Chapter 9

June 21st, 2015 2:00 p.m.

It was Father's Day today and Maddie, Karen, Jamie and Sophie went over to Slate Hill Cemetery to pay a visit to the grave of Jamie and Sophie's father. Five days ago, Maddie found the perfect gift to send to her father in a sports shop near town. It was the Medal Play 300, a valuable golf set that is said to only have three in existence. Golf was one of her father's favorite hobbies and he always had the desire to find one of these rare golf sets, claiming that he would be the most talked about man on the course with one. Maddie was fortunate enough to have come across it while taking a look around inside the shop. It cost a bit much, but she knew that he would adore this gift from her.

Maddie parked her SUV next to a sidewalk that was in front of a cast iron gate leading into the cemetery with the words Slate Hill Cemetery forged into the gate's arch. After helping Sophie out of her car seat and locking the car and turning on the alarm system, the party made their way through the cemetery until they found the grave of Mike Bennett, Jamie and Sophie's deceased father and Karen's late husband.

Michael L. Bennett

1975 - 2012

"Hi Dad, Happy Father's Day." Jamie said to his father's grave with a depressed expression on his face "I wish you were here with us."

Everybody placed a gift in front of Mike's headstone. Jamie gave the grave a drawing of him and his dad, placing a rock on top of it so it would'nt be blown away. Karen presented a home made card that contained a poem Mike recited to her on their wedding day. Sophie provided a small teddy bear that wore a shirt that says "Worlds Best Daddy" and Maddie gave the grave a bouquet of yellow roses.

They all looked at the grave, remembering that heartbreaking day a few years ago. In happened in late autumn, Karen was six months pregnant with Sophie and Jamie was a couple months away from turning six. Jamie had been woken up in the middle of the night by his mother. She told him that his father had been in a car accident. He was driving home late from work and got hit by a drunk driver and was now in the hospital. Jamie remembered feeling paralized from the shock he felt when he heard the news.

When they got to the hospital, they were immediately informed by the doctor that his father didn't make it and that he was gone. Right then and there, Jamie's whole world shattered to pieces. He and his father were extremely close and he was devastated by the news of his death. He didn't want to believe that his dad was gone, it meant that he would never see him or hear his voice ever again. He would also never get to do any of those father son activities with him or recieve anymore of his hugs. It felt like somebody or something punched a hole in his chest, a wound that would take his whole life to completely heal. A part of his life had been taken from him that day.

As all those sad thoughts ran through his head, tears started rolling down Jamie's face and he began to cry. Maddie looked at him with condolence and wraped her arms around the little boy in order to comfort him. Jamie accepted her embrace by wrapping his arms around her and burying his face into her chest, sobbing into it.

Seeing Jamie cry made Maddie start to cry as well. She had known Mike her whole life. She wasn't close to Mike but he was part of her life and she cared about him and it horrified her when she learned of his death from her parents. She didn't want it to be true, she wanted the whole thing to be a bad dream and that she would wake up in her own bedroom with Ike asleep at the foot of her bed and be relieved to know Mike was still alive in the waking world. She wanted to be woken up by either her alarm clock or by Ike licking her face. Yet the sad news was real and she was wide awake, which dissapointed her.

Her parents had the school give her a few days off so she could go to Burgess with them to attend the funeral, where she cried a lot. Maddie despied whoever the drunk driver was that killed Mike and was glad to hear that he was in jail paying for his crime. This was one of the reasons why Maddie never ever wants to drink alchole, beer or wine even when she turns twenty-one. She didn't want to get drunk and either end up doing something stupid, be taken advantage of or worse, hurt people, especially the ones she loves.

Karen joined in on the grief fest by wrapping Jamie, Sophie and Maddie all in a condolencing group hug and began to cry too. She had known her husband ever since they were children themselves and were best friends that fell in love with one another during their high school years. She remembered the night she got the phone call telling her Mike had been in a car crash and was in the hospital. She also remembered collapsing to the floor, bursting into tears and wailing in extreme sorrow the moment she was told that Mike didn't make it. She didn't just lose her husband that night, she also lost her best friend. He also never get the chance to witness the birth of their seconde child, which made the whole thing even more sad.

Out of everyone in the group, Sophie was the only one who didn't cry, for Mike died before she was even born, therefore the little girl never knew her father. She was also just a two-year-old toddler and therefore too young to understand why everyone was crying, being more confused than mournful.

After what seemed like an eternity of hugging and crying, the group said goodbye to Mike and started to make their way back to the car. As they were leaving, another gravestone caught Maddie's eye, getting her curiosity going. She went over to the gravestone to get a closer look and read the name on it.

In loving memories of

Jackson Thomas Overland

Born November 18th, 1686

Died January 21st, 1705

At the age of 18

After reading the gravestone, Maddie followed the others back to her SUV with a series of questions running through her mind. As she drove along the road, she wondered if Jackson Thomas Overland was who Jack was before he became Jack Frost and if that was his grave? If it was, then she thinks that it's really sad that his life ended at a very young age. What happened to cause him to lose his life at eightteen years? Do you have to die before becoming a guardian? Did all the other guardians die before they were choosen? Of course it might be just a coincidence. She could be wrong, the grave she just saw might be the grave of a different boy with the same name as Jack's.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I apologize if this chapter made anyone cry. Since Jamie and Sophie's father wasn't seen or mentioned in the movie, either he was probably dead or he and Mrs. Bennett were divorced. I decided to go with the theory that he died before the events of Rise of the Guardians. I also thought of what Jack's middle name might have been when he was human.

Reviews would be very much apprieciated, the next chapter will take me a while to write because I'll be gone on vacation for five days next week.