At 3.17, on November the 14th 2009, two cars were involved in a head-on collision at the intersection on the corner of Stevenson’s street and Katrina Avenue. In the first car, a family of four. Two kids aged 14 and 9 and two parents. Both parents were killed on impact. The fourteen year old daughter and the nine year old son, both badly injured. They were on their way back from holiday in Western Australia when this collision happened. In the second car, two teenage boys. One, 18(the driver) and the other, a 16 year old passenger. The boys were coming back from a pool party at one of their mate’s house. There was alcohol involved and the driver had been drinking. The driver drove straight into the family car leaving him with internal bleeding caused by the dashboard pushed in by impact. He died later at the hospital. The 16 year old cracked his skull which caused him to go into an induced coma due to serious brain injury. The fourteen year old daughter and the nine year old son were now orphans and were placed into a children’s hospital due to their injuries. They stayed there for 2 months until they were well enough to go into foster care.
Two weeks after the accident, the 16 year old whose name was Jesse awoke from his induced coma, confused and disturbed. He later was informed that his brother Jacob, (who was in the car with him) died after the accident, and was astonished to find out that he had been paralysed from the waist down. Jesse had found a note on the hospital bed side table explaining that his girlfriend broke up with him. She wrote that if he did wake up, then she would not be able to go on dating a cripple. He was very emotional over the fact that his brother was gone and his girlfriend left him. His life had fallen into a bottomless pit of sorrow. He was also informed that the other car involved in the accident was totally smashed and that there was now two orphaned children placed in foster care. This caused him to fall deeper into his pit of sorrow as he remembered his own childhood in foster care with his brother. Jesse and Jacob were both biological brothers that were placed in foster care at the age of 3 and 5. They grew up as best friends and now that his brother was gone, he was miserable, lonely and destroyed by his own self consciousness.
The fourteen year old girl, Zoë and the nine year old boy named Sam, were finally discharged from the children’s hospital and put into the morgeya children’s facility (the orphanage on the bank of deed beach)the best orphanage in town. They were both treated as children and Zoë did not like one bit of it. Zoë, being a fourteen year old, was very lonely when she was put in the care facility for children aged 3-13 year olds. The only child that was close to Zoë’s age was Alisha who was exactly thirteen. The only problem with Alisha was that she was emotionally un-stable. Alisha had a very severe disorder called cerebral palsy. She cannot move both her legs and both her arms are always feeling numb. She was very smart but no one could see it in her. After a few months in foster care, a couple arrived at the orphanage looking to adopt a child. They looked at Sam and said “we would like to take that child” as they pointed to Sam. The administrator said “he has a sister who will not let you take him unless she goes as well, they can’t be separated”. The couple agreed and adopted them both. The couple’s names were Marie and Charlie Dungay and they were looking for a child to give a lot of love too.

After Jesse awoke from the coma, he was kept under severe watch because he was at risk of suicide. They knew that because his family had disappeared from his life, he was a danger to himself. Jesse was put into rehab and stayed there for 10 months. He astonished the carers one day when he lifted his feet and started to walk. At first the doctors thought that he had been faking it for months but with the determined look in jesses eyes, they knew that wasn’t the case. He was discharged within 2 months and just in time for Christmas.

It had been almost a year of living with the Dungay’s and Sam and Zoë were being so adored, the loved their life. They felt like heaven was now on earth. It was so lovely to see them smiling after a year of life without their parents. They didn’t like to be reminded about how their parents died but they knew that in the middle of their hearts, their parents were with them. Once Jesse got out, he immediately went in search of the two adopted children that suffered in the same accident as him. He felt like somehow it was his fault but he also had a funny feeling as though, somehow, they were the only family he had left. He went to the morgeya children’s facility and spoke with the admin officer who told him that they had been adopted. He got the information on where they now lived and went on a feisty journey in search of them………

It was the night before Christmas and Zoë, Sam and the Dungay’s were having party food for dinner. They were celebrating a new year even though it was not New Years Eve it was Christmas Eve. Suddenly Zoë sprung to her feet, as she heard the door bell ring. Zoë opened the door to see a face of a stranger. She didn’t know the man but the Dungay’s sure did. It was Jesse and he had rang them two days before he arrived. They invited him in and sat down together. Jesse started talking and the kids grins immediately vanished. Jesse knew that look and then said that he was terribly sorry for the actions of his brother on that night. He started to tell them about the year that he had suffered. The kids didn’t feel sorry for themselves anymore….they felt sorry for him!

Jesse stayed the night and told stories to the kids. In the morning before they opened their presents and while Jesse was still asleep, they asked the Dungay’s if they would be willing to adopt Jesse as well because he had no family. The Dungay’s agreed and when Jesse awoke, he was startled to find that they were now his new family. He loved them and they loved him. They lived happily ever after



This story was created by my imagination.
By Elissa Stoll