Understanding the Midnight Sun

“Will you braid my hair?” Maggy asks me out of the blue. She pulls out her hair tie and shakes out her thin blonde hair. It falls in wisps around her shoulders. Dutifully, I section off some pieces of the hair into three groups at the top, near her scalp.

“I keep having bad dreams,” Maggy says into the dark.

I untangle bits of her hair. “Do you want to talk about them?”

She’s quiet for a little bit. She shifts a few times before I remind her that she needs to be still if she wants me to finish the braid.

“Sorry,” she replies, chagrined.

I smile.

“It’s just,” she continues, her shoulders rigid. “I keep dreaming about running out of time. It’s like I fall asleep and then all of a sudden…I don’t wake up. And that’s really scary.” Her breathing rapidly increases. I feel her shaking. “I don’t want that to happen because I don’t want to think about dying. It’ll happen eventually and I know that, but not yet, Copeland. Not right now.”

I listen as she talks about how she feels. The hair crosses over, forming the braid and before she finishes speaking, it’s been finished. I hold out my hand for a hair tie, but Maggy pauses.

“I know I’m not special,” she continues softly. “People get cancer every day. So, I shouldn’t be afraid. And I’m not really. Mama and Daddy haven’t always been around, but they’ve never beat me. I know they love me.” She turns her head. “But I don’t want to die, and I don’t want to die afraid.”

I reach for the hair tie sitting on my nightstand and thread the ends of her braid through the tie. The hair comes too loose, and I have to start again. Maggy takes this as a sign to keep going.

“I think that’s why I made the list,” she says quietly. Her head lowers. “I wanted to make sure I was doing good things and having a good life while I can. I don’t want to waste it or spend days being lazy. Lazy isn’t for me.”

I hear all the words that she’s trying to say but doesn’t know how to. She is only ten. There’s an element of carpe diem—seize the day, if you will. I understand her mindset. I think I’d want to live the same way, too.

“Do you think people waste their lives for the most part?” I ask Maggy. I finish the braid for the second time. She pulls it over her shoulder and fingers the ends.

“I think so,” she says thoughtfully. “Thanks for the braid.”

I nod, folding my hands. I’m getting tired, which is a blessing after my inability to sleep. I think if I laid down right now, I could get some good shut eye. As I’m thinking this, Maggy lays down on my bed, her head propped up by the pillow. Her eyes stare searchingly at the ceiling and the fan, going round and round, wobbling more than is probably safe.

“Is Daddy back in our lives for good?” she asks.

The last time we saw him was my birthday, but that day did seem promising with the purchase of my car and the family dinner we all had that evening. There was so much laughter and glowing faces that it felt like nothing wrong had ever touched our family.

“I hope so,” I decide to respond. I don’t know the true answer to that. But it seems like a safe bet that Dad will be around until Maggy goes. Obviously, she’s missed him. I tug on her shirt. “Stole that out of the closet, did you?”

She looks sheepish. “Mama never wears them or anything. I have a flannel of his, too. But I like this shirt a lot. Do you remember the run?”

“I do.”

Dad liked to stay active, no matter how busy it made him. He claimed that exercise was the cure for old age and that all those ladies who live off peanut butter and Dr. Pepper did fun runs when they were younger. I don’t know if that’s true or not—on account of I haven’t asked said ladies—but my dad believed it firmly. That, or it was one of those things adults tell kids to encourage them to do something.

He ran so many runs, which is surprising because he didn’t really enjoy running. He was never great at it. His face always turned bright red, and he’d sweat buckets, according to Mom. I remember that sometimes he would be so sweaty he could spike his brown hair up, and Maggy would be on the floor, shrieking with laughter as he talked in funny voices and strolled around with his wild hair.

The particular shirt Maggy wears is from a run where the bystanders would throw water balloons, so the shirt has some spots where the die stained the fabric for good. Dad insisted that it added to its “vintage charm”.

Sometime after sharing stories of Dad, Maggy’s eyes begin to droop. I hold her until she falls into a deep sleep.

After a while, I fall asleep, too. The sound of our breathing is soothing, and I find it to be the most comfortable sound in the world. Maggy is warm beside me, and I swear I smell Dad’s shaving cream on the old t-shirt she wears. It’s funny how one small thing can make you feel like you’re back to a completely different time.

A time when everything was different.

Title: Understanding the Midnight Sun

Genre: YA general fiction

Age Range: 13-17

Word Count of Snippet: 944

Word Count of Total Novel:130480

Author Name: Ally Norris

This project is a good fit because it is about a girl who wants to live her life to the fullest after being inspired by her sick younger sister.

Hook: The day my little sister got diagnosed with brain cancer was the worst day of my life.

Synopsis: Copeland Kennedy is afraid of living. When her little sister Maggy gets diagnosed with Stage Four cancer and makes a list of things she wants to do before she dies, Copeland vows to do everything she can to help Maggy complete every item on the list. As the summer progresses, Copeland learns from Maggy what it really means to live your life to the fullest.

Bio: Ally Norris has been writing since she was five years old. She is enrolled in the Authors Conservatory for young writers and loves to write about girls looking to make a difference in the world.

Education: about to begin Senior Year of high school

Experience: 2nd place in the CBU high school creative writing contest summer 2022, enrolled in the Authors Conservatory

Personality/Writing Style: I love to write in first person so I'm able to get into the minds of my characters. I love to write about my own experiences and places that I've been. I'm an avid reader and planner and love to do anything creative.

Likes/Hobbies: reading, music, piano, scrapbooking, painting, going for walks, singing

hometown: Keller

age: 17