Forever Changed - By Jamie Gibson Page 0,10

my stomach, so that I was looking over the edge of the waterfall. I started taking pictures; I felt like this place was calling my name and had no idea why.

All of a sudden, as I was taking pictures, the skies darkened.

“Oh great, another storm,” I grumbled to myself while raising the camera to my eye. I continued to take pictures.

I gasped, nearly dropping my camera over the edge of the falls. I looked down at the falls and saw nothing, but while I was looking through the lens of my camera, I could swear I did see something. I slowly lifted the camera to my eye and looked through again. I had to make sure that I was not seeing things.

I gasped again, as I seen a boy falling into the water below!

Chapter 9

I snapped a quick picture. I jumped up so quickly, that I nearly fell over the edge of the falls myself. I started running at full force back to my house.

I was trying to get to my dark room as fast as possible, so that I could develop the film! I had to see if my eyes were lying to me. The skies had cleared up and no longer did they look like a storm was coming.

I felt a stitch in my side, I could hear my pulse in my ears, but I didn’t stop running.

I was not paying attention to where I was going and tripped over a root of a huge oak tree that was sticking up from the ground.

I landed hard on a rock, with a sharp edge. I felt the stab of pain, as I struck the rock. I sat up, since I had landed on my knees then stomach and looked at the damage done.

My black slacks had been ripped and a piece of the rock had broken off into my knee. It was sticking in my knee, as if a thorn from a beautiful red rose was stuck in your finger. I gently touched the broken part of the rock and winced from the pain. It was wedged in there pretty good and hurt tremendously. Now what was I going to do.

“Where is my camera,” I gasped, in fear that it got broken or scratched in the fall. I looked behind me and seen it laying a little to the right of where I fell. I picked it up and turned it over and over in my hands, looking for any sign that it may have caused harm to the film inside. I sighed with relief; my camera was unscathed in the fall.

Now, I had to figure out how to get home with my knee in the shape it was. After thinking for a little bit, I decided that the rock had to come out, if I wanted to make it home. So, with a lot of mind over matter, I grabbed the end of the rock firmly and quickly pulled. I screamed out in pain, as the two inch rock slid out. I automatically clasped a hand over the wound and the other over my mouth.

I sat there rocking back and forth crying from the numbing pain in my knee. I slowly gained control over myself, ripped a strip off the bottom of my shirt, wrapped and tied it around my knee, so that the bleeding would stop. I will inspect and take care of it better when I get home.

I got up and limped my way toward my house. I had run a pretty good distance before I fell. I was only fifty yards away from the back door. I should have been more careful, but I really needed to check this film, so it was my own stupidity for not paying attention.

Every time I lifted my foot to take a step, searing pain would shoot through my knee. I looked down and the blood had leaked through my makeshift bandage. I guess fixing this knee will have to come before developing my film. I growled in anger and aggravation.

I continued on to the house and let myself in through the back door. There was no way I was walking all the way around the front that is a long walk.

I stopped at the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water. After closing the door to the refrigerator, I walked through the huge kitchen to the dining room table. I pulled a chair out and sat down. The bleeding from the wound was so bad that my black