I didn't really understand what Officer Malcolm had said. I just knew it was something to do with Mrs. Hardy, who had been really sick lately.
"Oh no. Are you certain?" Aunt Marylyn asked, her hand over her mouth. Officer Malcolm nodded, running his hand through his balding hair.
"Unfortunately yes. He called the police station to get them to send an ambulance, and he wanted me to let you know, since he knew Riley was expecting Jeff and Matt to come over.
"Aunt Mary, what's going on?" I asked finally.
"Sweetie, Jeff and Matt aren't going to be coming over for a while. They're mother…" her voice trailed off. She cleared her throat and continued. "They're mommy went to heaven." she finished.
"You mean, she died?" I asked, knowing what it meant when parents tell their kids that. Aunt Marylyn looked confused on how I knew that when they never mentioned anything about death to me in the two years I've been here. "My mom told me that there is no heaven, that when people say that, the person just died and they're put in the ground to rot away."
"Now listen to me missy," Uncle Paul said. "There is to a heaven, all the good people go there. Mrs. Hardy is definitely in heaven. She died yes, but just her body died. Her spirit lives on and is in heaven." I didn't believe him, but I didn't want him to know that. They were trying to un-teach everything my mother told me, but it never worked. Mom tried to make it to where everything she taught me I wouldn't forget.
"Can I go see them?" I asked my uncle.
"I think it would be best if we leave them alone for a while." Uncle Paul said. I nodded, but something out of the corner of my eye had me looking around my uncle's partner. Jeff was walking up to the house, looking lost.
"JEFFY!" I shouted, running around the police officer and down the front stairs. I slipped and fell, scraping my knee a little, but I didn't even notice the sting. I was used to it since I starting to hang out with Jeff and Matt, and I've been in worse pain.
"Riley, my mom…"Jeff started saying.
"I know." I said. "Malcolm told us."
"What am I gonna do?" Jeff asked, resting his hand on my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around him while he cried.
"It's okay." I whispered to him. "It's okay Jeff. People die all the time." Jeff's head snapped up. "Okay that was the wrong thing to say." I mumbled. "I just meant it'll be fine. S-she's in heaven. She's in heaven and she's being taken care of." I shivered as the words fell out of my mouth, mainly because I didn't believe it, but Jeff seemed to believe it and that's what I wanted, for him to feel better about things.
"Jeff, I think you need to go back home. You need to be with your father and brother right now." Uncle Paul's voice said from behind me.
"I know, I just needed to see Riley. She's my best friend." Jeff said, sniffing. I released him and watched as he started walking back toward his house.
"Hold on Jeff." Officer Malcolm said. "I'll give you a ride back. I need to get back to the station anyway." I watched as Jeff got into the back of Officer Malcolm's car.
"See you tomorrow Reggie." Uncle Paul said as his partner drove away. The officer honked and drove down the street.
"Those poor boys." Aunt Marylyn said after they left. "Losing their mother at such a young age. Imagine being 9 years old and losing your mother." I didn't say anything, but I knew how it felt.
"Riley, I'm proud of you." Uncle Paul said to me. "You put aside what you believed to help console you're friend. That takes a lot of maturity."
"Thanks Uncle Paul." I said, not looking at him.
"What's wrong sweetie?" Aunt Marylyn asked me.
"I know how it feels to lose a mommy." I said. Both Uncle Paul and Aunt Marylyn nodded in understanding, but they didn't truly understand. Only Jeff and Matt knew how I felt now. How it felt to lose your mother, the woman who took care of you."I'm sorry" I mumbled before running back into the house. I ran into my bedroom and shut the door, jumping onto my bed with my face in my pillow.
"Riley," Aunt Marylyn's voice called through my bedroom door. "Riley, there's something we need to talk to you about. We was going to tell you tonight, but we thought it would be a better time now." When I still didn't reply, I heard the door open, and felt the bed lower as my aunt and uncle sat down. I sat up, looking down at the floor while playing with my fingers.
"We got a call from my brother last night." Uncle Paul said. I knew right away who he was talking about.
"My daddy?" I asked, perking up. Uncle Paul nodded.
"He's coming in to see you this weekend. He's on a break from his job and school, so he decided to come up here to see you."
"I get to see my daddy!" I shouted happily. "If Jeff, Matt and Mr. Hardy is feeling better can they come over?" Uncle Paul and Aunt Marylyn looked at each other before Uncle Paul said "We'll ask Gib if it's okay, but don't hold your breath." I nodded, showing I understood, but I still couldn't help but feel excited. I was going to finally meet my daddy.
Three days after we found out about Mrs. Hardy dying, she was put into the ground, just like my mother had told me they did. I looked around to try to find the spirit Uncle Paul talked about, but I didn't see it. Jeff and Matt was crying the whole time. So was Mr. Hardy. After the funeral, everyone went back to the Hardy's property. They were having a little party thing. I think Uncle Paul called it the "wake." Everyone was talking about Mrs. Hardy and how sorry they felt for Matt and Jeff.
I was sitting in the tree Jeff and I normally climbed. Aunt Marylyn will yell at me because I messed up my dress, but this seemed like a good place to be right now. No one will find me up here, and it was peaceful. Plus it had an excellent view of the Hardy property. I sighed and looked down, seeing Jeff standing beside his brother Matt. Matt put his arm around Jeff's shoulders, then walked away into the house. Jeff wiped his nose with the back of his hand, and walked in this direction aimlessly. He stopped at the base of the tree I was sitting in before grabbing one of the lower branches. He was about a foot away from my branch when he noticed me up here.
"Oh, hi Riley." he said, sliding on the branch beside me.
"Hey. Are you doing okay?" I asked him kindly.
"If it was someone else asking me that again, I probably would have screamed just now. I'm fine, honestly I am. It's just going to be weird, not having my mom around anymore."
"I know." I said. "I miss my mom too." I said. Jeff looked at me curiously. I've never really talk about my mom to anyone. It was too hard for me to think about her.
"What happened to your mom?" Jeff asked. I didn't reply for a minute.
"She died." I said finally. "Uncle Paul was the closet living relative I had that would have probably wanted me, so I became his responsibility after she died."
"So you really do know what I'm going through huh?" Jeff asked. I nodded.
"Except you still have your dad. I never knew mine. I didn't even know a thing about him until right before my mom died." Then a thought struck me. "Oh yeah, my Uncle was going to talk to your dad about this, but he said that if you guys were feeling okay this weekend, you could come over and meet my daddy. He's supposed to be coming over to see me."
"You don't want to meet your father on your own?" Jeff asked, kicking his legs back and forward.
"To tell you the truth, I'm kinda scared about it." I said, looking down.
"Ok, I'll try to talk Dad into going." Jeff said. "You helped me out with this, now it's my turn to help you."
"You know," I said. "I could have been returning you helping me two years ago.
" Jeff looked up confused. "You helped me find my uncle two years ago. You saved me."
"I didn't know you then. This is different. You're my best friend now Riley. That was a 7 year old not knowing what he was doing. Now it's a 9 year old helping his best friend." I nodded, realizing he was right. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders in a sideways hug.
"Thank you Jeff." I said.
"No, thank you Riley for being here." he said back.
"Riley!" We heard my uncle's voice call. I jumped and probably would of fell from the tree if Jeff hadn't grabbed me. "Riley Michelle where are you?"
"Riley Michelle?" Jeff said, laughing. I jabbed his ribs and started climbing back down the tree. I jumped from a branch and landed on my feet.
"Right here Uncle Paul!" I said, straightening my dress.
"Girl, when are you going to stop climbing those trees?" Aunt Marylyn asked walking up behind me.
"I wasn't climbing a tree." I said just as Jeff jumped out of the tree and landed beside me.
"You have leaves in your hair." he whispered, pulling a green leaf from my ponytail. I laughed and quickly walked away, pulling at my hair to get the leaves out of it.
"Come on. We need to get home." Aunt Marylyn said. "We have to clean up before your father gets here."
"I thought he was coming over the weekend." I said, walking away from the Hardy house.
"He got time off early so he'll be there tonight." Uncle Paul said. I just nodded, but now I was wishing I didn't climb down from the tree. I was as scared as I had ever been. I was going to meet my father.
"Uncle Paul, what's he like?" I asked as we continued walking home.
"Tall." Aunt Marylyn said. "Really tall. He looks a little like you, but not to much."
"He's a wrestler to sweetie." Uncle Paul said. "Amateur, but still a pretty good one."
"What's wrestling?" I asked, really interested.
"Perhaps later your dad will show you." Uncle Paul said. I looked up to smile at him, but found him smiling at something ahead of us. I looked and seen a different car in our driveway. I knew right away it had to be my daddy's car. I took in a deep breath, my feet starting to slow down.
"I can't." I said suddenly. "I can't. I told Jeff he could be here when I met him." Aunt Marylyn was about to say something, but was cut off by someone running up to us.
"Hey Riley, Dad told us your dad showed up early. He said I could come down with ya, if it's okay with you two." Jeff said. Uncle Paul chuckled and smiled.
"You can stay Jeff." Aunt Marylyn said with a smile of her own.
"YAY!" I yelled throwing my arms around Jeff's neck. Now I wasn't as scared as I thought. My heart was still beating fast, but I knew I could face it now that Jeff was by my side.
"Let's go." Jeff said, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the front door. I stumbled along behind him, looking back to my aunt and uncle. They were following behind me really slowly. I looked back at the front door and seen a man standing there, staring at me. I suddenly became so nervous I nearly tripped over my own feet. He was tall, like Aunt Mary said. Way taller than my uncle or Jeff's father. His hair was long and he had a beard. Even from the distance I seen he looked like me. He had my nose, the shape my eyes, and even my arms and legs.
"Riley?" Jeff's voice asked. I blinked and looked at him. He was ahead of me. I didn't realize I had stopped moving. "Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded, looking back up to the man who was my father. He didn't look old at all. He looked a lot younger than Uncle Paul and he definitely looked younger than Mr. Hardy.
"Riley?" he said, walking down the front stairs. I automatically started moving toward him, my feet kicking dirt up into the air. The man, my father, kneeled in front of me and grabbed my arms gently. He ran his hands over my hair, then my shoulders. This close, I finally noticed he had green eyes, the same color as mine and Uncle Paul's.
"Daddy." I whispered, my eyes feeling bigger than normal.
A/N: Wow, thanks everyone for the reviews already. :) It really means a lot to me. So, yeah the chapters aren't the way they were before, but oh well. New postings means changes anywhere. LOL So yeah, thanks again, and the next will be coming as soon as I edit it. XD