Page 26 (1/2)
A couple of hours later the three of us were getting off of the plane in Oakland and yet back in another taxi I re the driver ot to the apart Max introduced hias with ood friends of Ash I just sat down and stared into space
Crys joined ht hug She didn’t say anything, she just held me Finally, I was able to muster up some words "What happened?" I whispered into her chest
"He was surfing; that’s all we know Another surfer found hione by the tiot there," she explained softly as she rocked ot his wallet and cell phone; that’s how they identified hi that brought hi my eyes
I think I fell asleep in her arms, that or I fainted, but either way I woke up a while later inat his side of the bed, where he would never lay with ain I ran my hand back and forth over the spot where he would’ve been, and that’s when the tears began The tears and the hts, an e in And I tried hard… damn, I tried so hard to push it away, but I couldn’t I cried and cried and cried I cried until I passed out again fro
The next ti my back Her tear stained cheeks broke my heart It re then that no parent should have to bury their child I looked up at her through ave me a half-hearted smile
"I know that you are scared that I don’t like you very much, but I just wanted you to know that isn’t the case I understood why you left on Christas I know that you made my boy happy, and that’s all I ever wanted So please don’t ever think that I don’t like you or that this happened because you weren’t here"
I sat up and crawled into her lap, loopingmy head on her shoulder "I’m so sorry I’ed htly "There’s no reason for you to be sorry, Scarlett We’re all devastated over this I know that it hasn’t sunk in for any of us coh this is together"
"I’ain
She stroked h of that Now listen, I don’t want to draw this all out with a funeral and all of that None of us need to rehash this tragedy over and over again Ash’s dad is flying out here this evening We are going to have his body cre to take the ashes out to the ocean Whoever wants to say so to return him to where he loved to be" She paused to kiss the top of my head "I know this is soto have to decide if you want to stay here and go to school like you planned or if you want to go back to Houston Whatever you decide, Crys and I will be here to help you take care of everything, okay?"
I nodded against her chest, but I really couldn’t even begin to think about anything at that moment, much less make life decisions A little bit later Crys joined us in the embrace on the bed, and slowly Max, Andi, and Will all made their way in there as well And there we all sat silently, all six of us on the bed holding each other, all six of lost in our thoughts of hoe had lost such a vital person in our lives
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The following day we all went out to one of the beaches that he and I had frequented that suly, he looked just like Ash but dressed in expensive clothes The sky was glooray which matched our moods just perfectly Words were scarce; no one knehat to say We walked down one of the jetties and his mom released his ashes over the choppy, dark blue water One of the angry waves quickly crashed down on the what it had not previously taken Silently, we all walked back to our cars His dad didn’t say a word to ot in his rental car and drove aithout as oodbye to any of us Crys ed her in return
I had returned toaround in a trance None of it was sinking in, I kept thinking I was trapped in an awful nightmare, one that I just couldn’t wake up from Max had tried numerous times to co me that he kne I felt, that he had been there before, but I didn’t want to talk about Evie’s death any more than I wanted to talk about Ash’s That was just a reminder of all of the death that surrounded me
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR