Title: How Far Is Heaven?
Author's Name: thelondonlook
Pairing or Character: Chad-centric
Word Count: 1400
Rating: PG
Squicks/Spoilers: Chad backstory, mentions of God/religion
Author's Notes: Written for empatheia for bleachflashfic. I apologize for any errors in this.
How Far Is Heaven?
Shortly after Chad turned eight years old, his parents died in a car crash.
He didn't understand why they had died - nobody wanted to explain to an eight year old boy why he no longer had parents - and why they weren't going to come back. Death was unfair like that.
The next door neighbors took Chad into their care following the days after the crash, since Chad had no nearby living relatives. Chad thought that Mr. and Mrs. Alonso were nice folks, but he was not completely sure why they took him to live with them in the first place.
"Why aren't Mama and Papa coming back?" Chad asked them.
"They can't come back, Sado," Mr. Alonso replied hesitantly. "They're in heaven right now."
"God rest their souls," Mrs. Alonso murmured. "God rest their souls."
Chad stared at them for a moment - he still did not understand why his mother and father could not come back home - and felt like he should hit something.
They held his parents' funeral in an old church several days later. Mrs. Alonso dressed Chad up in a suit and tie. Chad did not protest and wore the tie - it was pink - while funeral goers came up to him and hugged him tightly.
"Sado, I'm so sorry about your parents," an elderly woman said to him as tears stung from her eyes. "It's a truly tragic loss."
Chad shrugged and studied the elderly woman's rosary beads around her neck. "Mrs. Alonso told me that Mama and Papa are in heaven. I guess God's going to take care of them now."
The elderly woman wiped her eyes, and then patted Chad's head. "That's right, Sado," she said before tottering off.
Chad wandered over to the caskets - both of which were open - and looked down at his parents. Someone had put his mother in her prettiest dress - the yellow one with the flowers on it - and around her neck was her silver cross necklace. His father wore the grey suit that he had bought at the big department store; on his wrist was his expensive and prized gold watch.
They looked so peaceful lying there together, and it hurt Chad to look at them.
Several days after his parent's funeral, Mr. and Mrs. Alonso took Chad to the adoption center. They had received a phone call from Chad's paternal grandfather - Abuelo - and only living relative left in Mexico.
"Sado, your grandfather would like to adopt you," the adoption center woman told him.
"Abuelo?" Chad asked.
"Ah, yes. Your grandfather on your father's side," she said. "Is that what you want to do?"
Chad stared at her for a moment. "Would I live here?"
"No, you would live with him," she replied.
"Does he live far away?" Chad asked her.
"Not terribly far." The adoption center woman pulled out a stack of papers and looked at him. "Now, Sado, would you like to live with your grandfather?"
"I guess," Chad replied, squirming in his seat a little.
"Wonderful. I'll call your grandfather back, and he'll pick you up as soon as he's ready to do so." The adoption center woman smiled down at him and then proceeded to discuss the details with Mr. and Mrs. Alonso.
Chad nodded at her and looked out the tiny, smoggy office window.
He was going to live with a man he had never even met before - a complete and utter stranger - and he could not do anything about it. He looked away from the window and back at Mr. and Mrs. Alonso.
"Sado will need to pack his things soon…" the adoption center woman droned on, shuffling more papers.
Chad gazed out the window again. Often, he had heard his parents discuss "Abuelo" and "his old house," but he had been far too young to understand their conversations.
Although, Chad did receive a Christmas present from his grandfather every year - usually a little wooden toy - and more often than none he found himself priding over whatever gift his mysterious Abuelo sent him than whatever Santa Clause had gotten him.
Glancing outside the window again, Chad wondered if people in heaven got presents from Santa Clause.
Chad's grandfather lived in a town located on a hillside that extended down to a nearby river. The town's long, dirty, paved roads and streets sloped down the dusty hillside as the sun scorched down upon them. A messy array of shops, open air markets, and vendors lined the rust brown streets, and his grandfather's house sat smack dab in the middle of two crumbling buildings that slumped against his grandfather's house.
"This place looks older than dirt, Abuelo. It looks like it'll collapse soon," Chad told his grandfather upon pulling up to the driveway.
"My house won't collapse; it's small and sturdy," his grandfather answered as he hauled his grandson's suitcase over the threshold. "I have trust in the original builder of this house."
"Who built this house anyway?" Chad asked him.
"I did," his grandfather said, now inside the house.
"Oh," Chad said as he entered the house, and as he studied the dirty walls, Chad felt like going back home to the city, and he felt like kicking something.
Four hours later, Chad had not moved from his new bedroom. His grandfather had brought up his suitcase, told him to unpack, and explore the place if he wanted to do so. Instead, he had spent the last four hours studying his new surroundings.
He had noticed that the walls inside of the house were made from brown stucco, water stains littered the ceiling, and the roof was falling apart. The sparse, antique furnishings looked like they had not moved in years, judging by the thin layer of dust coating their undersides, and the place smelled like a horrible combination of medicine that old people take and cheap potpourri.
"It smells bad, Abuelo," Chad told his grandfather when he came inside his room to check on him.
"It smells bad? You didn't happen to make it smell bad, did you, Sado?" his grandfather asked him, sitting down on his bed.
Chad stared at him. "What?"
"Never mind," his grandfather sighed. He glanced over at Chad's unpacked suitcase. "Why haven't you unpacked yet?"
"I don't know. Don't feel like it," Chad shrugged as he looked out the dusty window.
"Well, you don't have to do it now. But you will need to change clothes eventually," he sighed again. "Sado…"
"Yeah?" Chad glanced at him.
"I'm sorry about your parents," he said quietly, softly now. "Truly, I am."
Chad fell silent, studying his grandfather for a moment before looking out the window again. "It's okay - you don't have to be sorry. It's not like they're gonna come back or anything," he murmured.
His grandfather nodded. "Unfortunately, your parents cannot come back, but we must not let that stop us, the living, from moving on with our lives. It's okay to be sad - I'm sad, too."
"I know," Chad sighed. "I know. They're in heaven."
He was not looking at his grandfather though, and rather at the slow movement of people outside on the street. Women pushed babies in strollers, businessmen in suits strode by, and gaggles of teenagers walked down the street - slowly; calmly; with their own worldly cares. Chad wondered if heaven had streets full of different people walking down them.
Chad's grandfather sat silent beside him. "
"You know, there's a shaved ice shack right down the road. If you want, we can go get some…" His grandfather prompted, putting an arm around his grandson.
Chad's lip twitched. A raspberry shaved ice cone sounded good now. "I guess…"
"Then let's go before it closes, Sado." He grandfather gave Chad a little tug, and pulled him to his feet. "I think a raspberry shaved ice cone might do you some good."
"I like raspberry, Abuelo," Chad said, looking at his grandfather now.
"I like raspberry, too." His grandfather smiled and led them out of the room.
Chad decided that heaven had raspberry shaved ice cones.