The Guilt Factor
by Aida

(926 words)
"I don’t see much use for this visit, Dave…" complained James. "They are retarded, they won’t care if they visit them or not!" he continued. His teammates gave nods of agreement and support except Rachel.

"That’s where you’re all wrong! They may be… different, but they have feelings like we do, too! You, James, of all people should know that!" stormed Rachel passionately. James had recently been reunited with Rachel recently. Dave shook his head wearily. "Please, you guys… Rachel is right. We’re all blessed with our minds. We can think. These are people our age… it’s just that, because of different reasons, they can’t think as well as we do."

"Well, ok," relented Chris.
"But only because you and Rachel asked," put in Marvin quickly.

They crossed the road at a leisurely pace. James still felt a little reluctant. To tell you the truth, he had no idea what to expect. None of them, except maybe Rachel and Dave, knew what to expect.

"Come on, you guys! These people’s parents left them at that centre. Why? Because they’re weird!" growled Ben in his deep voice.

"I was living at an adoption centre. Does that mean I’m weird?" Rachel’s voice had lowered to a dangerous pitch. "No, Rach, you’re a different story!" scoffed Liam. Tim nodded silently. Rachel narrowed her eyes.

"If only you guys would stop being so close minded and accept the fact! We have to be socially aware of special people. Like them," stated Dave. "Tell you the truth, I’d rather die than live like that but they can’t help it, so we have to accept it," he continued.

"Dave, you’re some kind of Boy Scout or something?" grimaced Tim.

"Well, there’s no way I’m going to make friends with these retards!" announced Ben mockingly. A muscle clenched in Dave’s jaw but he refrained from saying anything.

"Ok. We’re not asking you to make friends. All Dave wants is for us to go to that centre, spend, oh, say… a half-hour… with those poor kids, and then, you can forget about them for all I care. Is that understood?" commanded Rachel imperiously. She looked at every member of the soccer team. When her direct gaze met James’s, he flinched and hurriedly looked away.

In his haste to escape from the guilty feeling, he crossed the road a trifle too quickly. Suddenly, he heard hid friends yelling! He turned a saw the headlights of a car.

"Oh man, I’m gonna die…" He could faintly hear the shouts of his friends, warning him, cautioning him. He looked up sluggishly. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. He looked to the left and saw the rest of his friends. He knew then that it was too late to turn back.

"Goodbye…" Suddenly, someone hurled himself at James. He felt himself fall… slowly… then, everything went black.

When he woke up, he found himself surrounded by people…people he knew.

" Rachel?" he blinked, then struggled to wake up. "I remember a car speeding towards me… What happened? Who saved me?"

Rachel’s eyes were glassy. "James, Dave saved you." She gave a watery smile.

"Yeah, the Boy Scout had the sense to do it," intervened Marvin.

"Cool! So where is the man? I have to thank him!" smiled James. Suddenly, everyone looked carefully blank. "Tim? Ben? Marv? Where’s Dave?" asked James. A slow panic was beginning to envelop him.

Suddenly, a doctor came in. "Good, you’re awake!" greeted the doctor. James turned to the doctor.

"Doc? Where’s my friend Dave?"

The doctor looked sombre. "Are you ready to see him, James? He tried to save you, but in the process…" The doctor trailed off. "Follow me."

The doctor turned and led James to the connecting room. There was an oxygen capsule there. James peered in and recoiled in shock. "That’s Dave?" he stared at the weak, shrunken looking… creature lying in the capsule. Dave was… had always been so full of life, sparkling with vitality. The thing in the capsule didn’t have anything to do with the handsome senior everyone knew and liked.

"James. Your friend. Dave. We can keep him alive. But he will be a vegetable. Retarded. Or… we can cut off his oxygen supply where he can die naturally. Peacefully. Your friends and his family leave the choice to you. They thought you’d know what to do…" James turned and saw his friends. He though of Dave before. So alive… He wondered if Dave would prefer to live in that state. James turned slowly and faced the doctor, his face set in grim lines. "Doc, can you please show me the switch?" He had made his grim decision, the one he had to live with for the rest of his life. Dave had risked his life for his own. This was his decision, the least he could do for Dave. The doctor showed him the switch. He took one last look at Dave, then looked at his friends. Their heads were bowed. Rachel’s tears spilled, unabashed, down her cheeks. His eyes felt suspiciously moist. Then, he took one deep breath and pressed the button. And that day, the 15^th April, 1998, at 4:30 in the evening, David Charles Walker died in his coma.

Something good did come out of his death. A small good but nevertheless… The soccer team and the whole school became more open minded towards, not only retards, but those with different skin colour, values or suffering from diseases. And that was the legacy that David left behind that year. Accepting people.