I never thought words could change my life forever. As I flipped through my favorite Junie B. Jones book, I laughed at myself and glanced at the other five I skimmed through. I loved to curl up in bed and read the books found throughout my childhood. I picked up my phone and checked the time. 12:43 A.M. I should probably go to sleep. As I started to close my book, my bedroom door suddenly opened and hit my wall with a bang. I fell backwards to act asleep like a child wanting to be carried to bed by their parents. On Friday nights, I had no bedtime, but my mom still hated seeing me up.

Scared for how my mom’s wrath would come out, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing.

“Cara,” quietly said a deep voice. I quickly sat up and saw my brother standing in the doorway.

“What do you want, Taylor?” I asked, the words coming out rudely for the scare he caused.

“Follow me,” he said and raced out of my room. I stumbled down the stairs and into the game room where I know he would be. He sat in the cushioned computer chair and was looking at the bright screen. I tried to focus the small letters into view but my eyes lacked the glasses left on my bedside table.

I could make out that he was on facebook. No one gets on facebook anymore. I looked at the status update he was reading and could see my best friends name, Ana. That’s odd. He doesn’t pay much attention to my friends. I was thinking about it as I read the first few words, then my heart stopped. Four words. Those four words I had been dreading I would have to read one day. Those four words no one wants to read. I read them over and over again, my eyes straining with the tears built up in them.

That morning I had forgotten to call Ana and talk to her as I got ready for school. It was no big deal to me though, we talked almost every day after she moved two years ago in sixth grade. Sometimes I would forget to call her for a few days and I didn’t think much of it then either. She was my best friend. I knew she would contact me if something tragic happened.

Those four words: Rest In Peace Mom. I couldn’t believe it. I knew her mom was in the hospital with Lymphoma, but I didn’t think this would happen. She was like an aunt to me. I told her all of my troubles and she helped me laugh through them. Taylor looked at me with worry in his face and I bit my lip to keep from crying out.

“Oh,” I muttered and started to head back upstairs.

I decided to go into his room and fell on his bed with sobs shaking my body. I felt his hand on my back as he tried to comfort me, but with no avail. The bedroom door cracked open and I heard the sharp whisper of my mom asking us what we were doing. Taylor explained what happened and she gasped. Wrapping her arms around my shaking body, she rocked me back and forth, trying to control my crying.

Morning came with no sleep as I ran the words over and over in my mind. The birds chirping in the break of dawn sounded slower, like a depressing song with the same repeating chorus. Only this time, I couldn’t press pause on it.

A call to Ana came the next afternoon as she cried to me over the phone. Days seemed like months as we grieved for the passing of her mother.

Many people come and go in your lifetime and the ones that do matter only seem to stay for a little while. Cherish them, for life is a gift and you never know when it is going to be taken away. It may only take four words to change your life. Four words can send you from being at the top of the world, to sobbing in your mother’s arms.