My mom died when I was just seven. I always felt like she was closer to me than any living person. I’m 14 now, and this happened to me not long ago, while my dad was in a meeting and my sister was at work.
I was messaging a friend when an instant message popped up. It said, “I’m always there 4 u.”
“Don’t take the bus to school tomorrow.”
I didn’t recognise who the message was from. I squinted at it, then typed back, frowning, “Ok but who are you?”
After twenty minutes, there was no reply. I gave up and closed the chat windows.
The next morning I overslept. When I woke up I was in a frantic hurry to get to my bus stop. I was halfway down the sidewalk towards my bus stop when I remembered what “I’m always there 4 u” had said.
“Don’t take the bus to school tomorrow.”
I hesitated. I was late and felt like I was being pulled towards the bus stop. I couldn’t help remember those words so vividly. Finally, I dashed back to the house and asked my dad to drive me to school.
I jumped out of the car at the school to find everyone solemn-faced. My bus had crashed. Nobody had been killed, but the back of the bus had been severely crushed. Luckily there was an empty seat where most of the damage occurred.
I realised It was my usual seat. If I had been on the bus that morning I would have died.
With a strange sort of weightlessness holding me up I went home and opened the chat logs. There was no sign of the strange message from the day before. I logged on to the IM site and searched for “I’m always there 4 u.”
I already knew before the window loaded what it was going to say.
It read, No results for ‘I’m always there 4 u.”
I don’t know if it was my mom or my guardian angel. Maybe my mom was my guardian angel. I’ll never know for sure but I’ll never forget what happened that day.
