by magmaman
Nice work Author - reality with emotion & well delivered - nice touch!
A really good story!! Little coincidences like this do happen.
I guess she couldn't forgive him enough to become involved with him, though!
Nice story. Some lose ends but only enough to make it more interesting. Keep writing good stuff like this.
Very real and to the point. Keep writing this way and you'll have an advid reader for life.
Sometimes in life, we meet Angels. Sometimes, God uses us AS Angels. This was such a story. And I believe that THIS time, the author was used by our Heavenly Father in such a way.
Dan survived by the good offices of an Angel. Amore Poetic thing I cannot, dare not imagine!
To be able to forgive someone for such a life-changing event is definitely Divine....No mere human has that capability. I know Angels walk among us, we just have to recognize who they are. This was such an encounter.
A great story.Please write a second chapter if you can.I m really interested to known if dan & katie meet again.I hope you write another chapter.
You have to be a great writer when you can go from erotic sexy stories to wonderful heartbreaking stories like this. Congratulations!
60 year old George
Thank you; great charactors.
I've been there, (but my rehab was 'only' one kneecap)
The ending caught me by suprise, as you intended. Very well written.
The ending caught me by suprise, as you intended. Very well written.
That was amazingly touching, it nearly made me cry... Although I have to admit the plot wasn't really surprising, one could easily guess that she was probably related to the victims, but you've turned it into such a beautiful and emotionally intelligent story!
"She said she needed to know if you were worth saving." That line was pure magic, you showed us the very depths of the human soul and that sometimes we are able to go further than we think we can and forgive someone our mind would tell us to hate... I really enjoyed it and especially the fact that you didn't use a "happily ever after" ending, this was a pick of real life!
Sweet, to the point, economically delivered. I liked this story a lot. Thanks!
Your stories always grab my attention and hold it to the very end. Sadly, after finishing your stories, I usually feel depressed.
You're a fine writer and, hopefully you will continue to write but I will no longer read your stories. Don't take this as a criticism; your stories truly are interesting--I just don't need the depression.
it's like those chain mails that i get in my email inbox! aghh!
so much like that rubbish site "love fate destiny dot com"; i don't know who writes that junk, maybe some stupid kids, for heaven's sake!
this is so beneath you, magma-man!
Great story. For a while I didn't know where the story was going but the ending put the icing on the cake. Keep up the good work.
I accept some of the commenters thinking that she was an angel in disguise. I also know that people fall for their saviors or caretakers,especially when they have someone devote themselves to helping them survive adversity. I have known a few fellow veterans that have fallen for their nurses when recuperating from serious wounds.
But...I also got another thought on this tale. Katie knew well that the anti-hero fell for her over this period. She had herself assigned to him even though he had killed the ones she loved. Yes, she brought him back out of his depression and made him a man again as was her job. She rehabilitated a man that was drawn to her both sexually and romantically. And as written, he went through all that agony and restored himself as a man because of his love for her.
My thought is just this:
Was it so she could show him what it feels like to lose somebody you depended on and loved? To be left helplessly and completely alone? Could that have been her revenge for her pain? Was that why she did not fall in love with him?
I guess only the "Shadow" knows. Or the writer.... Was that maybe why he ended it where he did? Thanks for the story.
I want to apologize for my stupidity. I reread the title of the story. I guess there was no duplicity on Katie's part. She was truly an Angel as written.
I didn't understand the title until the last. What a surprise ending to a very nice short story.
A STORY MOST CAN RELATE TO, MAYBE NOT IN THE INCIDENT/ACCIDENT BUT, NOT BEING INTENTIONAL,JUST AN ACCIDENT AND CLOSURE FOR ALL AND TO PUT AN END TO SUFFERING FOR THE FAMILIES WHICH WERE NOT IN THE STORY. GOOD JOB MM. TK U MLJ LV NV
First off I love this story because it speaks to the transcendent nature of man. But I hate this story because any a-hole who drives this recklessly is not going to turn over a new leaf completely as this narrator seems to have done .
But I love any story that's sly enough to have a righteous bitch slap of closing plot twist; and after completing this one my head was spinning like Regan from ' The Exorcist'. Well played MM. But in closing analysis I HATE that this story isn't longer because I loved it.
Ron you weren't the only one who assumed the worst while reading the story. I must admit I also was assuming the author was plotting out some sort of twisted vengeance story.
Instead, we are gifted with a forgiveness story that touches my heart. As, honestly, I do not know if I would be capable of forgiving some asshole for carelessly killing anyone I cared for. This was not an accident, that would imply the asshole had no control over the bad decisions that resulted in the women's death.
A sad tale with a weird ending. He was worth saving, but not worth loving. Hmmm...
nice surprise....a long unfulfilled climax, and then bam the anti-climax. That is the way to write a story......bill
I imagine it'd be kinda hard to live with the person who killed your mother and sister
Did not know where this was going but did not see the ending coming at all! Good writing and well told story. Sadly very close to truth in many driving accidents - just one mistake and injury, death!!!
I figured out who Katie was as soon as she introduced herself to Dan. Five Stars anyway. Great story.
A great story as usual. I am re-reading your fine tales for the second time.
In a way it feels more like revenge than a gift, she must have known about his feelings before his confession, but did nothing to discourage it.
A bit of a downer ending to just gave her walk out of his life, and a tad too contrived.
he fell in love under the Stockholm Syndrome, TK U MLJ LV NV
I didn’t like this story. I read stories here on Lit. to be entertained, not depressed. And this was a very depressing story. At least, that’s my take on it.
By the end it was down to three. I liked the story, I liked the premise and the raw emotion expressed in his frustration, depression, determination, and love. Although what he'd done was extremely selfish, the readers were forced to see the story from his perspective and his emotions became ours by proxy, so we empathized with him. This, as it turned out, was the main flaw in this story because, honestly, I don't see any kind of happy ending for this poor bastard.
A lot of people found this story touching, emphasizing what a wonderful thing forgiveness is, how beautiful it was that Katie was able to let go of her anger. I, respectfully, disagree. Katie may have ultimately forgiven him for killing her mother and sister and deemed him "worth saving" but what she did may have unintentionally turned out to be far worse than letting him die. Maria said she gave Dan a gift but, in my opinion, she did no such thing. Sure, knowing that Katie forgave him may ease his conscience somewhat but mostly she did it for herself, and to view it any other way is simply obtuse. If the story had been written from Katie's point of view, perhaps it might be justified to see this as an uplifting and wonderful story. Unfortunately, it is not written from her point of view, it's written from Dan's.
Call me a cynic but I don't see any good future for Dan. Katie was the only thing that gave him any motivation to go on, to improve both physically and as a person. By leaving and letting Maria tell him who she really was any hope that he could ever be with the woman he fell in love with was destroyed. What does this poor slob have left to live for? Trips to the store in his motorized wheelchair? She told him "you will be all right" but he won't. He's a wrecked shell of a man living in a tiny apartment on disability and he's responsible for the deaths of the mother and sister of the love of his life. Most likely the only thing he's destined for is drowning himself in the bath tub or running his wheelchair off a bridge. What else did she leave him?
Are we supposed to believe he's going to be all touched and feel a wonderful warmth that this sweet angel graciously forgave him and helped him on his path to healing? Come now, I thought people on Literotica prized realism in writing. It's going to take a miracle for this guy to find anything in his existence worth living for and apparently he already used up his quota getting Katie to forgive him. I can't see any future Dan other than being fitted for a coffin. I'm sure once she hears about it Katie will give a sad little shake of her righteous head, though.
So, this went from a good but emotionally difficult story about the pain and suffering brought about by a selfish decision to a rather nice story full of hope and possible redemption to a preachy, moralizing sermon on how being forgiven is the greatest gift there is! Cue eye rolling. As I said earlier, had this story been written from Katie's point of view it might have worked as we would have empathized with her pain, gloried in her courage in facing her family's killer, and cheered her for eventually forgiving him and letting go of her anger. Sadly, it was written from the other end and what we're left with is hopeless despair and a whole lot of "why bother?"
Forgiveness is a wonderful thing and I'm very happy Katie was able to grant it for her own sake. While that might have been the point of this story it did not come across that way and for that reason this story fails. Instead of feeling good for both of them I'm left thinking it would have been kinder if Dan had died in the collision.