Creative Writing Assignment

So, I had to write my very first short story. We had to incorporate everything that we have learned so far. I have really been enjoying this class, so without further ado...

Here is my short story... please save all criticism til I can handle it, which very well may be never.


My Happiness




Doctor’s offices are always cold, Mary thought as she sits waiting in her son’s pediatrician’s office. She looks around the sunshine yellow room with paintings of happy trees and deer on the walls impatiently. She has been frequenting these offices a lot lately. Bradley caught some kind of virus a couple weeks ago and can’t seem to shake it. Only now it seems like it is getting worse; he started out with just the sniffles and a cough, now he is very weak, pale and extremely tired.

Mary is a single mom with just her one six year old son, Bradley. He is a very active boy, she takes him to soccer practice on Monday and Wednesdays and piano lessons on Thursdays he normally keeps her very busy but lately he hasn’t been doing any of these things. Mary is the librarian at Bradley’s school, it seems as though her life revolves around him, because it does. He is her happiness, the reason she gets up every morning. Without Bradley, there would be no Mary. She has no other family to speak of and very few friends.

Mary goes to help Bradley up on the table as Dr. Robins knocks on the door to enter the exam room.

“Hello again, Bradley, I would say nice to see you but not under these circumstances, huh?” Dr Robins smiles at Mary.

“Hi Dr. Robins,” Bradley whispers as he looks up. His brown hair looks even darker against his powder white skin. He has dark circles under his once bright blue eyes, but they have lost their sparkle since he has become so sick.

“How are we doing? Still not feeling any better?

“No, not yet, we are hoping you can help with that. Aren’t we, Bradley?”

“Yes, Momma,” Bradley whimpers again.

“Alright, well let’s take a look. Why don’t you lift up your shirt so I can hear that chest and heart,” Dr. Robins says as he puts his stethoscope in his ears.

Bradley lifts his shirt and reveals a dark purple bruise on his ribs the size of a grapefruit.

Dr. Robins looks at Mary,

“How long has he had that bruise? Do you know where he got it?”

Stunned by the bruise Mary shakes her head.

“I don’t know, it wasn’t there this morning.”

“Have you noticed any other bruises appearing?”

“Just one on his leg, he hit his shin on the coffee table the other day. I didn’t think it was that hard until I saw the bruise later that night.”

Dr. Robins lifted Bradley’s pant leg to expose the now greenish yellow bruise on his leg. He put his pant leg back down and walked over to the counter and started scribbling in Bradley’s file.

“Mary, I want to have some blood tests done, do you think you could take him over to the lab today and have those done for me?”

“Of course, is everything ok? Will this tell you why he has been so sick? Do the bruises have something to do with it?”

“I want to check his white blood cell count. I won’t know anything more until I get the results back. Head over there right now, and Mary, don’t worry.”



Mary sat in her dimly lit living room watching her son sleep on their old sagging sofa. She spent a lot of time doing that these days, as she anxiously waits to hear back from Dr. Robins with the test results. It has been two days since they took his blood; she thought for sure she would hear something by now. What worries her more is that Bradley still wasn’t feeling any better. If anything, he’s getting worse. He has been complaining of a stomach ache and won’t eat.

As Mary started to doze off in the rocking chair that she used to rock Bradley asleep in the phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, can I please speak to Mary Thomas?”

“Yes, this is her.”

“Hi Mary, this is Jessica calling from Dr. Robins office. We have received the test results for Bradley, Dr. Robins would like to see you in his office, would tomorrow morning be ok?”

“Yes, that’s fine.”

He wants to see us in his office right away, this can’t be good, Mary thought as she put the phone down. She looked over at Bradley sleeping so peacefully and started to cry. He is everything to her and all she wants is for him to be ok. She can remember sitting in this chair when he was a baby singing and rocking him to sleep, and now she feels so helpless that she can’t do anything when he needs her the most.



Another cold brightly painted room, only this time it’s blue with jungle animals on the wall. Mary and Bradley didn’t have to wait long before the knock on the door came. Dr. Robins came in looking as crisp as always in his white coat and blue tie.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today, Bradley?”

“Tired,” Bradley said.

“I have the results of the blood work, Mary; do you think we could speak privately? I can have Nurse Jessica take Bradley to get a sucker and a sticker, if that is ok with you?”

“Of course,” Mary smiles at Bradley to let him know its ok.

As Bradley leaves the room Dr. Robins sits in his stool and opens Bradley’s file.

“Mary, I’m afraid we have some not so good news. Bradley has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is a cancer of the blood. I’m going to refer you to the best pediatric oncologist, but I feel like we caught this early enough and that treatment will be more than likely successful.”

Mary slouched into the stool next her and started to cry.

My baby has cancer; she thought to herself and put her head in her lap.

“I will take him where ever I need to, please give me the referral. He needs to get better, he has to be ok.”

“He will,” Dr. Robins assured her.



Well, that was it. 1000 words from me. Again, this was my first short story, hopefully over time they will get better. :-)