Delilah Moore

Delilah Moore was born with her life planned out in front of her, though her parents would never admit that. They made all the extra curricular work she did seem more like fun, not forced. As Delilah got older though, into high school, she had more friends and worked seemed like more of a bore. Her parents were having a harder time hiding the fact that what they wanted from Delilah was work and when she wasted time with friends it made them both equally agitated.
One night, Delilah came home past curfew. She and her parents had a falling out, waking up her little brother in the process. His name is irrelevant and his age was around five and though he usually slept soundly, tonight was different for some reason. Even in his little brain, he could sense the wrongness in his parents voice, the venom in his sister’s. Delilah Moore looked sadly at her sleepy brother standing in the hallway, knowing that one day the pressure would be on him even if he didn’t know it yet. She grabbed her keys off the counter where she left them and returned to the raging party she’d come from and it was far from over, however she didn’t know that her life wasn’t. Her friend Caroline was in a daze when she arrived but the party quickly became more fun when Caroline offered Delilah a drink and a hit of marijuana.
“Just one,” Caroline promised but after that one, Delilah Moore had lost track of how many red plastic cups passed through her hands and how much smoke had gone through those once perfect, pure lips. Caroline warned her to stop, her other friends at the party warned her to stop. Delilah though was too busy wondering where her latest cup had gone to hear them, she was feeling better though. Much better. And in a split second her mind was made up that she’d race home right now to apologize because she truly was sorry for acting the way she did. Caroline tried to stop her. People tried to stop her, but she didn’t listen. Delilah Moore was not one to listen to what people had to say, she did her own thing which may be why she was so upset when she finally put two and two together tonight to realize what her parents had been doing this whole time. But that was no matter, not anymore, Delilah felt she’d made her opinion known and now it was time to apologize and negotiate how her life would go from now on. She didn’t know that leaving that night would make the rest of her life come faster.
Just two streets away from her house, Delilah Moore’s fuzzy brain got the best of her. She swerved, hit a passing car, and spun into a pole. The passengers of the car she’d hit, died on the scene, even before the medics had been called. Delilah was left in critical condition.
For a week, her parents had no idea whether their precious Delilah would live or die. They lived in fear that one day, I would take her away. Her brother cried daily to God, to please let her escape my grip but it was too late, I was already on my way. Poor Delilah Moore, to always be remember as the Perfect Girl who made only One Mistake. Two weeks more of suffering and I took Delilah Moore. She was too doped up to realize what I was, why’d I’d come but I could feel her guilt, feel the way she felt towards those poor passengers.
Delilah Moore’s funeral was held at the huge church she’d grown up going to every Sunday. I stood with Delilah at the foot of her casket and watched as the eulogy was read by Caroline, her mother and father said a few words, her little brother cried because he didn’t understand what was going on. He screamed because he saw Delilah’s lifeless pale face and she wouldn’t wake up when he called his name.
Delilah Moore’s funeral was attended by enough people to count on one hand, including myself, standing with a lost soul in my arms.