Hey,
this is my first English written One-Shot. The story is based on pure fiction that my mind created, but I hope that you´ll still like it!
It hasn´t been betaed, but I hope that it´s still understandable.
Twilight isn´t mine!
I really would like to hear your opinion.
Ok, now have fun reading!
-Cananas-
Where butterflies fly
Forks´ Chief of Police Found Dead After Car Accident
By: Jessica Stanley
After having worked for nearly thirty years as the Chief of Police in the tiny town Forks, Washington, the body of Charlie Swan was found yesterday after a terrible car crash. Mr. Swan was spending his last half an hour of his shift in the police station reading the daily newspaper, as a call came in reporting a robbery at the local bank. The Chief took this as his responsibility and drove there with Deputy Mark Evans. Upon arriving, they soon figured out that the thief had fled with about 15 000 $ that had been in the bank´s safe.
Mr. Swan left Deputy Evans at the bank, ordered some back-up and proceeded to chase the thief himself. He knew that the thief would try to flee out of town, so Mr. Swan drove down the road towards Port Angeles. About fifteen minutes later he got the first glimpse of what could have been the thief´s car. It was a dark Ford Fiesta with tinted windows and the license plate has been screwed off which was why the Chief thought that he got the right car.
Mr. Swan accelerated once more and tried to get him to stop, but the thief wouldn´t budge. Instead he pushed the police cruiser onto the other lane when he saw a car coming. Mr. Swan who was clearly not expecting this move couldn´t do anything and crashed right into the car that was coming from the opposite direction.
There was nothing that could have been done to help the Chief and the driver of the other car. The thief took off and escaped successfully. The whole town is mourning over the Chief´s loss. He is leaving behind his daughter Isabella Swan. Rumors are that she will be staying with her Godfather Carlisle Cullen and his family.
The funeral will be held on Tuesday. Family and close friends of Mr. Swan only. Another little gathering will be held at the police station, Wednesday at 4 pm.
Edward POV
It had been a very quiet and calm Thursday afternoon. I didn´t have to work today and decided to spend the day together with my parents. In the morning we had a very good breakfast that Esme, my Mom, prepared. Afterwards she took my laundry bag upstairs to put the dirty clothes in the washer. Even though I´ve lived on my own for two years, I still don´t know how to do my laundry. Embarrassing, I know… Luckily my Mom offered to do it for me. My Mom definitely is an angel. She has shoulder-length brown hair, a heart-shaped face and honey colored eyes. At the age of 48 she still looks very good. My Dad tells her every morning that she is beautiful and sometimes he brings her a rose from the local flower shop. It is nice to see that they are still in love even after 26 years of marriage. Someday I want to have a relationship like they have.
The rest of the morning was spent talking. Mom told me about the latest town gossip. Jessica Stanley finally managed to get Mike Newton to ask her out, Lauren didn´t get accepted to the University of Washington (it was the third time she applied to UW) and some hormonal kids at the High School lit up the girl´s bathroom. Most of the time it was Mom who talked. Everyone in town liked her, so she always got a new story told, whenever she met someone.
After a light lunch Dad had to go to the hospital for a couple of hours and check on some of his patients. My Dad, Carlisle, is a very good looking man. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He is very tall and I know that many nurses at the hospital fawn over him, even though he could be their father. My Dad has worked at the hospital for more than twenty years. He is well respected and many doctors go to him to seek out advice.
In the afternoon Mom and I took a nap. Around four Dad came back home. Mom was standing in the kitchen and Dad and I were watching TV, when suddenly the phone rang. Dad got up and answered the phone. I didn´t really pay attention to him and instead focused back on the TV show. Suddenly everything happened very fast. My Dad cried out, as if he was hurting. Seconds later he started to sob. Mom came running from the kitchen, spoon and bowl in hand, to see what was happening to her husband. Dad pressed the phone to his chest and I saw tears running down his face. Mom ran to him.
"What, Carlisle, what is it?", she asked him frantically.
"I… it´s… Charlie. He… he´s de- … dead!", Dad sobbed. Towards the end of his sentence his voice broke. My Mom gasped and hugged Dad fiercely.
"Oh no", I murmured.
Charlie was Charlie Swan, the Chief of Police in Forks. He is very close to our family.
"What about Bella?", I asked.
Bella is Charlie´s daughter. Bella has the Down syndrome. Physically she is 17 years old, but mentally she could be about nine or ten years old. During the time Charlie worked she either attended High School or had a special babysitter. During the weekend when Charlie had to work she usually stayed at our house where my Mom took care of her. My entire family love having Bella around. Now upon hearing that Charlie was dead, I worried about her.
"Yes, dear, you´re right. Would you mind going to their house and pick her up?", my Mom asked me while trying to hold back her tears.
I nodded and went to the hallway to put on my shoes and grab my keys. Once I was done, I shouted a quick "Goodbye!" to my parents and went through a side door right into our garage. I loved our garage. It held five cars, two that belonged to my Dad, one for Mom, one for my brother Emmett and one for me. Emmett doesn´t live at home anymore either. He moved out about a year and a half ago and moved to Port Angeles where he lives now with his fiancée Rosalie. Rosalie is the co-owner of a garage and also restores privately some old cars. Emmett is jumping around from job to job. Right now he´s the gym teacher in Port Angeles, but before that he already worked at four different facilities.
My car was the silver Volvo. I got it for my 16th birthday and I kept it to this day. It was my pride and joy. I quickly got into my car, opened the garage door and sped out onto our driveway. The Swans didn´t live too far away from us, only about one or two miles. Once I got there I noticed that Angela who is Bella´s nurse had parked in their driveway. As it was already early in the evening, I kind of expected to see that. What I didn´t expect was the police cruiser that parked on the road next to the house. I could only hope that they didn´t tell Bella yet about her father´s death.
I parked my car next to Angela´s in the driveway and jumped out quickly. Without knocking on the door, I entered the house and went immediately into the living room where I knew Bella would be.
The moment Bella saw me her whole face lit up.
"E´ward!" she said smiling and showing me her white teeth. Bella has shoulder-length brown hair, brown hazel eyes, which are very typical for kids with down syndrome, and she is only 4´9 feet tall. She has problems with speaking and walking, but besides that she is a very bright child. At the moment she is lying on her mat on the floor doing a puzzle. I can see the handles and the ball for her exercises next to her so I know that she already did them with Angela.
"Hey Bells!" I say to her. "How´s it going?"
With a big smile on her face she starts telling me all about her day at the high school. While pretending to listen I look over to Angela with a questioning glance indicating that I want to know if she told Bella anything about Charlie´s death. Angela shakes her head in response.
"… an´ then, right be´ore you came, Tom came an´ he want to tell me somethin´."
As Bella said that I looked over to Tom who mouthed me the question if he should leave again? I shrugged my shoulders at first, but then reconsidered it and nodded to him.
"Well, Bella, since Edward is here now, I´m not needed anymore, so I´ll go, ok? Bye!" With a sympathetic look on his face, he turned towards me and then he left the house.
"Bye-bye!" Bella called after him.
"Ok, Bella", I began. How can I tell her this the right way? Will she understand what I´m telling her? "I need to tell you something. For the next few days you´ll be staying at our house."
"Like a slee´over?", she asked.
"Exactly. So we´re going to your room together and then we´ll pack. Once we get there we have to tell you something very important. Ok?"
As a response she nodded. Then she started to get up from the floor. I walked over to Angela and told her that I would take Bella home with me and that she could leave for the evening. After Angela expressed her condolence to me, we both went to Bella´s room to help her pack her bag. We gave Bella her favorite Tweety backpack and told her to put her jewelry, her stuffed animals and all the other things she wanted to bring along. Angela packed up her clothes in a suitcase in the meantime and I went into Charlie´s office and collected all her medication and emergency equipment. Next I called the school and told them that Bella wouldn´t be attending school for at least two weeks from now on.
Once we were all ready to leave we wished Angela a good night and then took off to our house. I called Mom and Dad with my cell phone and asked them to be as normal as possible because I hadn´t told Bella anything about the accident.
Once we arrived at our house, we took all her stuff into the guest bedroom and then went downstairs to eat a small supper. My Mom made tomato soup and toast, something that Bella likes really much. After supper we all went into the living room where we were going to tell Bella about what happened to Charlie. Mom and Dad sat down on the love seat together, while Bella and I shared the sofa.
"Uhm, Bella, we need to tell you something. Today there´s been an accident. Your Dad crashed into another car!" Dad tried to make this as easy as possible for her, without adding and details or making this confusing.
"I´m sorry Bella, he didn´t survive it. He won´t be coming back."
"Daddy? Daddy! Daddy´s gone?", she asked, clearly confused and agitated. Her usual smile is gone from her face and got replaced by a deep frown. She obviously was trying to decide what to do with this information. After about two minutes realization struck and she started to cry hysterically. I pulled her into my arms fully expecting her to welcome the embrace, but instead she did something very unlikely for her. She started to struggle and cry even louder, calling out for Charlie.
"Bella! Bella! You have to calm down! Bella, please! Calm down right now! This isn´t helping at all!" Carlisle repeatedly told her. But even his and Esme´s soothing voice didn´t do anything to make Bella stop crying. After a while she started to hiccup in addition to her sobs, so I went and grabbed a glass of water for her.
It took us another hour to calm her down, then Mom took her upstairs and helped her change into her PJs. Meanwhile Dad and I sat in the living room staring at one point of the wall, not speaking a word. Even though we weren´t talking at all, we both knew what the other one was thinking. What are we going to do about Bella? Who will organize the funeral? There were so many things that we needed to think about, but none of us actually wanted to take the next step. After 10 minutes of silence, Dad finally spoke.
"I´ll call the Police Department. I want the funeral to be an intimate family gathering, not a huge event with people that don´t even know him personally. I hope they understand this!"
"Carlisle, I don´t think that they would mind. Maybe we can even invite some of the officers that Charlie was close to?"
"Yes, that´s indeed a good idea."
Carlisle got up from the couch and went upstairs to his office to make the call. Meanwhile I decided to check on Bella, so I went to the room next to mine. I silently opened her door and peered inside.
She was lying on her back on the middle of the Queen sized bed. I walked over to the right side of her bed and leaned over. She was breathing peacefully and although I could still see the wetness of her tears on her cheeks, she looked content while sleeping. I sighed and decided to sit down in the chair by the bed. I took the blanket and pulled it up to a little under her chin. With a smile I sat down in the armchair and thought about the days ahead of us. The days until the funeral would be very stressful, but hopefully everything would calm down after all the turmoil was over. Then we could focus on helping Bella cope with her father´s death.
I hadn´t realized that I´d been sitting there for quite some time, but suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Carlisle. He gestured to me that he wanted to talk outside. I quickly complied and we both left Bella´s room.
"I called the police station and proposed your idea to them. We decided that the funeral will be on Tuesday and a little get-together will be held at the station on Wednesday. Today´s Thursday, so we have three days to organize everything. Esme offered to arrange the funeral and send out the invitations. I want you to help her with Bella. I know that you two are very close and I unfortunately can´t take a leave from work this sudden."
"Of course Dad. No problem at all. I´ll just give Ryan a quick call to tell him about the situation."
Ryan Garmey was my boss. Well technically my partner. Even though Dad wanted me to study medicine and become a doctor like him, he supported my decision to become a music teacher and private tutor. Since five years, Ryan and me worked at the local High School and Elementary School and also had our own music class for adults three evenings a week. Whenever one of us was in a difficult situation and couldn´t teach, for example the illness of a family member, we helped each other out. That meant we had more work, but over the years we formed a tight friendship.
Calling Ryan was a short affair. I told him the story and he immediately offered to take over my classes for at least a week. I was really glad that I didn´t need to find a suitable substitute because I knew that Ryan was the best.
After my phone call with Ryan we had a small supper without Bella and then went to bed early. In case anything happened during the night I left Bella and my door open. Thankfully nothing happened.
The next morning, it was right after sunrise because the sky outside was still slightly red, I got up and immediately went to check on Bella. She was still in the same position as last night, but this time she had her eyes open.
"Good morning!" I tried to say as cheerfully as possible.
"Morning, E´ward. Kissy?" she asked me. Of course she would. Bella is a very emotional girl that likes to be in contact with other people. I walked over to where she was lying and she gave me a wet kiss on the cheek.
"We´re gonna see Daddy today?"
"No, Bella. Remember yesterday? We told you about a car crash?" She looked confused.
"Your Dad, he´s in heaven now." Realizing Bella started to sniff. Afraid that she was going to hyperventilate again I wrapped my arms around her and rocked her gently.
"Bella, he´s in a place where butterflies fly all year round, where your Dad can fish all day long. Do you remember that he really liked to fish? He´s in a place where he can meet Grandma and Grandpa again. Doesn't that sound like a good place?"
Bella nodded, but continued to sob silently.
"Ok, Bella, what do you want for breakfast?" I tried to distract her by getting a routine back into her.
"Blue Cakes!" she ordered, but I noticed that she still tried to hold her tears back.
"Ok, so one order of blueberry pancakes for Ms. Bella! How do you feel about an all-day-long pajama day? Sound good?"
Bella nodded and started to get up. She put on her socks and we went together hand in hand to the kitchen where we started to put breakfast together.
"E´ward?"
"Yes, Bella?"
"Daddy is in a place where red, green and yellow butterflies fly in the winter?" she asked with big wide eyes. I nodded.
"That´s good. Heaven sounds nice. Kissy?"
I chuckled and complied willingly.
So, what do you think?
Good, bad, review it?
Your opinion matters to me!
-Cananas-