I was fidgety all night. I couldn't keep my mind from racing and my hands still. I kept twirling my silver fork over and over on our linen table cloth without touching my food, and twisting my polished fingernail into my dirty blonde locks. I wasn't the only one who noticed. Mark kept asking me if I was okay, and the kids were asking daddy if mommy was sick. I could hardly talk, but I just kept reassuring them that I was okay.
I glanced out the front glass doors directly straight from my dinner place setting, it was still snowing, and was actually getting worse. 'Mom doesn't go out in the snow, nor would dad let her it will all be okay,' I kept thinking, but for some reason my body wouldn't believe it. I went to grad my glass of water and knocked it over breaking the glass cup and spilling it all over my non-touched food. Mark jumped up and started cleaning it up, while for some reason I just sat there. I didn't want to move, and there was nothing about that water that made me feel forced to get up. As a mom of two I always keep things clean, but not now, not feeling the way I do.
Mark cleaned up the dinner plates while I went downstairs with the kids. I wrapped my shivering body up in a blanket before I sat on our leather couches. I tried to concentrate on the girls playing house but I couldn't for a long period of time. I turned on the television; that didn't help either. I was frustrated at my self, and worse than that sick of thinking the same thoughts I'd been thinking all day. Every night I take the girls up and give them both a bath. It's one of those things that bond us, its girl time; it is something that I know I look forward to every night. This night my husband decided that he should bathe them. Although I understood the reason, I mean I couldn't even drink water without doing something, it hurt me. He was caving into my time with the girls, but I let it slide.
I walked up the stairs and then up the next flight to head to our bedroom. I changed from my jean pants and a turtleneck that I wore to work into my dark blue sweatpants and a light yellow long sleeved shirt. I did everything that I could think of, to get my mind off my fears, nothing helped; so I did the last thing I wanted to do, fell asleep.
"Hello?" I asked answering my phone. I was still in bed and Mark was beside me, it was late and I had been sleeping for a while.
"Is this Mrs. Paige Burke, daughter of Penelope and Charles?" a lady's voice spoke on the other line.
I reached over and turned on my bed side table, knowing something was wrong. "Yes."
There was a silence, "There's been an accident." As she continued to talk I was picturing everything she was saying as if I was there...
My mother had fixed the normal dinner for my father, and then they sat downstairs in 'their' chairs to watch Wheel of Fortune, and 'Jeopardy' it was a normal night, so far. Fritz, the family dog started whining beside my mom and she rolled her eyes but got up during the commercial break to feed him. Her, not so young anymore, body took a while to get up the stairs but she finally made it. Once out in the garage she remembered, there was no more dog food. She wobbled back inside and to the top of the stairs.
"Come on Charles, we have to run to the store." She called.
I could hear the puff that he made before answering. "It is snowing outside, and almost 'Final Jeopardy'."
"I told you to get it yesterday, now let's go, it'll be quick."
My mom had always been the leader of our household. Yes my father was the bread maker, but he was very lenient. What my mother said goes, and my father stood behind her one hundred and ten percent. She had slipped off her house shoes and put on her gym shoes, covered her light blue tailored pants and matching blue sweatshirt with her snow jacket. She was ready to face the cold, even though it was hardly below forty degrees. My father had finally hit the top of the stairs along with his cane, but threw on his coat quicker. She held the door for him and helped him into their 2001 Corolla and headed for the store.
"Boy its bad out." My mother commented.
"I told you not to come out."
She ignored his comment, like normal and kept talking. "I was thinking, because we are too old to be climbing our stairs but way too young to be in a nursing home, I think we should think about buying a ranch."
"I will buy you a ranch in Florida, just let us move."
"Oh hush," she said flipping her wrist towards him. "You and I both know we love Atlanta. Besides we couldn't leave Paige and the girls."
Before my dad could answer there was a bright light coming straight towards my mom. Neither could scream nor move they both just took the hit without making a sound. I could picture their black car flipped and into the ditch on the side of Lager Road, about a mile from our house. They were coming to visit us. I could hear the cars hitting, glass crashing, and even worse the tires squealing. My dads head was leaning against the door and the window. His cane was up by his head and blood was running down his cheek where he had hit. He was unconscious. My mother was worse. Her head was still against the steering wheel, and already bruising. The blood was running down and staining her shirt and her coat looked to be chocking her, although it wasn't. Her left hand was covered with glass from the driver's side window breaking, and her right hand was on my dad's lap, not moving. Both had their airbags already deflated laying below their bodies.
I could hear the sirens of both the fire trucks and the ambulances. The noise was becoming louder and the lights were almost blinding. I heard the footsteps of the men trying to make their way over to my parents as fast as they could. The boy from the truck had gotten out, and was talking to the police. He was reliving the moments of hitting my parents' car. He was explaining that my mom had completely missed her red light and kept going through, getting t-boned by him. The boy couldn't have been older than twenty, and he was crying. A women police had reached in the car and retrieved my mom's cell phone, directly finding someone related to call. Suddenly another car was stopping as a witness to the scene, their lights were blinding me and I couldn't see anything but it. I started yelling 'NO mom no!'
And then I woke up. Mark was next to me and I had fallen asleep, dreaming exactly what I had been fearing all night. But this was different. There were sirens in the distance and the light beside my bed was on, obviously playing the role as that person's headlights. I tried to shake it off. I tried to tell myself it was just a dream, when my phone rang. I hesitated and then opened it. "Hello?"
"Hi yes, I'm looking for Paige Burke, is this her?" a women's voice talked.
"Yes." I barely choke out.
She didn't waste any time. "This is Officer Lewis of the Atlanta Police Department. This is concerning Penelope and Charles, I assume your parents. There has been an accident..."
