“Death Has No Sting”

“Mary! You’re going to be late for school. Hurry up!”

Mary groaned. She disliked Mondays. Most of all, she disliked her step dad. He always tried so hard to make her get used to him.

She ran to the car. He followed. Daniel drove her to school. Mary was relieved to finally be able to get away from him.

“Be good in school, okay? I love you!” he shouted after she walked away from the car.

“Why did Mom have to go on a vacation and leave me alone with him?” she asked herself. Mary wanted to live with her dad, Franklin. He was her best friend.

Mary hoped Daniel would let her go over to her friend’s house. The ride home was silent until she spoke.

“Daniel…can I go over to Sarah’s house?”

“Nope,” he said flatly. “You’re grounded for sneaking out last week, remember?”

“But dad, that’s not fair! I promised her I would come over,” Mary said.

“Too bad.”

Daniel had parked in the driveway.

“I hate you!” she yelled as she slammed the passenger door.

“I know,” he said under his breath as he entered his house.

Just then, his cell phone rang. He picked it up hurriedly.

“Dr. Benson here.”

The person on the phone told him to rush to the hospital because a patient was in dire need of surgery.

“I’ll be right there. Mary, I’ll be at the hospital, okay?” Daniel said before he left.

Daniel came back hours later after the successful surgery. He went upstairs to Mary’s bedroom. She was sleeping. Daniel smiled. He pulled the covers over her and kissed her forehead.

“Good night, Mary. I love you,” he said softly.

Daniel walked to his room and climbed into his bed. Finally he would have peaceful sleep. Tonight was not the night that Daniel would have peaceful sleep. He constantly woke up in the middle of the night, sweating crazily. He was breathing heavily. His stomach ached and he felt this unusual pressure all around him. He looked at the clock. It was six thirty-seven.

He quickly darted downstairs and hopped into his car. It took him about five minutes to get to the hospital.

Daniel knew what was wrong. All these things were signs of a heart attack. He met with his friend Dr. Philips. Daniel was checked up on constantly the next few minutes.

Mary, on the other hand, was at school. She had no idea where Daniel was. She didn’t care. Mary was happy that she hadn’t seen him this morning.

She turned a bright red when her Aunt Suzie interrupted biology class. She heard students snicker at her aunt’s voice. Mary was excused from class to talk to her.

“Why are you here?” questioned Mary.

“It’s Daniel. He’s in the hospital,” Aunt Suzie answered.

“Uh, yeah. He works there,” Mary replied.

“He’s had signs of a heart attack. He’s being kept under watch.”

“And why are you telling me this?” she asked rudely.

“I’m taking you with me to visit him.”

“I’m not going.”

“Why not? Don’t you care about him? He’s your father.”

“No he isn’t. He’s my step dad,” said Mary.

“Mary…”

“Don’t ‘Mary’ me, okay? My mom married him two weeks after she divorced Franklin. I still can’t believe that. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.”

“You know what? I can’t believe that Daniel actually puts up with this attitude of yours. You don’t have to come, but I’m going. My little brother needs me,” Aunt Suzie said before leaving.

Mary saw her aunt run off. She looked down at the floor. Her eyesight was blurry. Aunt Suzie was right. How could Daniel put up with the rotten attitude she had given him? Mary felt a teardrop slide of her face. Without a second thought, she ran to the hospital. Dr. Philips led her to Daniel’s room.

She saw her dad lying very still. His eyes were closed. Dr. Philips told her that he would come back to check on Daniel a little later. Aunt Suzie saw Mary walk in and smiled.

“Guess who came to see you,” she told Daniel.

Mary walked closer to Daniel.

“Dad, I’m so sorry,” she blurted. “I am a horrible step daughter.”

“It’s alright,” he breathed out.

There was a moment of silence.

“…Dad, are you scared of death?” she asked while trembling.

“Why should I be? In 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, it says, ‘Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’”

Tears fell from her face. Mary thought her dad was so brave.

“I love you, dad.”

“I love you too, honey,” he replied.

Daniel closed his eyes. Mary just stared at him and looked back at Aunt Suzie.

He had his eyes closed for about a minute, and it seemed like he wasn’t breathing.

“Dad?”

There was no response.

“Dad? Come on, wake up.”

Aunt Suzie looked at her with sad eyes.

“No, it can’t be. Dad! Get up, I’m serious!” Mary almost screamed.

Daniel didn’t move.

Mary cried uncontrollably. She knew what this meant. She took her cell phone and dialed a number. She left a message.

“Mom, you’ll never believe this, but Daniel’s…gone.” Mary softly said before hanging up.

An ironic story by jt