When All is Said and Done.
"Daddy, take me to Silent Hill." She tells him. He asks why, she gives a simple answer. "I want to go there, daddy."
Really she is thinking. Every night for this month my chest and tummy hurt. It's as if there is somebody in pain, and for some reason my heart aches.
And off to Silent Hill her father takes her, and Cheryl can't wait to get there. Her daddy mentions an amusement park they'll visit and oh how much fun it will be. She is very happy and very excited, and when she settles down in the front seat of the car, and she falls asleep, her dreams are of happy things. Happy things that any child would desire in their young and carefree lives. When the dream is over, Cheryl opens her eyes. Her smile greets her father, she's as happy as can be.
We must realize that happy dreams are fickle things and rarely do they come true. Out in the open a young woman crosses in front of the jeep. Though her daddy tries to swerve to avoid the woman, Cheryl realizes in her heart. This lady is me!
Dreams are fickle things and rarely do they come true. For too often we must set aside our dreams to fulfill anothers'. For Cheryl there will be no amusement park. She won't get to ride the rides with her father, or eat all the cotton candy she can without getting sick. There will be no carousel ride for her, and she won't have the joy of being exhausted from all the excitement. Instead she must fulfill her new dream. A dream where there is nothing and she becomes no more. A dream in which she ends her life. What had daddy called it once? Suicide?
Cheryl doesn't want this. She doesn't want to be this woman, and she doesn't want to die. She just wants to be with her daddy and go on all the rides, and wonders why she's being punished for no reason at all. Had she been a bad girl? The Sunday school teacher had said that bad children would be punished. Was she being punished?
She begs to be let go, to let her see her daddy, but suddenly her thoughts are not entirely her own. Even though she wants to be a child and go to that haunted mansion, she also wants to kill herself. Even though she wants to be with her daddy she wants to be alone. While she really wants to live and be carefree she also wants to die. So many conflicting motions for the young girl, and when little girls are frustrated they scream and cry until their mommy or their daddy hugs them and makes the bad things go away. Will Daddy be able to save Cheryl? What if he can't? The thought scares' Cheryl, and she continues to cry and scream.