I got to the station and as usual Monroe was there first waiting for me.
"Good, you are here. I just got a report about a car accident, we need to go and check it out. The ambulance is also on the way." He wasted no time and almost dragged me along.
When we were in the car with sirens and lights racing to the site I asked. "Do you have any details on this accident?"
"Details? No not really. A worried soul just called in to say he saw a car burning near the railroad bridge." Monroe said. "We will have to see what it is when we get there. Hope no one is hurt." He added.
I knew that we would find a soul in that car. I needed to act surprised. Could I do it convincingly? I was really not looking forward to this.
When we got to the scene the ambulance was already there and the healers were waiting for us. They had parked some twenty yards from the bridge and the wreck that was rammed against one of the bridge supports. Monroe asked one of them directly. "So, what do we have here Starlight?" It was obvious he knew them from before.
"Oh, hi Monroe." The healer acknowledged our presence with a short look before again fixing his eyes on the burned out car. "Well, it looks like an accident. The car must have caught fire after driving into the bridge here." He pointed at the wreck. "And the sad news is that there is a body inside." Starlight seemed depressed. This must be the worst part of their job I thought. Despite our advanced medicine there were times when not even our healers could do anything, but share in the grief of lost loved ones.
Monroe looked over at the car. "Well Burns, let's take a look shall we." He motioned me to come with him and we went over to the wreck. Even on the way there Monroe recognized the car. He moved in a quicker pace now, running to the wreck. His face changed and once looking in trough the broken side window he broke up in tears. "No! Shadows, why?" Kneeling on the grassy curb, he hid his face in his hands. Sadness evident and contagious.
"What is it?" I asked with a lumped throat that I hoped he didn't notice.
In between sobs, he forced the words out. "Shadows. It has to be. It's her car." He tried to calm himself, but only with partial success.
"Oh no." I said. "That is terrible." I struggled to contain myself and had to look away more than once. Sadness and grief was gripping me too. Finally no longer able to hold my face I released my tears as well.
Monroe sat there rocking from side to side. sobbing uncontrollably and almost chanting, why? He sat like this for what seemed like forever.
When he finally got to his feet again, he must have used all his will power to act professionally. He looked back up the street in the direction the car would have come from. Tears glistening in his eyes. "But what happened here? Shadows was a good driver, didn't exceed the posted limits either." Monroe was rubbing his chin between his thumb and index finger. "Must have been something with the car. Only explanation I can think of."
"Could be. So what do we do now?"
"We open up this wreck so that the healers can bring poor Shadows with them." He had more self-control now, but still his eyes moistened when mentioning Shadows. "Then we call a tow truck to get this wreck to the mechanics. I want them to find out what could cause this. But first we need to take some pictures for documentation."
"I'll get the camera then." I said, aching to get away from him, to get a reprieve from the situation.
He barely acknowledged me. "Good, good." He said absentmindedly.
Back at the squad car I lingered a bit, taking my time to ensure my composure was up to Monroe's scrutiny. No, I definitely did not like this situation at all. I fetched the camera from the glove compartment and returned.
"Take snaps of everything, we are looking for skid marks and brake tracks." He pointed his hand at what he wanted me to take pictures of.
We finished documenting the scene and opened the wreck so that the healers could take Shadows. The door was already jarred open so we just needed to bend a bit. We hardly spoke at all. Words were meaningless at this point. Monroe had lost a colleague and a good friend. I did not know Shadows that well, but my heart ached as we labored with the healers to get her free.
We put Shadows in the ambulance and Monroe kissed her head through the blanket covering her body. "Good bye my friend. My soul mate. I will miss you, always."
The tow truck arrived and they pulled the wreck onto the flatbed. With nothing more to do we headed back to the station. Monroe remained quiet and solemn. As if he had retreated into his head and shut himself off from the outside world. It was like he felt worse every second going by.
When we arrived at the station Monroe had still not said a word. I parked the car in the garage and walked him to the office. He slumped down in his chair staring empty in front of him.
I broke the awful silence "I am sorry about Shadows."
His eyes moved slowly to me. "It's ok Burns, it's not your fault…" he looked back at his desk, like he was looking for something. "I think we should call it a day." He added. "Too much emotion for one day." His eyes were moist again, and I could see he was really focusing on keeping up appearances now so I did not delay my answer.
"Do you need help with anything? Can I drive you somewhere?" I asked.
"No I am fine, I will stay here a bit and finish up some paperwork. You just go home. It's not like anything else will happen today." He looked at me with glazed eyes. "Just take care of the ones you love Burns. You never know how much time you have."
"I will." I promised myself to follow this word of advice. "So, good day then Monroe."
"Goodbye Burns." He looked away and out the window.
I wished there was something I could do for him, but he did not want any help so I took my leave.
I stopped by the mall on my way home thinking I could find some clothes and other necessities for the new additions to my family. I went through many shops hoping to find that special thing for everyone, but I didn't really know them at all. I ended up getting a variety of clothes, both for work and some that was more for the festive occasions.
Shopping for my family made me think of them and that made me feel good. I passed the toy store and saw a nice radio controlled squad car. Not exactly like the one I had, but it was hopefully close enough. That will be a nice moving in present for Chris. This would have to do. People were already starting to look my way. But on my way out there was just one little thing that caught my eye. So I had to make a detour to the jewelers as well.
When I got home, Evan was literally beaming as he met me in the door. "You're home early?"
At first I was infected by his good mood. Then I remembered the reason I was home early and any prospect of happiness was quickly squashed and vanished into my gut. "Yes." I said looking at the threshold. "Monroe needed some time alone to deal with Shadows death. He told me to go home."
Evan also seemed affected by this and his good mood withered. "I see. That is to be understood. Bloody idiot that Tom…" He clenched his fist.
"Yes it was unnecessary. And we will discuss this later, but for now…" I pointed at the squad car. "I could use some help getting some stuff inside."
"Of course" He said and followed me to the car. When he saw the boxes, he balked. "Did you empty the Mall?"
I felt my lips pull into my cheeks. "No I didn't, but I did get some questioning looks this time. So I had better shop smaller quantities... I just couldn't help it." Then I remembered his mood when I arrived. "But, tell me, why were you so happy back there?"
He chuckled. "Oh that. Nothing really, just one of those days I guess."
My experience with these people told me that he did not tell the whole truth. At the same time if he withheld anything this way it could not really be bad. So I let it go. "Ok, you just had the most contagious smile there."
We carried the boxes of shopping into the living room. Nate, Rob, Tom, Sandra, Chris and Rachel were there. Chris was playing with some pieces of board on the floor. Using them as building blocks.
"Hi all." I said when setting down one of the boxes. "I brought you guys some house warming presents."
"I'll get the rest." Evan said and disappeared back outside.
"So, you're at it again." Nate said with a chuckle as the others looked curious at the boxes.
I opened the first one. "Let's see what we have here." I sorted through the bags in the box, but everything was of course for those that were not present. "Where are the others by the way?"
Rob got up as if on cue. "I'll go get them." He said and disappeared into the hall.
I opened the next box and now we were on to something. That bag was for Sandra and that one for Tom. I pulled them up and walked over to them. "Ok, Sandra, Tom, this is for you." I gave them the bags. "I am sorry. I do not know anything about your tastes or sizes. But what does not fit I can just take back and get the right size."
Sandra seemed impressed. "Wow, thank you Burns." She smiled at me. Then she jabbed Tom in his ribs with her elbow.
He looked unhappy, but mumbled a thank you anyway.
"You are welcome." I said and smiled at them both. I did not know what caused this behavior from Tom, but I would not push the issue, at least not now.
And there was Evan with the next batch of boxes. "There's even more out there. Looks like I'll be doing this all day." He threw out his hands mocking despair, but his face gave him away easily enough.
Moving over to a new box I found it, the radio controlled squad car. I pulled the box from the bigger box. I looked over at Chris that still seemed completely focused on his building.
"Hey Chris, I have something for you as well." I said.
I could see he lost focus on the build and looked at me. "You do?" He said sounding surprised.
"I do, here it is." I said and handed the box to him. Rachel was watching with curiosity now.
Chris immediately saw what it was. "Wow! Thank you… Look Siss, it's a police car."
"Lucky you, why don't you open it." She smiled at me as well and mouthed a thank you.
"Oh, but I have something for you too Rachel." I got a bag up from the box as the others started coming into the living room. "Here you go."
"Thank you Burns." She smiled a wide smile. And best of all, they all seemed perfectly relaxed around me now. Well except Tom, but we would fix that too in time.
"So what's happening here then?" it was Kim.
I felt my heart skip a beat. "Oh hi Kim, just distributing some house warming presents."
She came over and kissed me on the cheek. "You are good at that." She winked.
Evan came in with the last box and I distributed the rest of the clothes.
"You sure know how to please people." Nate said with a smile.
"Thank you. I try my best. I just wish I could do more."
Nate nodded. "I know the feeling."
"So what has happened here while I was gone?" I asked no one in particular while I looked around the room.
Evan answered quickly. "We are a bit short of rooms, so we have rearranged the assignments a bit."
"Yes." Rob shot in. "We are looking into making more rooms in the basement." He looked in the direction of the hall where the stairs to the basement started. "It looks dry down there, so it should be fairly straight forward."
So that's where they had been when I got home. I should have thought about that earlier. At the same time I couldn't have asked the carpenter apprentices to do the basement as well. That would have looked like a strange request from a single soul when there were already five other bedrooms in the house.
"I guess it will be crowded for a while then," I said with a big grin. I couldn't help it, souls are social beings. And for once I did not find that being a soul was a particular hindrance. I felt great.
When the buzz about the warming presents had died down Nate took me aside and we sat down at the kitchen table. Rob and Evan were already there.
"Burns. Back at the mall you mentioned that you had found more humans?"
"Must have been humans. They tried hard to avoid us. I only spotted their hideout by chance."
"Good enough for me." Said Evan.
"So how do we go about contacting them?" Nate put the question out there for us all.
"For all we know it could be a whole family." Said Rob. "We don't have room for any more right now."
"Either way we should let them know about us." I said. "Maybe they can stay where they are, or they may have other hideouts as well. But if we do not make contact now we may lose them."
"True." Nate said. "I figure me, Rob and Evan should go. We can bring them some supplies at least." He pulled up a map and laid it out on the table. "Burns, can you show us where this was?"
I scanned the map and quickly found the location. "It was here." I said pointing at the closest intersection. "There is a small red house at the end of a dirt road going about here. There's also an outhouse, and when we stopped by there was a car outside as well."
"Hmmm, thank you Burns. Well guys, I think we should be going. Just hope they have not been scared into relocating." Nate said.
We packed as much supplies as we could spare into Nate's Suburban and within an hour, the three of them left. I waved them off from the door hoping that there would not be any complications this time, when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Here we go again." Kim said. "This time you will not go after them. They will figure this one out themselves."
I watched the suburban move onto the main road. "That seems to be the safest choice."
Comment:
Ok, so I got a bit caught up in the season and started handing out presents to everyone. well, seemed fitting this time of year.
So, this should have been longer, but suddenly it felt like a good place to break up into smaller chapters.
Please, if you are reading this and have gotten this far review. And be honest. No need to justify your opinion, just leave it here so that I know where I am.
This is not proofread, edited or revised yet, so I am certain that there is something to comment on, and If you want me to continue please do say so.
The first chapters have now been redone four times. So I guess I will accept them for the time being and wait until I am close to finished before I go over them again. I just don't want to stop the progress by going too deep in revisions. But there will be more revisions until we are all satisfied with the story.
And for those that have read the previous chapters before revision. Shadows has changed from man to a woman. This may have left a couple of references to her as a man, please let me know if you spot one so that I can fix it.
I have also tried to convey a bit more of Monroe's feelings on her death. He did not take in any way take it lightly.
2014-01-08 Added the part where Nate left to find even more humans, that is not something Burns will be a part of from now on. he thinks ;-)
2014-01-13 Edited the whole chapter to try to show a bit more feelings from Monroe. Not really done yet, but in order to be able to continue I think I will have to leave it as it is now for a while.