Story about Sean and Justin

A Story from my Writing Class about Justin, Sean, and Jason written from a child's point of view.


I Saw the Bottom of a Greasy Car
by Alicia

“Hey, Jason, come and watch Sean while he washes his new car.” I like to share everything with my brother, Jason. We play together all the time. He is my best friend. I like to watch Sean wash his car in the driveway. He just got his car so he can drive. Sometimes Sean takes me for a ride around the block so I can ride in his car. I sit on his lap in the driveway and turn the steering wheel too. I pretend that I know how to drive. Someday I am going to drive a car just like Sean’s. It will be a long time because I don’t even go to school until next year. Sean says his black and white car is a Firebird. Sometimes I think it looks like a marshmallow that is burned on the top. I think Sean really likes his car. He washes it almost every day. Then he gets some really soft towels and wipes his car until it is dry and shinny. I help him wash and dry his car sometimes. It is too hot today. I just want to get my swimming suit on and run in the sprinklers.

“Sean, can I get my swimming suit on?” He says yes. “Can I get a big towel too?” Sean says yes again. I really like to have Sean tend me. He lets me do anything I want and we have fun just being together. It is really fun having a big brother. People tell me that I look like my brother Sean. We both have very dark brown hair. My mom told me she can’t tell which one of us is in our baby pictures sometimes. I am glad that I look like Sean. Jason is younger than me and has blonde curly hair. My dad says he has hair like his grandma Chilcote.

I am going to go in the house and put my favorite swimming suit on. It is blue and has lots of green fish that looks like they are swimming around on it. I have 3 suits but this is the one I like most of all. I have a big soft swimming towel too. I take it with me when I go boating and swimming at our neighbor’s pool. Jason is coming in the house to get his suit on too. He likes to do everything that I do. I like him to play in the water with me.

Sean, “turn on the sprinklers so we can run in the water?” Sean turned on all the sprinklers. The water looks like sparklers on the fourth of July. I love running in the sprinklers. Sometimes Jason and I will sit on the sprinklers and then when we stand up the water goes high up to the sky and then back down again. I can put my foot on the sprinkler too and it will stop coming out of the holes in sprinkler. I think I will go run on the little hill in the corner of my yard.

Jason is tired of running in the sprinklers so he is going to go ride his bike. I am still going to play on the grassy hill. I like to roll around and around and let the water wash me. I like to lie on the grass and just let the water spray me. Gosh I am getting cold now. The sun is hot but my suit is wet and the cold water is making me shiver. Jason has a helmet he found in the garage and is trying to get it hooked under his chin. I watch him and wonder if I want to ride my bike but then I remember that I am too cold. I am going to lay down on my towel and get warm. Brrr, I am really cold now.

Sean’s car is making a loud motor noise. He has stopped to help Jason buckle the strap under his chin. Jason tried for a long time to make the hooks work but finally gave up. I bet I could have buckled it.

The cement is hot under my feet. I am going to lay my big blue towel on the cement. It feels warm. It feels really good. I am glad I didn’t stay in the water because the sun feels so good. This is perfect, it feels so good. I am not shivering anymore. I am going to close my eyes and stay here until my suit gets dry. Ouch, what is squeezing my stomach? What is scratching my arm? I can’t talk or see anything but black. I can hear a noise that goes klunk and then another klunk. I can’t move. I feel really really hot. My body hurts. I am rolling over and over and over and all I can see is black. The black is slimy and feels wet. It pushes against my body. Now I am rolling over and over again. I don’t know what is happening to me. It is dark and I am scared. There was a noise but now it has stopped and I can see the sun again. I can see my arms and legs and my stomach. They are black and greasy.

I can see Sean running towards me. His face is red and he looks really scared. I think he is crying. He is picking me up and I can feel him shaking and saying, “Justin, Justin, are you okay.” I can’t talk. I don’t know why but I just can’t talk. Sean is wrapping me in my towel and laying me carefully in the back seat of his car. He is saying something about going to the hospital. He is asking me again if I am okay. I finally hear myself saying, “It sure was greasy under there”.

I guess we aren’t going to the hospital because Sean is carrying me upstairs to the bathroom where he is sitting me on the floor. He is running the bathtub water now. I don’t think he likes the grease from his car all over me. I am wondering if my Mom will be mad at him for getting me so dirty. He is pulling my swimming suit off and putting me in the tub. “Wow, Sean, look at all of the black water.” Some of the grease and dirt is coming off in the bathtub. Mom won’t like us getting the tub this black and dirty. Maybe she is going to be mad.

I hear Mom coming up the stairs. She is standing in the doorway of the bathroom. She looks scared too. She is asking Sean why I am so black and dirty. Sean is still crying when he tells her that I put my towel in front of his car and laid down. He didn’t know that I was in front of his car when he drove his car over the top of me. He says that he heard the klunk so he backed up to see what the noise was and that was when he saw me.

All the grease finally came off and now I have my pajamas on. My back still hurts and it is red and sore. I get to eat my dinner in my mom and dad’s water bed while Sean and I watch cartoons. I am pretty happy to get all that black grease off.

When I turn sixteen I am not going to run over my brother.

Written by Alicia Chilcote
March 18, 2008

This story is about Justin, Sean and Jason. It was written for a writing class that I had been taking and was my last assignment. The assignment given was “writing a story from a child’s point of view. “ I have attempted to do this. Writing this story gave me reason to look back in time and see what I remembered about that frightful summer day. I have talked with both Sean and Justin and some of their memories are somewhat different than the account given here. However, it is the way I remember it being told and retold.

Justin is 11 ½ years younger than Sean. I believe that he was almost 5 when this near tragedy happened. Sean frequently tended Justin and Jason and enjoyed playing with them as well as spending time with them. The three of them were very close. On this particular day I was in the neighborhood taking a hand quilting class. It was just a few doors away and I came home soon after the incident happened. Sean reminded me that he saw Justin lying on the cement looking pretty well covered with grease and crying. Sean and Justin were very frightened. Sean jumped out of his car and ran to Justin and wrapped him in his towel and ran into the house carrying him. His car was still running and was not in gear nor did it have the brake on. The car rolled backwards across the street in our circle in Westshire and stopped when it hit the curb.

Justin says he remembers being scared, dirty, greasy and sore. What he remembers is vague to him as he was pretty young. He has been told the story so many times that now he is not sure what he remembers and what he has been told. He does remember that he was given a great amount of attention afterwards and felt like somewhat of a celebrity after the incident.

I think we have to admit that we are very lucky to have Justin with us today. If he had put his towel down a few inches to the west he might not have survived this frightening accident.