I cuddled the picture to my chest and laid down on the bed, crying. Rick must of heard me, because I heard the door open and someone pulled me into their arms.
"Are you okay Casey?" he asked in a soft voice. I hate it when people see me cry, but now I didn't care.
"No," there was hardly any sound to my voice, but I didn't care about that either.
He started to stroke my hair and whispered over and over again that everything will be okay. We probably stayed like that for around an hour.
I finally stopped crying. When I did, Rick pulled me away so he could look at me and said, "You know, you look just like her. Just as beautiful as always, even when you've been crying." He smiled. Probably remembering the past that he had with mom. I tried to smile, but failed.
"No I don't. I have hazel eyes, like you, not blue like her."
"That's true, but you have her dark curly hair, her beautiful face, and her lovely smile." As Rick said this I saw a smile play on his lips, joy and sadness in his eyes.
"Why did she have to get shot?" I said with my head down, staring at the gray carpet.
"I don't know, maybe it was her time." he answered in a soft voice.
I moved my eyes to the picture, remembering the day she died. It was a couple of weeks ago; my mom and I were walking down an empty street, just finishing shopping. Suddenly a black car came around the corner, with a guy aiming a machine gun pointing at us. The guy started shooting. My mom pushed me to the ground, about half-a-second before the shots would have hit me. She wasn't able to get out of the way. I saw her fall to the ground as five shots hit her chest. As she fell it seemed like it was in slow motion. When the car went around the next corner I crawled over to her. I remember crying when I saw the blood. I grabbed my cell phone from my purse and called an ambulance. They came fifteen minutes later, but I already knew it was too late. The doctor confirmed it ten minutes after we got to the hospital.
I got up and put the picture on the bedside table. I opened one of the boxes and started to unpack again. Rick knelt down in front of the box and started to hand me some books and pictures.
When we were finished, I found out that the house only had one bathroom. Great, I thought. Across from the bathroom and next to my room was Rick's room. I decided I didn't want to look in there so I went downstairs. I learned that Rick didn't have a lot of food. To be more specific all he had was milk and cereal. So I started to make a list of things to buy.
I sat down on the couch while I was writing and looked around. I noticed that all through the house the walls were white, no color whatsoever. I went to find Rick. He was in the dining room reading the paper.
"Dad, would it be okay if I got some paint from one of the stores around here, so I could paint the house?"
Rick looked up from the paper. "Sure. Why do you want to paint the house?"
"Well, it's kinda plain looking and at the house mom and I would always paint the house."
"Oh." Rick thought for a moment. "Would you want some help painting?"
"Don't you have to work at the office this week?" I was surprised by his question. Rick is the only dentist in Forks.
"Well yes, but I know some boys that said they needed some extra money. Also, I would like it if you weren't here alone." Rick had a worried look on his face, I guess he was imagining me in the house all alone and crying.
"Okay, if that will make you happy." I looked to the clock hanging on the wall. It was about four o'clock, so I would be able to go to the store to buy some food and come back to cook dinner. "Where are the keys to my truck?" I was excited to drive it.
"In the bowl by the door. Where are you going?"
"To the store to get food for dinner." I was by the door getting my coat and shoes on.
"I'll come with you, show you around the town." We walked out to my truck. I almost jumped out of my seat when I started the truck. The engine was like a thunderstorm.
When we got back, I made us some quick grilled cheese sandwiches. For the rest of the night I went over some colors with Rick. We got some samples at the store. We decided to go with purple for my room, light blue for the bathroom, tan for the kitchen and dining room, and burgundy red for the living room. Rick wanted to keep his room white. When we were done Rick called three boys that he thought would be able to help me paint, but when he was on the phone, Rick didn't tell them that I was going to be here, he didn't even say I was living here. Well, this should be good.
That night I was restless. The thunderstorm seemed like it would never end. Like the last few weeks I dreamed of my mother's death.
