Striving. That's one of many words my family uses to describe our journey. That's also one the word I use for my A1C. "What's an A1C?" You ask. Well, it's a thing only Diabetics have to worry about. It's the average Blood Glucose rate in one or more months.
And ever since I was diagnosed, me and my two pancreases have been striving for that number 6.0 to show up on my A1C test results. A normal person's A1C would be between 4 and 5.
When I was first told I had diabetes, I had no idea what the heck that noun meant. Of course, I was seven and a half back then and I hardly knew what the word "disease" meant, but still. But when I got more accustomed to this disease, I began to question what in the world this "A1C" meant. So after a long while listening to the long explanation the doctor, Dr. Taplin gave me, I finally understood what A1C meant. That's where the questions really began to start piling up. "What is a normal person's A1C?" "How could I make my A1C better than 10.3?" "How long will it take?"
And, of course, mothers aren't necessarily the most resourceful human beings in the world (no offence,) so all I got was a simple, "I don't know. We'll just have to take it one day at a time." Of course, I don't have any better idea of when it will happen, so I take the suggestion willingly, knowing very well that it be a long time until I would get an A1C like that.
Weeks turned into months and months turned into years until finally, after 4 long years, I, Colin Fabry, have reached 6.0 in my diabetic road, all the while traveling this black road, the Moldy road. After going from 10.3 to 9.2. An from 9.2 to 8.4; down to 7.5 and then to 7.0, I am finally at 6, the glorious 6.
I'm still traveling, I'm still going, and I'll never stop. Not until I die. Striving. That's what I'm doing. And I'll keep on striving.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Tim Hawkins
Okay, this is a very short post but, I'm working on one right now other than this one. But I just thought of comedian you guys might like. His name is Tim Hawkins and he's a christian jokester. Here's his Youtube Channel. THANKS!!!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Pendragon Series
The Pendragon series is by far the best book series I've ever read. D.J Machale is one of the best writer's I've heard of.
I've just recently finished the pendragon series. I started the series December 25th, and finished it February 20th. The average amount of pages in each book is about 400 pages. When I was reading it, I was reading 100 pages or more every night. No joke. Yes, no joke.
This is one of my shortest posts, but, like my left behind series "check up" this is just another "check up."
See ya'.
I've just recently finished the pendragon series. I started the series December 25th, and finished it February 20th. The average amount of pages in each book is about 400 pages. When I was reading it, I was reading 100 pages or more every night. No joke. Yes, no joke.
This is one of my shortest posts, but, like my left behind series "check up" this is just another "check up."
See ya'.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Journey
We all have a journey. Whether it's good or bad, I have no idea, but, there's no other way to say it. We all have a journey.
I think that all journeys start at birth. It’s the pathway to a brand new life, therefore a pathway to a brand new journey. As a baby, the only things you think about are eating, sleeping, and every once in a while, going to the bathroom in your diapers. As you grow older, you start to think about eating sleeping, and going to the bathroom NOT in your diapers because you've been watching the dogs too much.
But once you get to a certain age, you start to go to school, to get education. After that you get to elementary, where all the kids are friendly and are easy to make friends with. Then before you know it, it comes the stage of middle school that is definite peer pressure. Or when you start to drive a car and get stuck behind this slow old grandma and grandpa (no offence to the older ones who are reading this.) Or maybe yours is like mine, tiny lessons fit in to the long and hardworking journey. These are just a few examples of journeys, mine however lies beyond the cold school brick walls filled with fish glitter paintings that you drew in 2nd grade. Far beyond.
Sure, my journey is near a school, and I went to it. But, it wasn't my school that I would remember in Colorado, it was my house. And in that house lay my memories of elementary school, on the table and scattered on the ground around the front door as we walked home from the bus stop. Sure, I can still remember the times I would get in trouble and how the lumps ever so slowly rose in my throat. Sure, I can still remember the times where I would be so proud of my smiley faces on my papers and show it to my friends, trying not to let the teacher see. But compared to the journey that involve my family and my health that lie asleep in my house, the memories of school are just a mirage of what lies behind it. Mold.
That is my journey. I know you're thinking that the journey is just fighting mold and that I'll get better soon and that a new journey will arise. But it won't. At least, not yet. I still have a long path to follow, and whether I stray to the right or left, I won't know until the occasion will pop its head up.
The good thing about a journey is that when one ends you can always count on a new one taking its place. The journey may be a long and grueling one, like the one me and my family are enduring, or it may be a short little experience that will remind you of the lesson learned that you could use in your abundant journey.
We all have a journey, there's no other way to say it. Whether it's good or bad, you and I will never know, until the journey shows you the way. The journey is your life. Be careful how you lead it, or be careful how it leads you.
I think that all journeys start at birth. It’s the pathway to a brand new life, therefore a pathway to a brand new journey. As a baby, the only things you think about are eating, sleeping, and every once in a while, going to the bathroom in your diapers. As you grow older, you start to think about eating sleeping, and going to the bathroom NOT in your diapers because you've been watching the dogs too much.
But once you get to a certain age, you start to go to school, to get education. After that you get to elementary, where all the kids are friendly and are easy to make friends with. Then before you know it, it comes the stage of middle school that is definite peer pressure. Or when you start to drive a car and get stuck behind this slow old grandma and grandpa (no offence to the older ones who are reading this.) Or maybe yours is like mine, tiny lessons fit in to the long and hardworking journey. These are just a few examples of journeys, mine however lies beyond the cold school brick walls filled with fish glitter paintings that you drew in 2nd grade. Far beyond.
Sure, my journey is near a school, and I went to it. But, it wasn't my school that I would remember in Colorado, it was my house. And in that house lay my memories of elementary school, on the table and scattered on the ground around the front door as we walked home from the bus stop. Sure, I can still remember the times I would get in trouble and how the lumps ever so slowly rose in my throat. Sure, I can still remember the times where I would be so proud of my smiley faces on my papers and show it to my friends, trying not to let the teacher see. But compared to the journey that involve my family and my health that lie asleep in my house, the memories of school are just a mirage of what lies behind it. Mold.
That is my journey. I know you're thinking that the journey is just fighting mold and that I'll get better soon and that a new journey will arise. But it won't. At least, not yet. I still have a long path to follow, and whether I stray to the right or left, I won't know until the occasion will pop its head up.
The good thing about a journey is that when one ends you can always count on a new one taking its place. The journey may be a long and grueling one, like the one me and my family are enduring, or it may be a short little experience that will remind you of the lesson learned that you could use in your abundant journey.
We all have a journey, there's no other way to say it. Whether it's good or bad, you and I will never know, until the journey shows you the way. The journey is your life. Be careful how you lead it, or be careful how it leads you.
Monday, May 9, 2011
A Story
Not only did leaving my house cost money, my house (of course), my dog, and my belongings, but it cost me and my family friends. for the last couple of months I have been very busy- as you can tell by reading my last blog post- with writing what is below these words with a friend.
When we relocated to Arizona, I really didn't have time to find any friends. What with the getting healthier and all. She found me through this blog, that I'm writing on (although it'll all already be written by the time you guys read it, but still) and we've been connected for a long time. We've both been busy with the same thing for a limited time. The story you are about to read is what we worked on (over phone, and trust me it's not as easy as it seems) for two whole weeks and just barely got it in for the deadline.
We both hope you really like the story. Oh, and by the way, you might want to keep in mind that me and Kathryn (that's her name) both have diabetes. So, yeah, HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!
The Diabetic Detectives:
Case #1
Colin Fabry & Kathryn Brenner
March 2011
Writing 6
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to our parents who so lovingly get up with us in the night, even though they hate the smell of insulin and nighttime (and daytime) injections as much as we do (Colin's dad's blog 3/8/11/ blog post The Scent of Insulin)
And to Noah, Rufus, Ruby, and Pumpernickel, who help us POW!!! our feelings about diabetes,
And to our D-teams,
And to Colin’s siblings who anxiously waited for the end of the story and to Kathryn’s grumpy cat named Gretchen who appreciated the peace and quiet of Kathryn being otherwise occupied while writing.
Prologue: Elisabeth
Why? All I have to say is: why? Why was I one out of the 2 people to hunt down the criminal (s)? Why did Andrew have to get into this mess? Why was I nearly killed? Why, why, why, why, why? Everything that my brain’s trying to process right now just won’t.
I guess I should start from the beginning. I’ll start with my name; it’s Elisabeth, Elisabeth Monroe to be exact. My friends call me Lisa, just so they don’t have to go through the whole process of saying, ee-li-sa-beth, instead, they just call me Lisa. My name is just the beginning. The tale I’m about to tell you starts in a school. My school. It’s not the kind of school you would think of though. In fact, none of my other friends have any idea of how the school works. That’s because they’ve never been there. No, no, no, this story starts at my house. Confused? Well, my home is my school and my school is my home. Ugh fine, I’m homeschooled. Sheesh. I should probably tell you that the only reason I was at home doing my schoolwork that was sent for me, was because I had gotten so sick that I never got better, I could barely stop myself from going to the restroom every 5 seconds, literally. I was feeling nauseas all the time, so I could barely step out of my house without nearly gagging, sorry to make such a bad picture, but, it’s true. Anyway, it starts at my house/school where I was doing my math. I was studying 2-D and 3-D solid figures. I was at the part where I was trying to figure out this problem where it asked which picture was a rectangular pyramid or a rectangular prism; it’s all a very complex, and confusing process just to figure out which one is which.
Anyway, back to topic, while I was trying to figure out this somewhat strange problem, I heard something that made me jump like a stalking jaguar jumping for its prey. It was the phone. Phew. I thought that I was the jaguars prey for a moment there. I tried to stand up, but unfortunately my adrenaline didn’t take over. I thought for a moment that I had just figured out that Justin Bieber was in the house and I couldn’t believe it, so I slumped back onto the couch and just stared at him. I didn’t see Justin Bieber, I didn’t fall back on the couch (though I wish I would have,) and I definitely did not stare. At that moment, I closed my eyes. I don’t know exactly what happened but I can tell you it didn’t feel good. The last thing I saw was the caller ID, it read: Mom & Dad, and then I was blown into next week.
Chapter 1: Ruby
Hi, I’m Ruby. Ruby Monroe. Perhaps you’ve met my owner, Elisabeth. Anyway, I’m in big trouble. I can’t find Elisabeth and her cell phone is out of range. The last thing that might be a clue to where she went would be the sirens and flashing lights outside our house. Someone knocked the door down over me and I got knocked unconscious. I only woke up about 15 minutes ago. I wonder if it was paramedics because I saw Elisabeth try to get to the phone and fall backwards. But wouldn’t they check to make sure they hadn’t clonked any bears unconscious?!
When I regained consciousness I realized my good friend Clyde was calling me, so I answered.
“Ruby, meet me in the ER in a ½ an hour.” Clyde was beginning to crack up and I heard the urgency in his voice. “Why?” I said. It was the only question he could hopefully answer easily. He answered by saying, “Andrew just raced out the door. Didn’t appreciate it when his mom called him back and made him tell where he was off to in such a hurry.” I started to ask if he was sure he was going to the hospital, but he cut me off. “Wait, there’s more, he mumbled something about a friend in the ER.”
That was it. Those were the words I was hoping I wouldn’t hear. I decided to tell him about what was happening in a quick statement, “All right, Elisabeth just went to the ER by ambulance. I don’t think she was conscious either. It may not be enough information right now, but I’ll tell you more at the hospital soon. Bye.” I hung up the phone and ran/snuck (if you have seen Toy Story, you know what I mean) the whole 2 ½ blocks to the hospital. It was a grueling walk; especially since I’m a really small bear and I don’t have a car. Plus, I’d be too small to even reach the pedal.
I snuck into the waiting room and almost laughed out loud. Clyde had been found and was being hugged and cuddled by a little kid. I saw him roll his eyes and grunt. She was yanking his ear and pulling his leg. I felt bad for him, but it was only fair.
You see, there was a time when Elisabeth’s mom was babysitting for Andrew, who brought Clyde along. Well, Andrew and Elisabeth ran off somewhere. Elisabeth’s mom had strict orders not to let us out of her sight while Andrew and Elisabeth played. So she put us on the bathroom counter and started bath water, and went to find clothes for after her bath. Well, Clyde decided not to let me get up to the top of the cupboard we were racing for, so he opened the door I was climbing. I fell off and landed in the tub which was full of water. Elisabeth’s mom was surprised to see a bear in her newly warmed tub, and almost let out a scream, but didn’t. She quickly dried me off and didn’t tell Elisabeth either.
Anyway, I looked back to see a nurse call the kid holding Clyde. I thought for a moment that the kid would put him back down, but she confidently took him with her. The mom didn’t even try to stop her. Oh well. At least I hear the nurse say, “Katy, you’re in room 307 and the girl across the hall is Elisabeth, and she has the same thing you have.” I quietly flopped down at her feet, and Katy reached down and picked me up as well. They went up, and the girl put Clyde and me on her bed and the nurse and her parents went to meet her CDE.
Clyde and I raced across the hall where we found the door was open; we stole a glance around and quickly dived under the bed without being seen. I peeked out when Clyde poked me and said, “Those shoes there are Andrew’s.” We were so happy to find our people we decided to party. We weren’t quite sure how though. But, don’t worry. We’ll do it quietly.
I stole a glance at Elisabeth’s blood glucose monitor. It read: HIGH. I quickly shot Clyde a look of panic; I could tell he had seen the same thing. “What should we do?!” I said, really starting to get worked up.
“We should probably get to the insulin,” he said, except way more calmly than me.
We expertly dived, dipped, dropped, spun, and did all the things bears could possibly do. We finally got to the insulin cabinet, looked in to find there was no insulin. We suddenly realized the truth. Of course! That’s why there were no doctors in Elisabeth’s room…they were trying to find the insulin! The truth suddenly hit us both in the face. The insulin…was missing.
Chapter 2: Elisabeth
It was pitch black. That’s the only way to describe it. When I was taken to the hospital, the only thing that I heard or felt (I couldn’t see) was the frantic activity in the ambulance. People were running around in that tiny space of the 6 foot wide car. Every 15 seconds or so, I would feel hands on my head or chest, checking to see if I was still alive. I’m happy to report I didn’t die. I guess it’s just luck. Or it was God with me.
When I got to the hospital, I woke up about, I don’t know, 5 hours later? It definitely felt like that. But the doctors told me it was really like, only like an hour. I don’t trust the doctors. I think that they tell you that you were asleep for only a little while, when you were asleep for a really long time.
Anyway, when I woke up, the first thing that I saw was my mom’s head on the right side of my bed. I don’t know why she didn’t scoot up closer to me though. Oh yeah, it was because there were these tall “arm rests” on either side of the bed. I guess that if she had scooted closer, she probably would be sent into past-out land too. But that’s only if she were running at it as fast as she could.
“You’re awake!” she said in a groggily voice.
“Water,” I said in a much more groggily voice. She handed me a Styrofoam cup with about 1 and a ½ inches in diameter. “How long?” I asked, even though she would probably tell me the same thing the misguided doctors would say.
“About an hour and 25 minutes”
See.
“Where am I?” I said, even though I logically knew that I was in the hospital.
“You’re in urgent care, we’re going to take care of you,” she said confidently. “There’s someone here to see you,” she declared. “You can come in now,” she screamed.
The curtain was pulled back in almost a dramatic way. Yup I knew who it was.
“What’s up, Big Shot?” I said with a laugh.
“Oh nothin’, just stoppin’ by to see if you were okay or not. And just because I take shots doesn’t mean you have the right to call me Big Shot,” he said with a smile. That was good old Andrew. “How are you feeling? You’ve been out for quite a while.” He said. It’s just another one of those clues that doctors don’t always tell you the truth. He said it as if he cared; usually he never cares about me. Probably because I’m a girl, and I talk about girl stuff.
“Mom, can we talk private?” I asked, my voice cracking up. She got up and walked out while Andrew gave her a reassuring smile and one of those thank-you-so-much looks. That smile would not last.
“Do you know yet?” he said.
“Know what?” I asked.
“About what happened,” he said
“No” I said slowly. “What exactly did happen?” I whispered with a smile. He didn’t smile back.
“You were diagnosed,” he said plainly.
“Diagnosed with what?” I pushed. He held back for a moment and pursed his lips, and said, “You were diagnosed with, diabetes.” That’s when his non-smile dropped, with his head hanging down a couple of feet lower than he usually would have if he were sad. He wasn’t the only one who was sad. Except I had 2 different emotions going around, one was sadness, the other was complete surprise. Did I hear right? Diabetes? Andrew was practically the only friend I had, and he was diagnosed with diabetes 3 ½ years ago. “Well, I don’t have and excuse anymore to call you Big Shot, looks like we’re both big shots,” I said with a smile. His frown didn’t turn upside down, as they say. It just got worse.
“Elisabeth,” he began, “I know you’ve only known for a couple seconds, but I know you know a lot about diabetes already. You’ve watched me for a couple of years and you’ve learned along the way. But I’m going to tell you something that’s classified, even the doctors won’t tell their patients,” he said. See. The doctors do keep secrets. But I didn’t say that, I just listened, being very intrigued. “The insulin is missing,” he said with his frown turning even darker. “I know it sounds crazy, but, you have to believe me. I’ve checked all around the hospital and couldn’t find a single vile of any type of insulin. I know it’s a lot to take in at one time, but when you get healthier, we’re going to solve this thing together. I promise.” Now that he said with a smile, which made my face brighten up as well.
The next week or so, I spent my time learning more about diabetes. I learned how to do my own testing, my own shots, and figure out how much to dose for the food I was eating. It may not sound very fun, and let me tell you it wasn’t, but one thing that kept me going was the promise Andrew had made to me. That, and the fact that I would be able to get this mystery thing solved. But the things I was eating in the hospital had no carbs, and all I was eating was either a type of meat like, chicken or beef. Or I was eating a bunch of weird tasting vegetables. I kept on trying to ask the doctors why they didn’t dose me for anything with carbs, but all I got were some dirty looks and words like, “it’s none of your business,” or “just wait and you’ll get it,” or something like that. You’d think that doctors would be nice to their patients. Well let me tell you, my doctors were not even close to nice to me.
It was finally the day that I would leave that grueling hospital and return to my sort of normal life. Unfortunately the next 24 hours were all that I didn’t want them to be.
When I left on that cloudy day with Andrew I had no idea what I was in for. One thing I was in for was a lifetime adventure. We were going to start looking at the nearest town. I know that you might think that it was a long way from here to the next town, but it actually was a very short ride. But what happened on that hour and a half was something I’ll never forget. I forgot to tell you that when I went to the hospital, I didn’t pass out because I was low, but I passed out because I was dangerously high. Anyway, we were almost to the halfway point of our trip when I began to feel my legs getting tired. I told Andrew that I needed to stop or I’d pass out. He smiled. His smile didn’t last at all. The moment I stopped, was the moment that my adrenaline decided to stop working, and I passed out. Everything went black. And I passed out, right there on the spot. This passing out thing was really getting old for me. I managed to say: “Andrew, go get help, then finish the mission.” The last thing I saw was Andrew fishing in my backpack looking for food. I saw him cover his face and say: “HEEEEEEELP!!!” And then I was gone.
Chapter 3: Ruby
Hi! It’s Ruby again. Oh and DON’T try to make me grumpy. I already am!
I was fast asleep dreaming about Clyde and I going to meet Jay Cutler (and look for his insulin in case you didn’t know he has diabetes, so that’s why we want to meet him. AND HE IS NO WIMP. He’s the bravest one out there to manage diabetes and pro football, so don’t even tell me he is a wimp until YOU manage both, too!) when I got shaken awake.
Some kid, some lousy kid, a random kid was digging through Elisabeth’s backpack. The kid put me in some other bag where I heard a familiar voice. My friend Clyde poked me in the pack.
“Hi, Ruby. I hope you’re thankful for the broken landing because my nose hurts.”
“Sorry, Clyde,” I said. “What that Andrew who dropped me in here?”
He replied, “Yep. Sorry about that.”
I started to thank him for his sympathy, but he cut me off.
“Sorry for MY sake, not yours.”
So I just said, “You’re a really, really good friend, aren’t you?”
He gave me a smirk and said, “The best.”
Sigh, times about a hundred. I decided to forget what he had just said, so I said, “Why was Andrew digging through Elisabeth’s backpack?”
He hesitated and said, “I was getting to that; it’s the bad news. Sure you want to hear it?”
I answered, “Of course, she’s my owner” sounding a lot more annoyed that I meant to.
He said, “If that’s how you’re going to act like that, forget I was going to tell you anything.”
I said, “Sorry, Clyde, it’s just I got scared when you said bad news about Elisabeth. I mean so much has happened recently.”
His reply was not the “Oh, quit telling me about feeling scared” (I used to tease him about being a scaredy beardy) but he said, “I’m sorry, too, Ruby. I was kinda mean , too.” Then he explained to me that Elisabeth had passed out from low blood sugar. Andrew couldn’t find her cell phone, and his was out of service days. The glucagons had been stolen with the insulin so Elisabeth didn’t have one.
Just then something hit me on the head and Clyde grabbed it and pushed it out of the bag. He told me he would be right back. He jumped out of the bag, and I heard a bear-sized thud. A few seconds later, Clyde reappeared and said, “It was Andrew’s glucagon!” Then he said, “I put it in Elisabeth’s bag. “
Right then we heard an excited cry. Andrew then said, “I found it, Elisabeth’s glucagon.” Then we heard, “Darn it. It expired two weeks ago.”
Chapter 4: Andrew
Ever since we left Antioch, Illinois, I was afraid of what might happen along our short trek. Unfortunately my worst fears came true. When we were about to leave, Elisa’s mom told her to come back inside to take some insulin. Elisa came reluctantly, and told me on our bike ride that she had only taken a little bit of insulin, because they were going on the ride. She told me not to worry. But I had plenty to worry about. When she told me that she needed to stop and rest, was when she stopped working. She passed out. I had to move her farther off the road or she would have been road kill. All I could do was watch and hope that she would wake up. She never did. I was ready to give up and go get some help when I found her back-pack; I fished through it, desperately looking for something, anything. I couldn’t find anything. That’s when I remembered, she had a hidden compartment where she hid her glucagon. I found the secret compartment, opened it up and found…nothing. Absolutely nothing. That’s when I remembered. Of course! I could use mine! The idea gave me hope. I found what I was looking for in my 3rd zipper. I lost my hope when I saw the expiration date, February 15th. That was more than 2 weeks ago. I finally made the snap decision that I would go get help from the town up ahead. Of course, there was a surprise waiting for me there as well.
I started pedaling as fast as I could down the long, narrow road toward civilization. At least I thought it was a long road, when it really wasn’t. When I felt like my legs were going to collapse below me, I stopped and took a rest. I really wished I had brought some food. That’s when I heard it. And felt it. I heard a whoosh whoosh whoosh and turned around. I wished I hadn’t. Behind me was a tall scrawny masked figure with a lasso in his right hand, the other held the end that was holding me. I tried to stand up to run away and get the heck out of there, but he dropped the other rope and pulled with all his force. This gut may have been skinny, but he was strong. “What’s going on?!” I demanded. He didn’t answer. “Who are you?!” I questioned again, this time with more force. He still didn’t answer.
“Hold still and you won’t be harmed,” he said. What? Why would he want to harm me? Why was he doing this? Was he under orders? But, how was I fitted in to all this? That’s when I got the idea. “Maybe you can help me, my friend is just up the road a-ways, she’s unconscious.” I said.
“Does this friend have a name like, Elisabeth?” he said with almost a robotic voice.
“What did you do to her?” I demanded.
“You’ll know soon enough, if you’ll come with me.” He said once again with the robot voice.
“Fine” I said reluctantly.
He led me along a narrow path that snaked along the giant tall grasses of the countryside that grew between Antioch and Benet Lake. I always loved coming here with Elisa and my parents and some of my other friends. We’d always play hide and seek tag. The rules to the game were simple. 1st you hide. 2nd you wait ‘till the counter counts, then the seeker comes out and, what else, seeks. But there’s an extra rule, in order to be found, you had to be tagged, and you could move around to different spots. Unfortunately I wasn’t here to play games, I was here to try and find insulin that is nowhere to be found and now I’m being led by a guy who sounds like a robot to a place that is in the middle of nowhere and Elisa is back on the road passed out, not getting any higher. Did I leave anything out?
When we reached our destination (which was in the middle of nowhere by the way) I could feel my sugar dropping. I knew that wasn’t a good thing. What was going on? Less than 60 minutes ago, I was riding my bike alongside Elisa, and now I’m in front of a shack that’s in the middle of nowhere. Oh. And I forgot to tell you that there was a bag over my head. The only reason I knew it was a narrow path and that it was in the middle of the countryside was because the robotic guy wasn’t nice enough to tell me if I was going to run into a big giant thicket of grass or not. Every time I went to the other side to get away from that side I was hit with another thicket. Anyway, when he took my bag off I could immediately smell all the must that was coming from inside, which made me cough. I’m happy to say that they gave me a seat. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stand for another 5 seconds.
When I was finally seated, I saw a shadowy figure step out of the dusty shadows. And then another. And another. I’m estimating that there was about 15-25 people inside the shack. They were all teenagers, guys and girls, I’m surprised to say. But the last person who stepped out surprised me the most. It was Claudia. I can’t believe I’m saying it but, it was. For those of you who might not know, Claudia was mine and Elisa’s 1st grade assistant to the teacher. She was an 8th grader at that time, and was studying what she might want to be when she grew up. When our teacher would leave the room, Claudia would take over completely and work us to death. Literally. Okay not literally, but almost. As the teacher closed the door she would always say, “okay now class, Claudia’s in charge ‘till I get back. ‘kay? Be good.” Right when the door closed Claudia would wait a few seconds to make sure she was gone, and then start her boot camp. “Alright, you heard her! You listen to me, now do 100 push-ups! Go, go, go, go, go!” she would say.
Claudia was always the mean type and never understood the rules, let alone obeyed them. It didn’t surprise me that she would want to capture me and take me to a broken-down shack. I expected her to say, “alright, 100 push-ups, oh and just so you don’t get cold feet, the floor has loose floorboards and has lava at the bottom of it.” Yeah, she was that mean.
Claudia came from a bad background. Her parents were divorced, she didn’t have many friends, (which I’m surprised she even has this many people in the shack with her) and never really learned anything in school.
“H-hey C-Claudia,” I said with a stutter.
“Looks like someone’s got a mission, and has a friend along the ride,” she said with a smirk.
“Where is she?” I demanded, this time with no stutter.
“Oh I don’t know, maybe she’s not here, or maybe she is,” she chuckled. She was really ticking me off.
“What did you do to…?” I said. I was fading. Fast. Remember when I said that I felt low when I came in the shack? Well unfortunately, my blood sugar didn’t get any higher, but it kept dropping, and dropping. Luckily I didn’t pass out. Phew. Partly because they had food for me. But it wasn’t really food though, it was more like garbage, really bad tasting garbage. But it did bring me up.
“Do you need insulin? I’ve got plenty of it,” she said while laughing. What? How does she have insulin? And, why her, she doesn’t even have diabetes. At first I didn’t believe her a bit. But I did after she opened up a giant cupboard. It was full of…insulin viles.
Chapter 5: Ruby
Sheesh! I was grumpy the last time I wrote but now I’M REALLY SCARED! After the glucagon incident, Clyde and I went to sleep. We just got woken up and climbed out of the bag. I realized we were in a dimly lit closet. I then heard a sound that I thought must have come out of a Star Wars movie. I was about to yell, “Clyde, we’re in the middle of Star Wars. Don’t you hear R2D2?” But all I got out was “Cly-” He clapped a hand over my mouth. He pointed a paw over to a shadowy figure in the corner and said, “It’s Elisabeth. She’s tied up.” We silently crept over and realized the R2D2 beeps were her snoring. We untied her without waking her up. We went over to the bag and grabbed something and dropped it on the cement floor. The crash woke her up.
She rubbed her eyes and said, “I need out of here. The key is up….” And fell back asleep again.
Clyde and I looked up to see the key dangling from the ceiling by a string. Clyde scurried right up the wall, reached out and caught the string and swung on it like a rope swing. He bit the string, and down he fell. And the key. Then we realized it. How should we tell Elisabeth? I decided safety over secrecy, so I bent over, shook Elisabeth awake and said, “Elisabeth, we got the key. You can save Andrew. He is outside of this closet. I can hear him.”
At first Elisabeth just listened, but I think just then, she really woke up.
“Who are you?” She demanded, alarm in her voice.
“I’m Ruby, your teddy bear. Yes, I’m alive,” I said. “Now go save the day, Girl! Go! Go! Go!”
She got up mumbling, “Ruby is alive. Ruby is alive. I’m obviously freaking out. Bears can’t talk, bears can’t talk, they can’t, no sir-ee.” She took the key, jumped up, and unlocked the door. That surprised us all, but we acted calm. Luckily the people who captured us didn’t hear it.
After Elisa untied Andrew, he jumped up and said, “Look at this!” A girl Elisabeth seemed to recognize tried to stop him but didn’t. I was the only one who saw her though. I was about to tell Andrew but what I saw was too much. Andrew threw open a cupboard of INSULIN! My jaw touched the floor. Literally. Well, almost literally.
Elisabeth said, “Looks like we solved the mystery.”
Chapter 6: Elisabeth
Wow. All I have to say is, wow. I went from my house to the ER. The ER back to my house. My house to a road where I passed out. A road to a musty old shack. And then I start talking to talking bears. I’m obviously freaking out.
It’s Elisabeth again, in case you wanted to know. I know, you were expecting Andrew, but at this time, he’s in the middle of the shack being interrogated by the person he was afraid of in school. I don’t blame him. When we were doing push-ups one day, we were doing it long enough for our teacher to return and see what we were doing. She later figured out that it was Claudia who put us up to it. She got fired from her job, if you could call it that. Ever since Claudia’s parents’ divorced, there was something different about her. Luckily it wasn’t that she was meaner, but that she would leave us all alone. Of course we weren’t the ones who were alone. Claudia was stuck in a jail cell for at least 2 months. I’m saying was because, I thought that you might want to know that this is a journal. Yes, a journal. When you read the entries in Andrew’s perspective, I was really writing it. But he was telling me what to write while I wrote it. Just thought that you might want to know that minor detail.
Anyway. Back to when I was in the shack.
All I could do was stare at my bear. Andrew’s bear and mine were talking to me. This was crazy. I wished, no, I hoped it was just another dream. “This is just a dream. This is just a dream,” I kept telling myself. “Does this feel like a dream?” Clyde said while whacking me across the cheek. “Clyde!” Ruby said while punching him in the shoulder. All I did was stare at them breathlessly. “Are you going to help us save Andrew or what?” Clyde asked.
“W-what?” I stammered.
“Elisa, I’ve been your bear for a very long time, and I’ve never heard you back out of anything before. Why should right now be any different?” Ruby questioned.
“Only because stuffed animals are talking to me,” I said frightened. But what Ruby said made me make up my mind and go ahead and try to save Andrew. Even though stuffed bears were talking to me.
I quickly poked my head out of the door to see that Andrew was alone. I looked around to see if I could find anybody who might try to jump out and re-capture me again. I didn’t find anyone, luckily. I ran over to Andrew, who looked totally dazed.
“Are you low?” I whispered.
“Well, if you call riding a bike for a while just to be thrown in a broken-down shack and then showed something that could make me puke, then, yes, I feel low,” he remarked with a smile.
Epilogue
Claudia sat still in her quiet lonely prison cell. She thought about what had happened, Elisabeth escaping from the closet, the interrogating session, if you can call it that, with Andrew. It went something like this:
Claudia: “So what do you plan on doing about us? Or should I say would you plan on doing?
Andrew: If you’re meaning is you think Elisabeth and I won’t escape, you’re wrong!
Claudia: Oh, really!
Andrew: Yes, as a matter of fact, I think that’s her now!
As Claudia turned to look, Andrew turned and ran to the insulin cupboard. As he looked at the insulin, a thought suddenly struck him. He pulled out his cell phone, punched 9 then 1 as a hand silently reached over his shoulder and grabbed it. As he spun around, Claudia stood behind him.
“Sit back down and let’s finish our interrogation.”
They did.
Claudia was suddenly brought to present time by a voice.
“Claudia, Claudia, it’s me, Elisabeth.”
“Who? Oh, hi. I can’t believe you would do this to me.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t make that choice based on you. I made it based on other people’s safety.”
Claudia hung her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” She started to explain why she had committed the crime, but Elisabeth stopped her.
“I heard it from the police, if you don’t want to tell me.”
Suddenly Claudia heard another voice.
“Elisabeth,” a girl that looked about four said, pulling her arm. Elisabeth leaned down and the girl whispered in her ear, “Elisabeth, can I talk to her?”
“Sure, Katy,” Elisabeth said, patting her on the hand.
The little girl looked at Claudia and said, “I’m Katy. I’m four, and I have diabetes, too. Elisabeth and I were diagnosed together. She’s babysitting me.” Katy paused and said, “Elisabeth came to see if you wanted to become a Christian.”
Claudia looked surprised and snapped, “If that is why you’re here, you might as well leave because your loving, caring God forgot about me long ago.”
Elisabeth started to protest, but Claudia cut her off. “If God loved me, why did he make my parents divorce? Why did he give me diabetes? And you, too?”
At this, Katy spoke up with a very surprising amount of confidence. “God did not give us diabetes.”
Claudia said, “Well, then, why do we have it? Answer that!”
“He didn’t give it to us! He allowed us to get it because allowing Adam and Eve the choice to obey him. They sinned, and sickness and death entered the world. But, God loves us and helps us, and someday there will be no more diabetes or suffering or death.”
“Wait. You mean God does care?”
Elisabeth spoke, “Yes! The Bible says that so many times.” Elisabeth handed Claudia a Bible. “I highlighted some verses for you.”
Claudia quietly said, “Can we pray?”
“Of course,” Elisabeth said.
Claudia softly uttered the words, “Dear Jesus, You know I’ve done so many things wrong in my life. It means so much that Elisabeth who I tried to hurt would lead me to you. Please forgive me. Amen.” Then she said, “I don’t know if prayers are supposed to have P.S.s but this one does. Katy is so totally right. You didn’t give us this disease.”
Just then Andrew walked in. “Hi!” Upon seeing their faces, he asked uncertainly, “Did I miss something?”
Katy said, “Only Claudia becoming a Christian.”
Andrew said, “Welcome to the family!” with a smile.
When we relocated to Arizona, I really didn't have time to find any friends. What with the getting healthier and all. She found me through this blog, that I'm writing on (although it'll all already be written by the time you guys read it, but still) and we've been connected for a long time. We've both been busy with the same thing for a limited time. The story you are about to read is what we worked on (over phone, and trust me it's not as easy as it seems) for two whole weeks and just barely got it in for the deadline.
We both hope you really like the story. Oh, and by the way, you might want to keep in mind that me and Kathryn (that's her name) both have diabetes. So, yeah, HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!
The Diabetic Detectives:
Case #1
Colin Fabry & Kathryn Brenner
March 2011
Writing 6
Dedication:
This book is dedicated to our parents who so lovingly get up with us in the night, even though they hate the smell of insulin and nighttime (and daytime) injections as much as we do (Colin's dad's blog 3/8/11/ blog post The Scent of Insulin)
And to Noah, Rufus, Ruby, and Pumpernickel, who help us POW!!! our feelings about diabetes,
And to our D-teams,
And to Colin’s siblings who anxiously waited for the end of the story and to Kathryn’s grumpy cat named Gretchen who appreciated the peace and quiet of Kathryn being otherwise occupied while writing.
Prologue: Elisabeth
Why? All I have to say is: why? Why was I one out of the 2 people to hunt down the criminal (s)? Why did Andrew have to get into this mess? Why was I nearly killed? Why, why, why, why, why? Everything that my brain’s trying to process right now just won’t.
I guess I should start from the beginning. I’ll start with my name; it’s Elisabeth, Elisabeth Monroe to be exact. My friends call me Lisa, just so they don’t have to go through the whole process of saying, ee-li-sa-beth, instead, they just call me Lisa. My name is just the beginning. The tale I’m about to tell you starts in a school. My school. It’s not the kind of school you would think of though. In fact, none of my other friends have any idea of how the school works. That’s because they’ve never been there. No, no, no, this story starts at my house. Confused? Well, my home is my school and my school is my home. Ugh fine, I’m homeschooled. Sheesh. I should probably tell you that the only reason I was at home doing my schoolwork that was sent for me, was because I had gotten so sick that I never got better, I could barely stop myself from going to the restroom every 5 seconds, literally. I was feeling nauseas all the time, so I could barely step out of my house without nearly gagging, sorry to make such a bad picture, but, it’s true. Anyway, it starts at my house/school where I was doing my math. I was studying 2-D and 3-D solid figures. I was at the part where I was trying to figure out this problem where it asked which picture was a rectangular pyramid or a rectangular prism; it’s all a very complex, and confusing process just to figure out which one is which.
Anyway, back to topic, while I was trying to figure out this somewhat strange problem, I heard something that made me jump like a stalking jaguar jumping for its prey. It was the phone. Phew. I thought that I was the jaguars prey for a moment there. I tried to stand up, but unfortunately my adrenaline didn’t take over. I thought for a moment that I had just figured out that Justin Bieber was in the house and I couldn’t believe it, so I slumped back onto the couch and just stared at him. I didn’t see Justin Bieber, I didn’t fall back on the couch (though I wish I would have,) and I definitely did not stare. At that moment, I closed my eyes. I don’t know exactly what happened but I can tell you it didn’t feel good. The last thing I saw was the caller ID, it read: Mom & Dad, and then I was blown into next week.
Chapter 1: Ruby
Hi, I’m Ruby. Ruby Monroe. Perhaps you’ve met my owner, Elisabeth. Anyway, I’m in big trouble. I can’t find Elisabeth and her cell phone is out of range. The last thing that might be a clue to where she went would be the sirens and flashing lights outside our house. Someone knocked the door down over me and I got knocked unconscious. I only woke up about 15 minutes ago. I wonder if it was paramedics because I saw Elisabeth try to get to the phone and fall backwards. But wouldn’t they check to make sure they hadn’t clonked any bears unconscious?!
When I regained consciousness I realized my good friend Clyde was calling me, so I answered.
“Ruby, meet me in the ER in a ½ an hour.” Clyde was beginning to crack up and I heard the urgency in his voice. “Why?” I said. It was the only question he could hopefully answer easily. He answered by saying, “Andrew just raced out the door. Didn’t appreciate it when his mom called him back and made him tell where he was off to in such a hurry.” I started to ask if he was sure he was going to the hospital, but he cut me off. “Wait, there’s more, he mumbled something about a friend in the ER.”
That was it. Those were the words I was hoping I wouldn’t hear. I decided to tell him about what was happening in a quick statement, “All right, Elisabeth just went to the ER by ambulance. I don’t think she was conscious either. It may not be enough information right now, but I’ll tell you more at the hospital soon. Bye.” I hung up the phone and ran/snuck (if you have seen Toy Story, you know what I mean) the whole 2 ½ blocks to the hospital. It was a grueling walk; especially since I’m a really small bear and I don’t have a car. Plus, I’d be too small to even reach the pedal.
I snuck into the waiting room and almost laughed out loud. Clyde had been found and was being hugged and cuddled by a little kid. I saw him roll his eyes and grunt. She was yanking his ear and pulling his leg. I felt bad for him, but it was only fair.
You see, there was a time when Elisabeth’s mom was babysitting for Andrew, who brought Clyde along. Well, Andrew and Elisabeth ran off somewhere. Elisabeth’s mom had strict orders not to let us out of her sight while Andrew and Elisabeth played. So she put us on the bathroom counter and started bath water, and went to find clothes for after her bath. Well, Clyde decided not to let me get up to the top of the cupboard we were racing for, so he opened the door I was climbing. I fell off and landed in the tub which was full of water. Elisabeth’s mom was surprised to see a bear in her newly warmed tub, and almost let out a scream, but didn’t. She quickly dried me off and didn’t tell Elisabeth either.
Anyway, I looked back to see a nurse call the kid holding Clyde. I thought for a moment that the kid would put him back down, but she confidently took him with her. The mom didn’t even try to stop her. Oh well. At least I hear the nurse say, “Katy, you’re in room 307 and the girl across the hall is Elisabeth, and she has the same thing you have.” I quietly flopped down at her feet, and Katy reached down and picked me up as well. They went up, and the girl put Clyde and me on her bed and the nurse and her parents went to meet her CDE.
Clyde and I raced across the hall where we found the door was open; we stole a glance around and quickly dived under the bed without being seen. I peeked out when Clyde poked me and said, “Those shoes there are Andrew’s.” We were so happy to find our people we decided to party. We weren’t quite sure how though. But, don’t worry. We’ll do it quietly.
I stole a glance at Elisabeth’s blood glucose monitor. It read: HIGH. I quickly shot Clyde a look of panic; I could tell he had seen the same thing. “What should we do?!” I said, really starting to get worked up.
“We should probably get to the insulin,” he said, except way more calmly than me.
We expertly dived, dipped, dropped, spun, and did all the things bears could possibly do. We finally got to the insulin cabinet, looked in to find there was no insulin. We suddenly realized the truth. Of course! That’s why there were no doctors in Elisabeth’s room…they were trying to find the insulin! The truth suddenly hit us both in the face. The insulin…was missing.
Chapter 2: Elisabeth
It was pitch black. That’s the only way to describe it. When I was taken to the hospital, the only thing that I heard or felt (I couldn’t see) was the frantic activity in the ambulance. People were running around in that tiny space of the 6 foot wide car. Every 15 seconds or so, I would feel hands on my head or chest, checking to see if I was still alive. I’m happy to report I didn’t die. I guess it’s just luck. Or it was God with me.
When I got to the hospital, I woke up about, I don’t know, 5 hours later? It definitely felt like that. But the doctors told me it was really like, only like an hour. I don’t trust the doctors. I think that they tell you that you were asleep for only a little while, when you were asleep for a really long time.
Anyway, when I woke up, the first thing that I saw was my mom’s head on the right side of my bed. I don’t know why she didn’t scoot up closer to me though. Oh yeah, it was because there were these tall “arm rests” on either side of the bed. I guess that if she had scooted closer, she probably would be sent into past-out land too. But that’s only if she were running at it as fast as she could.
“You’re awake!” she said in a groggily voice.
“Water,” I said in a much more groggily voice. She handed me a Styrofoam cup with about 1 and a ½ inches in diameter. “How long?” I asked, even though she would probably tell me the same thing the misguided doctors would say.
“About an hour and 25 minutes”
See.
“Where am I?” I said, even though I logically knew that I was in the hospital.
“You’re in urgent care, we’re going to take care of you,” she said confidently. “There’s someone here to see you,” she declared. “You can come in now,” she screamed.
The curtain was pulled back in almost a dramatic way. Yup I knew who it was.
“What’s up, Big Shot?” I said with a laugh.
“Oh nothin’, just stoppin’ by to see if you were okay or not. And just because I take shots doesn’t mean you have the right to call me Big Shot,” he said with a smile. That was good old Andrew. “How are you feeling? You’ve been out for quite a while.” He said. It’s just another one of those clues that doctors don’t always tell you the truth. He said it as if he cared; usually he never cares about me. Probably because I’m a girl, and I talk about girl stuff.
“Mom, can we talk private?” I asked, my voice cracking up. She got up and walked out while Andrew gave her a reassuring smile and one of those thank-you-so-much looks. That smile would not last.
“Do you know yet?” he said.
“Know what?” I asked.
“About what happened,” he said
“No” I said slowly. “What exactly did happen?” I whispered with a smile. He didn’t smile back.
“You were diagnosed,” he said plainly.
“Diagnosed with what?” I pushed. He held back for a moment and pursed his lips, and said, “You were diagnosed with, diabetes.” That’s when his non-smile dropped, with his head hanging down a couple of feet lower than he usually would have if he were sad. He wasn’t the only one who was sad. Except I had 2 different emotions going around, one was sadness, the other was complete surprise. Did I hear right? Diabetes? Andrew was practically the only friend I had, and he was diagnosed with diabetes 3 ½ years ago. “Well, I don’t have and excuse anymore to call you Big Shot, looks like we’re both big shots,” I said with a smile. His frown didn’t turn upside down, as they say. It just got worse.
“Elisabeth,” he began, “I know you’ve only known for a couple seconds, but I know you know a lot about diabetes already. You’ve watched me for a couple of years and you’ve learned along the way. But I’m going to tell you something that’s classified, even the doctors won’t tell their patients,” he said. See. The doctors do keep secrets. But I didn’t say that, I just listened, being very intrigued. “The insulin is missing,” he said with his frown turning even darker. “I know it sounds crazy, but, you have to believe me. I’ve checked all around the hospital and couldn’t find a single vile of any type of insulin. I know it’s a lot to take in at one time, but when you get healthier, we’re going to solve this thing together. I promise.” Now that he said with a smile, which made my face brighten up as well.
The next week or so, I spent my time learning more about diabetes. I learned how to do my own testing, my own shots, and figure out how much to dose for the food I was eating. It may not sound very fun, and let me tell you it wasn’t, but one thing that kept me going was the promise Andrew had made to me. That, and the fact that I would be able to get this mystery thing solved. But the things I was eating in the hospital had no carbs, and all I was eating was either a type of meat like, chicken or beef. Or I was eating a bunch of weird tasting vegetables. I kept on trying to ask the doctors why they didn’t dose me for anything with carbs, but all I got were some dirty looks and words like, “it’s none of your business,” or “just wait and you’ll get it,” or something like that. You’d think that doctors would be nice to their patients. Well let me tell you, my doctors were not even close to nice to me.
It was finally the day that I would leave that grueling hospital and return to my sort of normal life. Unfortunately the next 24 hours were all that I didn’t want them to be.
When I left on that cloudy day with Andrew I had no idea what I was in for. One thing I was in for was a lifetime adventure. We were going to start looking at the nearest town. I know that you might think that it was a long way from here to the next town, but it actually was a very short ride. But what happened on that hour and a half was something I’ll never forget. I forgot to tell you that when I went to the hospital, I didn’t pass out because I was low, but I passed out because I was dangerously high. Anyway, we were almost to the halfway point of our trip when I began to feel my legs getting tired. I told Andrew that I needed to stop or I’d pass out. He smiled. His smile didn’t last at all. The moment I stopped, was the moment that my adrenaline decided to stop working, and I passed out. Everything went black. And I passed out, right there on the spot. This passing out thing was really getting old for me. I managed to say: “Andrew, go get help, then finish the mission.” The last thing I saw was Andrew fishing in my backpack looking for food. I saw him cover his face and say: “HEEEEEEELP!!!” And then I was gone.
Chapter 3: Ruby
Hi! It’s Ruby again. Oh and DON’T try to make me grumpy. I already am!
I was fast asleep dreaming about Clyde and I going to meet Jay Cutler (and look for his insulin in case you didn’t know he has diabetes, so that’s why we want to meet him. AND HE IS NO WIMP. He’s the bravest one out there to manage diabetes and pro football, so don’t even tell me he is a wimp until YOU manage both, too!) when I got shaken awake.
Some kid, some lousy kid, a random kid was digging through Elisabeth’s backpack. The kid put me in some other bag where I heard a familiar voice. My friend Clyde poked me in the pack.
“Hi, Ruby. I hope you’re thankful for the broken landing because my nose hurts.”
“Sorry, Clyde,” I said. “What that Andrew who dropped me in here?”
He replied, “Yep. Sorry about that.”
I started to thank him for his sympathy, but he cut me off.
“Sorry for MY sake, not yours.”
So I just said, “You’re a really, really good friend, aren’t you?”
He gave me a smirk and said, “The best.”
Sigh, times about a hundred. I decided to forget what he had just said, so I said, “Why was Andrew digging through Elisabeth’s backpack?”
He hesitated and said, “I was getting to that; it’s the bad news. Sure you want to hear it?”
I answered, “Of course, she’s my owner” sounding a lot more annoyed that I meant to.
He said, “If that’s how you’re going to act like that, forget I was going to tell you anything.”
I said, “Sorry, Clyde, it’s just I got scared when you said bad news about Elisabeth. I mean so much has happened recently.”
His reply was not the “Oh, quit telling me about feeling scared” (I used to tease him about being a scaredy beardy) but he said, “I’m sorry, too, Ruby. I was kinda mean , too.” Then he explained to me that Elisabeth had passed out from low blood sugar. Andrew couldn’t find her cell phone, and his was out of service days. The glucagons had been stolen with the insulin so Elisabeth didn’t have one.
Just then something hit me on the head and Clyde grabbed it and pushed it out of the bag. He told me he would be right back. He jumped out of the bag, and I heard a bear-sized thud. A few seconds later, Clyde reappeared and said, “It was Andrew’s glucagon!” Then he said, “I put it in Elisabeth’s bag. “
Right then we heard an excited cry. Andrew then said, “I found it, Elisabeth’s glucagon.” Then we heard, “Darn it. It expired two weeks ago.”
Chapter 4: Andrew
Ever since we left Antioch, Illinois, I was afraid of what might happen along our short trek. Unfortunately my worst fears came true. When we were about to leave, Elisa’s mom told her to come back inside to take some insulin. Elisa came reluctantly, and told me on our bike ride that she had only taken a little bit of insulin, because they were going on the ride. She told me not to worry. But I had plenty to worry about. When she told me that she needed to stop and rest, was when she stopped working. She passed out. I had to move her farther off the road or she would have been road kill. All I could do was watch and hope that she would wake up. She never did. I was ready to give up and go get some help when I found her back-pack; I fished through it, desperately looking for something, anything. I couldn’t find anything. That’s when I remembered, she had a hidden compartment where she hid her glucagon. I found the secret compartment, opened it up and found…nothing. Absolutely nothing. That’s when I remembered. Of course! I could use mine! The idea gave me hope. I found what I was looking for in my 3rd zipper. I lost my hope when I saw the expiration date, February 15th. That was more than 2 weeks ago. I finally made the snap decision that I would go get help from the town up ahead. Of course, there was a surprise waiting for me there as well.
I started pedaling as fast as I could down the long, narrow road toward civilization. At least I thought it was a long road, when it really wasn’t. When I felt like my legs were going to collapse below me, I stopped and took a rest. I really wished I had brought some food. That’s when I heard it. And felt it. I heard a whoosh whoosh whoosh and turned around. I wished I hadn’t. Behind me was a tall scrawny masked figure with a lasso in his right hand, the other held the end that was holding me. I tried to stand up to run away and get the heck out of there, but he dropped the other rope and pulled with all his force. This gut may have been skinny, but he was strong. “What’s going on?!” I demanded. He didn’t answer. “Who are you?!” I questioned again, this time with more force. He still didn’t answer.
“Hold still and you won’t be harmed,” he said. What? Why would he want to harm me? Why was he doing this? Was he under orders? But, how was I fitted in to all this? That’s when I got the idea. “Maybe you can help me, my friend is just up the road a-ways, she’s unconscious.” I said.
“Does this friend have a name like, Elisabeth?” he said with almost a robotic voice.
“What did you do to her?” I demanded.
“You’ll know soon enough, if you’ll come with me.” He said once again with the robot voice.
“Fine” I said reluctantly.
He led me along a narrow path that snaked along the giant tall grasses of the countryside that grew between Antioch and Benet Lake. I always loved coming here with Elisa and my parents and some of my other friends. We’d always play hide and seek tag. The rules to the game were simple. 1st you hide. 2nd you wait ‘till the counter counts, then the seeker comes out and, what else, seeks. But there’s an extra rule, in order to be found, you had to be tagged, and you could move around to different spots. Unfortunately I wasn’t here to play games, I was here to try and find insulin that is nowhere to be found and now I’m being led by a guy who sounds like a robot to a place that is in the middle of nowhere and Elisa is back on the road passed out, not getting any higher. Did I leave anything out?
When we reached our destination (which was in the middle of nowhere by the way) I could feel my sugar dropping. I knew that wasn’t a good thing. What was going on? Less than 60 minutes ago, I was riding my bike alongside Elisa, and now I’m in front of a shack that’s in the middle of nowhere. Oh. And I forgot to tell you that there was a bag over my head. The only reason I knew it was a narrow path and that it was in the middle of the countryside was because the robotic guy wasn’t nice enough to tell me if I was going to run into a big giant thicket of grass or not. Every time I went to the other side to get away from that side I was hit with another thicket. Anyway, when he took my bag off I could immediately smell all the must that was coming from inside, which made me cough. I’m happy to say that they gave me a seat. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stand for another 5 seconds.
When I was finally seated, I saw a shadowy figure step out of the dusty shadows. And then another. And another. I’m estimating that there was about 15-25 people inside the shack. They were all teenagers, guys and girls, I’m surprised to say. But the last person who stepped out surprised me the most. It was Claudia. I can’t believe I’m saying it but, it was. For those of you who might not know, Claudia was mine and Elisa’s 1st grade assistant to the teacher. She was an 8th grader at that time, and was studying what she might want to be when she grew up. When our teacher would leave the room, Claudia would take over completely and work us to death. Literally. Okay not literally, but almost. As the teacher closed the door she would always say, “okay now class, Claudia’s in charge ‘till I get back. ‘kay? Be good.” Right when the door closed Claudia would wait a few seconds to make sure she was gone, and then start her boot camp. “Alright, you heard her! You listen to me, now do 100 push-ups! Go, go, go, go, go!” she would say.
Claudia was always the mean type and never understood the rules, let alone obeyed them. It didn’t surprise me that she would want to capture me and take me to a broken-down shack. I expected her to say, “alright, 100 push-ups, oh and just so you don’t get cold feet, the floor has loose floorboards and has lava at the bottom of it.” Yeah, she was that mean.
Claudia came from a bad background. Her parents were divorced, she didn’t have many friends, (which I’m surprised she even has this many people in the shack with her) and never really learned anything in school.
“H-hey C-Claudia,” I said with a stutter.
“Looks like someone’s got a mission, and has a friend along the ride,” she said with a smirk.
“Where is she?” I demanded, this time with no stutter.
“Oh I don’t know, maybe she’s not here, or maybe she is,” she chuckled. She was really ticking me off.
“What did you do to…?” I said. I was fading. Fast. Remember when I said that I felt low when I came in the shack? Well unfortunately, my blood sugar didn’t get any higher, but it kept dropping, and dropping. Luckily I didn’t pass out. Phew. Partly because they had food for me. But it wasn’t really food though, it was more like garbage, really bad tasting garbage. But it did bring me up.
“Do you need insulin? I’ve got plenty of it,” she said while laughing. What? How does she have insulin? And, why her, she doesn’t even have diabetes. At first I didn’t believe her a bit. But I did after she opened up a giant cupboard. It was full of…insulin viles.
Chapter 5: Ruby
Sheesh! I was grumpy the last time I wrote but now I’M REALLY SCARED! After the glucagon incident, Clyde and I went to sleep. We just got woken up and climbed out of the bag. I realized we were in a dimly lit closet. I then heard a sound that I thought must have come out of a Star Wars movie. I was about to yell, “Clyde, we’re in the middle of Star Wars. Don’t you hear R2D2?” But all I got out was “Cly-” He clapped a hand over my mouth. He pointed a paw over to a shadowy figure in the corner and said, “It’s Elisabeth. She’s tied up.” We silently crept over and realized the R2D2 beeps were her snoring. We untied her without waking her up. We went over to the bag and grabbed something and dropped it on the cement floor. The crash woke her up.
She rubbed her eyes and said, “I need out of here. The key is up….” And fell back asleep again.
Clyde and I looked up to see the key dangling from the ceiling by a string. Clyde scurried right up the wall, reached out and caught the string and swung on it like a rope swing. He bit the string, and down he fell. And the key. Then we realized it. How should we tell Elisabeth? I decided safety over secrecy, so I bent over, shook Elisabeth awake and said, “Elisabeth, we got the key. You can save Andrew. He is outside of this closet. I can hear him.”
At first Elisabeth just listened, but I think just then, she really woke up.
“Who are you?” She demanded, alarm in her voice.
“I’m Ruby, your teddy bear. Yes, I’m alive,” I said. “Now go save the day, Girl! Go! Go! Go!”
She got up mumbling, “Ruby is alive. Ruby is alive. I’m obviously freaking out. Bears can’t talk, bears can’t talk, they can’t, no sir-ee.” She took the key, jumped up, and unlocked the door. That surprised us all, but we acted calm. Luckily the people who captured us didn’t hear it.
After Elisa untied Andrew, he jumped up and said, “Look at this!” A girl Elisabeth seemed to recognize tried to stop him but didn’t. I was the only one who saw her though. I was about to tell Andrew but what I saw was too much. Andrew threw open a cupboard of INSULIN! My jaw touched the floor. Literally. Well, almost literally.
Elisabeth said, “Looks like we solved the mystery.”
Chapter 6: Elisabeth
Wow. All I have to say is, wow. I went from my house to the ER. The ER back to my house. My house to a road where I passed out. A road to a musty old shack. And then I start talking to talking bears. I’m obviously freaking out.
It’s Elisabeth again, in case you wanted to know. I know, you were expecting Andrew, but at this time, he’s in the middle of the shack being interrogated by the person he was afraid of in school. I don’t blame him. When we were doing push-ups one day, we were doing it long enough for our teacher to return and see what we were doing. She later figured out that it was Claudia who put us up to it. She got fired from her job, if you could call it that. Ever since Claudia’s parents’ divorced, there was something different about her. Luckily it wasn’t that she was meaner, but that she would leave us all alone. Of course we weren’t the ones who were alone. Claudia was stuck in a jail cell for at least 2 months. I’m saying was because, I thought that you might want to know that this is a journal. Yes, a journal. When you read the entries in Andrew’s perspective, I was really writing it. But he was telling me what to write while I wrote it. Just thought that you might want to know that minor detail.
Anyway. Back to when I was in the shack.
All I could do was stare at my bear. Andrew’s bear and mine were talking to me. This was crazy. I wished, no, I hoped it was just another dream. “This is just a dream. This is just a dream,” I kept telling myself. “Does this feel like a dream?” Clyde said while whacking me across the cheek. “Clyde!” Ruby said while punching him in the shoulder. All I did was stare at them breathlessly. “Are you going to help us save Andrew or what?” Clyde asked.
“W-what?” I stammered.
“Elisa, I’ve been your bear for a very long time, and I’ve never heard you back out of anything before. Why should right now be any different?” Ruby questioned.
“Only because stuffed animals are talking to me,” I said frightened. But what Ruby said made me make up my mind and go ahead and try to save Andrew. Even though stuffed bears were talking to me.
I quickly poked my head out of the door to see that Andrew was alone. I looked around to see if I could find anybody who might try to jump out and re-capture me again. I didn’t find anyone, luckily. I ran over to Andrew, who looked totally dazed.
“Are you low?” I whispered.
“Well, if you call riding a bike for a while just to be thrown in a broken-down shack and then showed something that could make me puke, then, yes, I feel low,” he remarked with a smile.
Epilogue
Claudia sat still in her quiet lonely prison cell. She thought about what had happened, Elisabeth escaping from the closet, the interrogating session, if you can call it that, with Andrew. It went something like this:
Claudia: “So what do you plan on doing about us? Or should I say would you plan on doing?
Andrew: If you’re meaning is you think Elisabeth and I won’t escape, you’re wrong!
Claudia: Oh, really!
Andrew: Yes, as a matter of fact, I think that’s her now!
As Claudia turned to look, Andrew turned and ran to the insulin cupboard. As he looked at the insulin, a thought suddenly struck him. He pulled out his cell phone, punched 9 then 1 as a hand silently reached over his shoulder and grabbed it. As he spun around, Claudia stood behind him.
“Sit back down and let’s finish our interrogation.”
They did.
Claudia was suddenly brought to present time by a voice.
“Claudia, Claudia, it’s me, Elisabeth.”
“Who? Oh, hi. I can’t believe you would do this to me.”
“Sorry, but I didn’t make that choice based on you. I made it based on other people’s safety.”
Claudia hung her head. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.” She started to explain why she had committed the crime, but Elisabeth stopped her.
“I heard it from the police, if you don’t want to tell me.”
Suddenly Claudia heard another voice.
“Elisabeth,” a girl that looked about four said, pulling her arm. Elisabeth leaned down and the girl whispered in her ear, “Elisabeth, can I talk to her?”
“Sure, Katy,” Elisabeth said, patting her on the hand.
The little girl looked at Claudia and said, “I’m Katy. I’m four, and I have diabetes, too. Elisabeth and I were diagnosed together. She’s babysitting me.” Katy paused and said, “Elisabeth came to see if you wanted to become a Christian.”
Claudia looked surprised and snapped, “If that is why you’re here, you might as well leave because your loving, caring God forgot about me long ago.”
Elisabeth started to protest, but Claudia cut her off. “If God loved me, why did he make my parents divorce? Why did he give me diabetes? And you, too?”
At this, Katy spoke up with a very surprising amount of confidence. “God did not give us diabetes.”
Claudia said, “Well, then, why do we have it? Answer that!”
“He didn’t give it to us! He allowed us to get it because allowing Adam and Eve the choice to obey him. They sinned, and sickness and death entered the world. But, God loves us and helps us, and someday there will be no more diabetes or suffering or death.”
“Wait. You mean God does care?”
Elisabeth spoke, “Yes! The Bible says that so many times.” Elisabeth handed Claudia a Bible. “I highlighted some verses for you.”
Claudia quietly said, “Can we pray?”
“Of course,” Elisabeth said.
Claudia softly uttered the words, “Dear Jesus, You know I’ve done so many things wrong in my life. It means so much that Elisabeth who I tried to hurt would lead me to you. Please forgive me. Amen.” Then she said, “I don’t know if prayers are supposed to have P.S.s but this one does. Katy is so totally right. You didn’t give us this disease.”
Just then Andrew walked in. “Hi!” Upon seeing their faces, he asked uncertainly, “Did I miss something?”
Katy said, “Only Claudia becoming a Christian.”
Andrew said, “Welcome to the family!” with a smile.
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