The Last Leaf

March 5th, 2021.

Alina is walking through the streets of London with Rodney, her dearest friend and assistant. Alina was an orange-haired young lady, and she was the nicest to everyone. She always gave a 5 dollar tip to everyone that she bought from. And everybody loved her (ofc)! When she finished buying from the bread stand, she said she felt lightheaded and kindly asked Rodney to help her home. When she got home, she had been coughing so much, and Rodney was worried for her. He escorted her to her bedroom, where he laid her down on her bed. "Now, listen, Alina. Just stay in bed, and I'll take care of everything." Rodney assured her. "Get some rest." he walked out the door. Alina coughed a bit more, and she looked out the window, counting the leaves dropping, until she fell asleep. 3 weeks later, Rodney became even more worried. Alina kept on telling him she was fine, until Rodney gave up and took her to the hospital. They said she had pneumonia, and was to be bed-bound for 5-7 weeks, while being fed (idk pneumonia medicine?) Rodney was terrified for Alina now, as this could very badly "harm" her. He took her home and fed her her medicine every day. Alina counted the leaves outside every day, until there was just one left. She said that when that leaf feel, she would die. She almost predicted right, because one day, Rodney came in with Alina's medicine, but he looked more worried than usual. "Is something wrong, Rodney?" Alina asked him. He looked up at her, and spoke in a low, hoarse voice: "We're out of medicine." They did not have enough money to buy another bottle of medicine, and so there was nothing they could do. It was hopeless.

Somewhere near Alina's house, everyone had learned about Alina's illness, and they were all pitching in to help her. All those people who Alina had tipped, they decided that it was time to return her generous favors. They had someone sit in front of the last leaf that Alina said she would die by, and they said that if that leaf falls tomorrow, they would help Alina live. Otherwise, if it fell before the next day, they knew that Alina's fate was in the hands of god. So they had one person sit there all night, and, Alina, looking out her window, was watching that same leaf, too. Eventually she went to sleep. But the person watching the leaf checked his watch over and over again, and when it turned midnight: 12:00, The man watching ran to the store and took the money to buy Alina medicine. He knocked and knocked on Alina's house door, and Rodney got up to answer it. "I brought Alina medicine." The man said when Rodney opened the door, smiling. "You-you bought her this?" Rodney asked. The man turned and showed the crowd behind hm. "we all did." he gave the medicine to Rodney, and Rodney quickly ran up the stairs to give Alina her medicine. Then, he looked out the window. The leaf... had fallen.

He creaked open Alina's door slowly, terrified. And when he opened it... Alina was sitting on her bed, alive. "Your alive!" Rodney said, overjoyed. "yes, I knew they were helping me, so I didn't want them to do all this for nothing." she said, smiling weakly. "Alina, you're amazing." he gave her her medicine, and they all went back to sleep (including the crowd that had bought Alina's medicine). 2 weeks later, Alina had returned to the market. She was cured, and everyone was happy. She had survived...

Thanks to everyone.