Sudden Death

By Marie Bellamy

SUDDEN DEATH is an intense, emotional story of a young man's life after making one wrong judgement, which led him down a path no one could ever have imagined, not even himself. It is a great read for teenagers, adolescents, adults, and parents of teenagers, as it is sure to make one think twice before making such life-changing decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098378172

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© Marie Bellamy 2021

ISBN: 978-1-09837-816-5

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09837-817-2

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

INTRODUCTION

GRADUATION AFTERMATH

TRAGIC CONFRONTATIONS

INITIATION IMPACT

BITTER REVENGE

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

Sudden death is unexpected and is either instantaneous or occurs within minutes from a certain cause. It is a tragic event, one we all hope will never happen to us. We try to secure that outcome by living our best life. We focus on what we want in life, and we take action to achieve it, always being prepared, however, to change the plan as life throws difficult things at us.

We look after our bodies with activities, exercise, and eating nourishing foods. We try to make someone’s day by showing kindness. We relish the simple things and are grateful for what we have, never resentful for what we do not have. It is, by definition, the American dream that we seek to attain. Although it alludes millions of people, amazingly enough, one person is well on his way to mastering it to achieve his best life, when suddenly tragedy strikes.

His name is Malik Shepard, a young man who grew up in a small town in a single-parent home with his mom, Karen, and younger sister, Angel. He vowed to ease the pressures of life on all his loved ones—be it financial, emotional, or mental. He is a perfect role model by anyone’s standards. With no father or father figure in the home, Malik beat all the odds against him and became a pillar in the community. Young and old people alike admired him for his strength and courage to push through every obstacle he encountered. Approaching the end of his last week of college, his days and nights are filled with excitement and anticipation of the man he is becoming as a college graduate and will become as a future computer scientist. His amazing story follows.

At the onset, on his last day of college, Malik (dressed in jeans and a T-shirt) nervously stood knocking on the door of Chancellor Weber—the college dean (who had asked him earlier to stop by his office before leaving campus). Mr. Weber answers the door, inviting Malik in to have a seat, and immediately spelling out how Malik’s records had come across his desk at various times over the four years of his attending college. Nervous and worried, Malik wondered what was wrong.

Chancellor Weber smiles and gives an explanation of Malik’s achievement of his degree in computer science, expressing how difficult it is, and that there are not a lot of people who had what it took to learn the process of taking high-level basic language (Java and Ctt) and write the actual program software. It was even more impressive to the dean how Malik excelled in the more complex coding methods—Prolog, Scheme, and Machine Code—giving Malik his assurance that he had a very promising career ahead of him.

Words could not explain the excitement Malik felt as he stood up to shake the dean’s hand. Chancellor Weber stood up behind his desk, shook Malik’s hand, and congratulated him on his success of completing college with honors. The dean then divulged his plan to personally present the Outstanding Achievement Award to him at graduation. Overjoyed, before he knew it, Malik embraced the dean with a hug, shook his hand, and exited the dean’s office. He hurried straight home to share the amazing news with his mom, Karen, who was ecstatic at the announcement.

Later that afternoon Malik met up with his best friend, Drez, to share the news. Drez congratulated him and suggested they drive to the park to shoot hoops with the rest of the guys who were already waiting for them on the court. Revved up already, Malik was all too ready to burn off some of that energetic power he was feeling. He was ready to play.

As they played, Malik dribbled the ball several moments before he shot and scored. Drez gave him a high-five and whispered, Good shot man, but pass the ball sometimes. Malik talked a little smack in fun while dribbling the ball again. With his next shot, however, Malik found himself in an awkward position with nowhere to turn. Instead of passing the ball to Drez, he took the difficult shot, barely making it. Drez, a little bothered, yelled, Man you ain’t playin the game by yourself! You got to pass the ball sometime! Malik, picking and laughing, replied, Don’t be hatin’, and continued dribbling the ball.

Later, before the game ended, Malik’s seventeen-year-old sister, Angel, and her best friend, twenty-five-year-old Lisa, walked to the basketball court to watch the game. While watching, they talked about life as young ladies. Lisa advised Angel not to make the same mistake she did by getting pregnant as a teenager and having to get an abortion. Angel laughed and assured Lisa that would never happen to her.

Seeing Angel was not taking her seriously, Lisa aggressively addressed the matter in greater detail with all earnestness. Angel interrupted her and yelled, Okay Lisa! Calm down! What are you now, my mother? Stop trying to tell me what to do! I get enough of that from my mom and Malik! Lisa calmed down, apologized, and reminded Angel of how much she loves her like a sister, and would never tell her anything wrong, nor intentionally do or say anything to hurt her. Angel smiled and playfully changed the subject to how Lisa is secretly in love with her brother, Malik. Lisa, shocked that Angel knew how she really felt about Malik, smiled and denied it.

However, to even the score, Lisa revealed to Angel that she knew about her secret school-girl crush she had on Drez, and how she suddenly became so grown up and sophisticated whenever Drez came around her. Angel, surprised, looked at Lisa and they both burst out laughing.

Moments later, the ball game ended and Malik and Drez walked over to Lisa and Angel. Malik, already sweaty and dirty, playfully tried to grab his baby sister, who was clean and dry in her tight-fitting shorts and T-shirt. She quickly ran out of his reach and went over to talk to Drez. The pleasantly tactful and well-mannered Malik then turned to Lisa, gave her a suave look, and said hi. Lisa smiled and spoke back.

Malik and Lisa, who seemed to be attracted to each other for the past couple of years, but never acted on it, took a few steps away from everyone as they engaged in conversation. Neither of them knew if the attraction was mutual, so the conversation remained superficial. Lisa asked Malik if he was excited about his upcoming graduation ceremony. He answered yes. She then asked him if he had gotten everything together for graduation, to which he replied, Cap, gown, yeah I’m straight.

Lisa laughed and told Malik she was actually referring to his invitations and written speech, while playfully hitting him on the head saying, and maybe your head examined. Malik replied, Nah, I’m not worried about all that stuff, I just want to make momma proud when she sees me walk across that stage.

Meanwhile, Drez and Angel, standing a few steps away, are also joking around with each other. Drez knows Angel has a schoolgirl crush on him, but he would not dare take advantage of that, ever. Instead, he turns it into a joke and rushes over to Malik in a playful manner and says, Malik, tell your sister she is too young for me. Angel, a few steps away, quickly announces, "I’ll be grown in