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By Lucky Chance
Written by Vladimir Parnitsky, 10a

A young man was quietly crossing an old cemetery. Step by step he was getting further and further into the very heart of this awful place. The especially scary moon was watching him. It was like a big white face in the absolutely dark and horrifying sky. There was no sound, no noise, just total silence… Suddenly, “Scratch”. That sound made man’s face grow whiter than the moon. He had stepped on a dry branch and it had scared him a lot. After some minutes he continued going his way. In the middle of the cemetery he saw a big tombstone on which it was written: “Gerald Lucksly”. It was a fresh grave, because there were a lot of young flowers and some food on it. The man made a sad sigh and went up to that grave. Some minutes he was standing there motionless staring at the tombstone. His eyes were full of tears. After that he got something big from under his coat. And what was that? Oh, it was an old, heavy spade. He said: “Don’t worry; I’ll save you, brother”. He began to dig the grave. In his head there was only one thought: “I am still alive. Help…”

The young man’s name was John Lucksly. He was a 24-year-old guy from New-Jersey. He was living in his parent’s house with his wife Nancy Lucksly. They were just a typical family with its joys and quarrels. John worked in a especially huge company, named “Toy for joy”. There he was watching the machines work, so he was a sort of a mechanic in that company. This job suited him a lot, because he was very technically savvy and also he liked best of all to bring joy to children. As for his wife, she was a 22-year-old lady with very beautiful facial features. She was studying at the University to be an artist. Also John had an elder brother Gerald. From his childhood he remembered that they were not so good friends but they always helped each other in every trouble. Their parents died in the car accident when John was 12 years old, so Gerald played a big role in the upbringing of John. Gerald lived in his own house near John. He often visited him to learn how to run his affairs. Gerald worked as a manager in another enormous company. There he earned a lot of money, so he could realize his biggest dream: to see the whole world.
Some days ago Gerald came back home from a superb journey to Australia. He was very happy, because in his totally busy life he had been able to spend some days relaxing on the extremely hot sand and to take some absolutely terrific photos. Certainly he immediately visited John on the second day after his arrival. He wanted to share his experiences and to show his photos. “Everything was perfect “, he said. “But I somehow feel bad”. The next day Gerald visited a doctor, as John’s wife had advised him. But the doctor said that everything was all right with his health. After that visit many days passed. Everybody just forgot about that journey to Australia, but not Gerald. Every day he was getting worse and worse. Any doctor couldn’t name the cause of his poor health. Gerald didn't want to upset his family so he didn't say anything to John. When they asked him: “What’s wrong with you?” he told them that everything was OK.
A couple days passed. Gerald didn’t visit or phone John. At first John and his wife didn’t notice that, but then they felt really nervous. John took time off from work and went to see Gerald. When he entered Gerald’s house goose bumps ran down his back. He shouted: “Gerald, are you here” but there was no answer. John understood that something had happened. The dark and horrifying atmosphere scared John. Going to all the rooms he couldn’t find Gerald. Despair took possession of his soul. He started running through all the rooms and yelling: “Gerald, answer”. But absolutely terrible silence reigned in the house. Suddenly John noticed white slippers near Gerald’s bed. He came closer to them and froze with unspeakable horror on his face: he saw his brother. He was absolutely white with foaming at the mouth. John quickly took him to hospital but there a doctor said that Gerald was dead. Two days ago he had had a heart attack and because he had no pills he needed, he died.
It was a strong blow to John. Some days he did not attend his workplace. He became depressed. He began to drink a lot of alcohol. And once, when he had emptied another bottle of whiskey, he saw a strange inscription on the label, which read: “I’m still alive. Help…” “What a strange inscription!” thought John, but then he didn't attach any special significance to it. The next day John’s wife finished her exam picture. It depicted a badly wounded patient in the ward of a hospital and what seemed strange to John, the title of the work consisted of already known for him words: “I'm still alive. Help…” John was surprised but then thought it was just a coincidence. After some days he decided to stop being sad and invited the wife to go shopping. In the extremely huge shopping centre, there were big sales, so they decided to visit it. After several hours of exhausting walk, John decided to have a break and sat down on the nearest bench. His attention was attracted to the shop opposite. It was a pretty big store with a bunch of different signage. One of them that signage began with the words: “I’m still alive. Help…” John stood in amazement. Not believing his eyes, he hastily wiped them and looked at the sign. The sign still read the same words: “I’m still alive. Help…”It made him feel totally nervous. John immediately went home and tried to forget all the weirdness which had happened to him in recent days. He managed to do it just for a few hours. In the same evening his door was knocked by the postman. He brought him a letter on the reverse side of which the words “I’m still alive. Help…” were written. It was shock for John. “What on earth do these words mean?”, sounded in his head. But the longer he could not understand these words, the more times he heard that phrase. When he was watching some film, there he heard two times these words; “I’m still alive. Help…” When he was watching the news on TV, there he also heard those words. When he was reading a book, he also found that phrase there. It began to chase him wherever he went. It even started to come to him in a dream. John thought he was losing his mind, his brain slowly melted and he did not know what to do with it. He was in despair. But somehow he thought: "What if it's all not by chance and someone really is waiting for my help". And then he remembered Gerald. At the mere memory of his brother, John's body started to shake as if he had an attack of epilepsy. After several hours of thinking about it, he realized that maybe his brother had remained miraculously alive and now needs his help. John started to shake even more. His strength oozed away and he fell down unconscious to the floor.
The shovel went deeper and deeper into the grave. After some minutes John saw a coffin. After another couple of minutes he was taking it out of the pit. When it was done, John sighed heavily and began to open the coffin. When the coffin lid was removed, John saw Gerald. Gerald was quite well preserved, though it had been no less than a month. John was very surprised. But when he touched the hand of Gerald and it was giving stable 36.6 degrees, John's knees buckled. “My brother is alive!!!”, said John. He immediately raised the body of Gerald and took him to the hospital. There all the doctors were shocked. Gerald was really alive, but only unconscious. After a week of treatment Gerald woke up. There was little he could remember, so it took another two weeks to bring him back to norm. Later it turned out that when Gerald had visited Australia, he had been bitten by a bug, and it was just a reaction to the poison. A month later Gerald came back home.
After Gerald had left the hospital, John decided to celebrate such an occasion with the whole family. John, Gerald, Nancy: everyone sat at the Banquet table and were discussing everything, that had happened to them lately. John sat opposite his brother and as soon as their eyes met, John suddenly remembered all the oddities, which had happened to him after the "death" of his brother. John remembered all the inscriptions. He realized that all that had been pure coincidence, which had cost the life to his brother. A gentle smile broke on his face. He took a glass of whiskey, stood up and said: "I want to make a toast". “I am very glad that my brother is with me again and I want to thank the fate, that it all happened By Lucky Chance”.