Unexpected Goodbyes
Picking up her rucksack containing her camera, jumper and a few necessary snacks Amanda called out, "Come on CJ. If we don't hurry up we'll lose our take-off slot and not be able to go up this afternoon."
Wandering slowly down the stairs Flt. Lieutenant Colin Jesse Livingstone smiled at his mother. His Air Force career kept him away from home for weeks and months at a time and he knew how much Amanda looked forward to their time together. To her credit, Amanda had not put up any objections when CJ had announced that he intended to join the Air Force and become a pilot like his father. They were both aware that Colin Snr. had died in a plane crash whilst flying a mission and knew the potential dangers. However Amanda knew that CJ had to be encouraged to follow his own path just as her parents had encouraged her to do the same.
They had taken, when CJ was home and the weather was in their favour, to going flying together. It did two things. Firstly, it gave Amanda some quality time with her son and it allowed CJ to do the thing that he loved the most, fly. That day they planned to take a flight across the mountains. Both Amanda and CJ loved the constantly changing scenery that happened around and below them.
"Okay ma, I'm coming," he said smiling, "Keep your hair on."
Amanda grinned, "Keep a civil tongue in your head young man. You are not too old for me to give to smack around the head."
CJ answered her grin with one of his own and walked to stand toe-to-toe with his mother. He towered above her and as she stood there, her eyes fixed firmly on his adams apple, he said, "Are you sure you could reach me from down there?"
They both dissolved into laughter and left the house arms wrapped round each other.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion sat in his car with his partner of two years Chloe. They had been detailed by their Captain to watch the house of a murder suspect. The man had skipped town a few months back after the murder, but it was his daughters wedding in a few days time and the expectation was that there was no way he would miss that. Dion ran a finger around his collar and reached out to crank the air conditioning up a couple of notches.
"It's been so humid for days," Chloe said leaning forward so that her face was taking the full blast of the air conditioner, "we need a storm to clear the air."
"Maybe," Dion agreed his eyes on a taxi that had pulled outside the church, along the road from where they sat in their car.
Out of the taxi stepped a man whose face was well known to the pair of them. It was their suspect. As they had thought, he had been unable to bear missing his daughters wedding. Allowing the taxi to pull away Dion and Chloe stepped carefully out of their vehicle and separated, Dion taking one side of the street whilst Chloe took the other. Chloe slowly walked so that she was within arms length of their suspect and, without warning, collapsed. The suspect, shocked at what he had seen, knelt down next to her to see if there was anything he could do to help. Before he could actually do anything he became aware of a tall figure standing behind him.
"Dave Brandon?" the figure asked, "I am arresting you for the suspected murder of Shelby Crystal."
Shock held Dave Brandon still and he was unaware that the collapsed woman had scrambled to her feet next to him. Dion pulled him to his feet and, together, he and Chloe guided the shocked man to the car whilst reading him his rights and making sure that he understood what was being said to him.
The two detectives drove Dave Brandon back to the precinct house and spent the next few hours processing and questioning their suspect. They were not aware that the storm which Chloe had requested had broken with an unusual ferocity over the city and surrounding areas.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion arrived home a few hours later and went straight to bed. The air was a lot cooler and he was able to get to sleep without any trouble. He was dragged back to consciousness, what seemed like a few minutes later, by the insistent ringing of the phone by his bedside.
"Mmmmm?" he mumbled into the mouthpiece, barely awake or aware.
Seconds later he sat bolt upright in his bed his eyes wide open.
"What do you mean, not arrived?" he exclaimed looking at his clock, "It's three in the morning, what time were they due back?"
After listening for a few minutes Dion put the phone down and leapt out of bed and threw on the clothes that he had tiredly discarded the night before. Running down the stairs he pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and pressed the number 1 on his speed dial. Putting the phone to his ear he waited for the call to be connected whilst unlocking his car and screeching out of the driveway. Like himself a scant ten minutes before the voice that answered the phone was slurry with sleep.
"Steve?" Dion spoke, the anxiety he felt reflected in his voice, "I've just had a call from the airfield. Mom and CJ didn't arrive back from their flight this afternoon. I'm on my way there now, can you meet me?"
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Steve, like Dion, unwillingly awoke to the discordant trilling of the bedside phone. Cheryl, as always, slept right through it and Steve reached across his comatose wife to pick up the receiver. Listening to Dions words caused Steve to leap out of bed in a way that he hadn't had to since his years on the force and throw on his own clothes. He left a hurriedly written note for Cheryl and, within minutes, was on his way to meet Dion at the airfield from which Amanda and CJ had taken off the previous afternoon.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Both men arrived at the airfield almost simultaneously and both leapt out of their cars and hurried into the main building without exchanging a word. They both needed to hear what was happening and didn't want to waste time discussing the 'what mights'.
Unfortunately, the information they were able to glean at that point in time was scant and unhelpful to the point of being downright discouraging. George Cage the controller in charge, was unable to give them much information.
"Lt. Livingstone and your mother came in early yesterday afternoon for one of their regular flights. The Lieutenant filed a flight plan and they took off soon after. They were due to arrive back around five. Half way through the afternoon the storm struck. It was the fiercest we have had in a long time and we were unable to put anything up in the air until at least ten this evening. Trouble is, by that time, it was too dark to be able to see anything so we had to put any search on hold until the morning."
Dion spoke, "Why didn't you ring me before now?"
"We lost your brothers index card. We knew that you were a police officer and have spent the last few hours ringing around asking for a Detective Livingstone." He looked a little embarrassed, "We didn't know that your surname wasn't the same as the Lieutenant. It wasn't until an hour ago that we found the card and we realised that your mothers surname was Bentley. We were then able to ring your number on the card."
"What do you think has happened to them?" Steve asked, seeing that Dion was rapidly descending into shock.
"I don't know sir," George answered, "The storm was very widespread and it could well be that they were caught up in that."
"Was there anywhere on the flight plan that they could have put down in safety?" Steve continued.
"If they were still on their flight plan," George replied, "there are a few places. None of which are one hundred percent clear but for an aviator of Lieutenant Livingstone's experience and ability they are all possible."
"What if they were blown off course?" Dion suddenly brought himself back into the conversation.
"Let's just wait until first light," George advised, "we can get the rescue choppers up then and look for them."
Steve was very aware that George had not answered Dion's last question and a sense of deep foreboding gripped him.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Seventy two hours later Steve forced Dion to leave the airfield and get some rest. He had strongly resisted until Steve had said to him that to wear himself into the ground with worry and collapse would not do himself any good nor would it help Amanda and CJ to be found any quicker. At this Dion looked into his friends face and realised that he wasn't the only one to be worried sick about what might have happened. After all, Steve had known Amanda far longer than he had.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Insisting that Dion come home with him Steve drove them both back to the beach house and, after virtually thrusting a sandwich and mug of coffee down him, forced him into the spare room to sleep.
Closing the bedroom door behind him, Steve moved quickly thorough the lounge and out onto the deck where Cheryl was sitting cradling a mug of coffee. She looked up when she heard footsteps and the look on her face had Steve moving across to her and enveloping her in his arms. She buried her head into his chest and finally let go of the emotions that she had been hanging onto since the news of Amanda's disappearance had broken.
"Shh," Steve soothed, "it's going to be alright."
"Is it?" Cheryl questioned, "Is it really? You think they are going to find them alive? Why haven't we heard anything from either of them?"
"It could be something as simple as the aircraft radio being broken," Steve tried to be the voice of reason although, deep down inside of him, the feeling of foreboding that he had felt on the night of the disappearance had grown with every succeeding day without news.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion awoke feeling more refreshed than he had done in days. He lay there for a second in that nether world between sleep and full wakefulness for a few seconds until, suddenly, the recollection of what was happening came back to him. It was as if a large fist had hit him full in the stomach and he curled up into a little ball to try to ward off the sensation.
Slowly he uncurled, threw back the covers and stood up. He padded into the shower and stood under the running water for a long, long time. Stepping out he dried himself off and made his way out towards the appetising smell of cooked chicken. Cheryl looked up from preparing the vegetables and smiled.
"Hi sweetie," she said, "do you feel a little better?"
"I feel more rested," Dion answered, "but I won't feel better until mom and CJ are back."
"I know honey," Cheryl sympathised, "but everything that can be done is being done to find them."
"I'd better get going," Dion said.
"You, young man, are going nowhere until you have eaten a decent meal." Cheryl insisted, having put down her knife and stood in the doorway, barring his passage out of the kitchen, "If anything happens in the next couple of hours they know to phone here."
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
By the eighth day after CJ and Amanda's disappearance Dion was just about climbing the walls. It took the combined efforts of Jesse, Jack, Steve and Cheryl to keep him on something that resembled an even keel. Steve decided that it might be a good idea and, hopefully keep Dion occupied, if everyone got together for a meal. In the days after Mark had disappeared he himself had found great comfort in the company of his friends, even if he hadn't managed to show it.
Mae and Shona had spent most of the day in the kitchen of the beach house with Cheryl cooking up a storm as they put it. By six thirty everyone had arrived and they had sat down at the table to eat. The conversation was general and a little stilted to begin with but as the evening wore on everyone, including Dion, relaxed a little and now and then a small ripple of laughter was heard. The ringing of the phone cut through the conversation and the silence that followed it was total.
"Sloan here," Steve answered the phone very aware that every eye and ear in the room was on him and the conversation.
He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone and, suddenly, his face drained of all colour and he swayed, clutching onto the back of the nearest chair. Dion his face almost as pale as Steve's, also stood and asked, in the voice who knew the answer already, "What's happened? Have they found them? Are they okay?"
Slowly and with tears in his eyes Steve shook his head. Like Steve a few seconds earlier Dion swayed and sat back down in his chair with a thud. Jesse and Jack looked stunned whilst Cheryl, Mae and Shona had tears coursing down their cheeks.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
A few days later Steve and Dion were sitting in the office of the County Coroner waiting for his report on CJ and Amanda. The door opened and a man dressed in a pale grey suit walked in. Jonathan Cramer was not looking forward to this interview at all. Actually he had not enjoyed performing either autopsy. He had known and worked with Amanda for many years and the last couple of days had been the hardest in his career. He gave a small smile to both men and sat down behind his desk.
"Dion," he began, "I can't tell you how sorry I am that this has happened and I will try to make the procedure as painless as I can."
"Can you bring them back?" Dion asked expressionlessly.
"No I can't" Jonathan answered.
"Then nothing you can say can make me feel any more or less pain than I am at the moment." Dion replied.
Taking a deep breath and opening the file he had placed on his desk began to speak.
"I won't go into specific details with you Dion, but I can tell you that I think that neither your mother nor CJ survived the impact when their plane crashed. I believe that, from my investigations, that they were both killed on impact. I know that that won't bring them back but at least you can be sure that they did not suffer."
"Not once the plane had crashed perhaps," Dion said, "but we will never know what they went through while CJ was trying to either stop them crashing or trying to find a safe place to land."
Jonathan continued, "Actually Dion I believe that neither of them were conscious when the plane crashed. From the injuries that I found I think that a freak bolt of lightening hit the plane and sent a powerful enough electric charge through the plane to knock out all the planes electrical systems but also to render them both unconscious."
"Are you sure?" Steve queried for, like Dion, he could not bear to think of either Amanda or CJ suffering pain or fear.
"Yes I do Steve," Jonathan was firm.
Dion stood and shook Jonathans hand, "Thank you. I know that nothing will ever bring them back to me but I can gain some comfort from knowing that they suffered as little as was possible."
After the two men left the office Jonathan Cramer sat with his head buried in his hands. He had never lied to a relative before, but he felt fully justified in doing so on this occasion.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
It was a week later and Dion stood on the edge of a grave which was twice the width of normal graves. Dion had requested that not only were his mother and CJ buried together but that they lay side by side in the same grave. He looked down at the two identical caskets with a single rose resting on each.
"Mom, you took me in when I had no-one and was in great need. I will never forget that and will always love you for it. CJ, you never once showed that you resented someone else coming into your family and always loved me as if we were blood brothers. You will never know how much that meant to me and how I needed your love. I love you both and will always miss you."
Closing his eyes, Dion bent his head and prayed a silent prayer. Then he stepped away and joined the rest of the group where they were waiting for him a little way off. He knew that there would be some tough times ahead but he also knew that, with the help of his friends, he would survive.
THE END
Picking up her rucksack containing her camera, jumper and a few necessary snacks Amanda called out, "Come on CJ. If we don't hurry up we'll lose our take-off slot and not be able to go up this afternoon."
Wandering slowly down the stairs Flt. Lieutenant Colin Jesse Livingstone smiled at his mother. His Air Force career kept him away from home for weeks and months at a time and he knew how much Amanda looked forward to their time together. To her credit, Amanda had not put up any objections when CJ had announced that he intended to join the Air Force and become a pilot like his father. They were both aware that Colin Snr. had died in a plane crash whilst flying a mission and knew the potential dangers. However Amanda knew that CJ had to be encouraged to follow his own path just as her parents had encouraged her to do the same.
They had taken, when CJ was home and the weather was in their favour, to going flying together. It did two things. Firstly, it gave Amanda some quality time with her son and it allowed CJ to do the thing that he loved the most, fly. That day they planned to take a flight across the mountains. Both Amanda and CJ loved the constantly changing scenery that happened around and below them.
"Okay ma, I'm coming," he said smiling, "Keep your hair on."
Amanda grinned, "Keep a civil tongue in your head young man. You are not too old for me to give to smack around the head."
CJ answered her grin with one of his own and walked to stand toe-to-toe with his mother. He towered above her and as she stood there, her eyes fixed firmly on his adams apple, he said, "Are you sure you could reach me from down there?"
They both dissolved into laughter and left the house arms wrapped round each other.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion sat in his car with his partner of two years Chloe. They had been detailed by their Captain to watch the house of a murder suspect. The man had skipped town a few months back after the murder, but it was his daughters wedding in a few days time and the expectation was that there was no way he would miss that. Dion ran a finger around his collar and reached out to crank the air conditioning up a couple of notches.
"It's been so humid for days," Chloe said leaning forward so that her face was taking the full blast of the air conditioner, "we need a storm to clear the air."
"Maybe," Dion agreed his eyes on a taxi that had pulled outside the church, along the road from where they sat in their car.
Out of the taxi stepped a man whose face was well known to the pair of them. It was their suspect. As they had thought, he had been unable to bear missing his daughters wedding. Allowing the taxi to pull away Dion and Chloe stepped carefully out of their vehicle and separated, Dion taking one side of the street whilst Chloe took the other. Chloe slowly walked so that she was within arms length of their suspect and, without warning, collapsed. The suspect, shocked at what he had seen, knelt down next to her to see if there was anything he could do to help. Before he could actually do anything he became aware of a tall figure standing behind him.
"Dave Brandon?" the figure asked, "I am arresting you for the suspected murder of Shelby Crystal."
Shock held Dave Brandon still and he was unaware that the collapsed woman had scrambled to her feet next to him. Dion pulled him to his feet and, together, he and Chloe guided the shocked man to the car whilst reading him his rights and making sure that he understood what was being said to him.
The two detectives drove Dave Brandon back to the precinct house and spent the next few hours processing and questioning their suspect. They were not aware that the storm which Chloe had requested had broken with an unusual ferocity over the city and surrounding areas.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion arrived home a few hours later and went straight to bed. The air was a lot cooler and he was able to get to sleep without any trouble. He was dragged back to consciousness, what seemed like a few minutes later, by the insistent ringing of the phone by his bedside.
"Mmmmm?" he mumbled into the mouthpiece, barely awake or aware.
Seconds later he sat bolt upright in his bed his eyes wide open.
"What do you mean, not arrived?" he exclaimed looking at his clock, "It's three in the morning, what time were they due back?"
After listening for a few minutes Dion put the phone down and leapt out of bed and threw on the clothes that he had tiredly discarded the night before. Running down the stairs he pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and pressed the number 1 on his speed dial. Putting the phone to his ear he waited for the call to be connected whilst unlocking his car and screeching out of the driveway. Like himself a scant ten minutes before the voice that answered the phone was slurry with sleep.
"Steve?" Dion spoke, the anxiety he felt reflected in his voice, "I've just had a call from the airfield. Mom and CJ didn't arrive back from their flight this afternoon. I'm on my way there now, can you meet me?"
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Steve, like Dion, unwillingly awoke to the discordant trilling of the bedside phone. Cheryl, as always, slept right through it and Steve reached across his comatose wife to pick up the receiver. Listening to Dions words caused Steve to leap out of bed in a way that he hadn't had to since his years on the force and throw on his own clothes. He left a hurriedly written note for Cheryl and, within minutes, was on his way to meet Dion at the airfield from which Amanda and CJ had taken off the previous afternoon.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Both men arrived at the airfield almost simultaneously and both leapt out of their cars and hurried into the main building without exchanging a word. They both needed to hear what was happening and didn't want to waste time discussing the 'what mights'.
Unfortunately, the information they were able to glean at that point in time was scant and unhelpful to the point of being downright discouraging. George Cage the controller in charge, was unable to give them much information.
"Lt. Livingstone and your mother came in early yesterday afternoon for one of their regular flights. The Lieutenant filed a flight plan and they took off soon after. They were due to arrive back around five. Half way through the afternoon the storm struck. It was the fiercest we have had in a long time and we were unable to put anything up in the air until at least ten this evening. Trouble is, by that time, it was too dark to be able to see anything so we had to put any search on hold until the morning."
Dion spoke, "Why didn't you ring me before now?"
"We lost your brothers index card. We knew that you were a police officer and have spent the last few hours ringing around asking for a Detective Livingstone." He looked a little embarrassed, "We didn't know that your surname wasn't the same as the Lieutenant. It wasn't until an hour ago that we found the card and we realised that your mothers surname was Bentley. We were then able to ring your number on the card."
"What do you think has happened to them?" Steve asked, seeing that Dion was rapidly descending into shock.
"I don't know sir," George answered, "The storm was very widespread and it could well be that they were caught up in that."
"Was there anywhere on the flight plan that they could have put down in safety?" Steve continued.
"If they were still on their flight plan," George replied, "there are a few places. None of which are one hundred percent clear but for an aviator of Lieutenant Livingstone's experience and ability they are all possible."
"What if they were blown off course?" Dion suddenly brought himself back into the conversation.
"Let's just wait until first light," George advised, "we can get the rescue choppers up then and look for them."
Steve was very aware that George had not answered Dion's last question and a sense of deep foreboding gripped him.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Seventy two hours later Steve forced Dion to leave the airfield and get some rest. He had strongly resisted until Steve had said to him that to wear himself into the ground with worry and collapse would not do himself any good nor would it help Amanda and CJ to be found any quicker. At this Dion looked into his friends face and realised that he wasn't the only one to be worried sick about what might have happened. After all, Steve had known Amanda far longer than he had.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Insisting that Dion come home with him Steve drove them both back to the beach house and, after virtually thrusting a sandwich and mug of coffee down him, forced him into the spare room to sleep.
Closing the bedroom door behind him, Steve moved quickly thorough the lounge and out onto the deck where Cheryl was sitting cradling a mug of coffee. She looked up when she heard footsteps and the look on her face had Steve moving across to her and enveloping her in his arms. She buried her head into his chest and finally let go of the emotions that she had been hanging onto since the news of Amanda's disappearance had broken.
"Shh," Steve soothed, "it's going to be alright."
"Is it?" Cheryl questioned, "Is it really? You think they are going to find them alive? Why haven't we heard anything from either of them?"
"It could be something as simple as the aircraft radio being broken," Steve tried to be the voice of reason although, deep down inside of him, the feeling of foreboding that he had felt on the night of the disappearance had grown with every succeeding day without news.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Dion awoke feeling more refreshed than he had done in days. He lay there for a second in that nether world between sleep and full wakefulness for a few seconds until, suddenly, the recollection of what was happening came back to him. It was as if a large fist had hit him full in the stomach and he curled up into a little ball to try to ward off the sensation.
Slowly he uncurled, threw back the covers and stood up. He padded into the shower and stood under the running water for a long, long time. Stepping out he dried himself off and made his way out towards the appetising smell of cooked chicken. Cheryl looked up from preparing the vegetables and smiled.
"Hi sweetie," she said, "do you feel a little better?"
"I feel more rested," Dion answered, "but I won't feel better until mom and CJ are back."
"I know honey," Cheryl sympathised, "but everything that can be done is being done to find them."
"I'd better get going," Dion said.
"You, young man, are going nowhere until you have eaten a decent meal." Cheryl insisted, having put down her knife and stood in the doorway, barring his passage out of the kitchen, "If anything happens in the next couple of hours they know to phone here."
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
By the eighth day after CJ and Amanda's disappearance Dion was just about climbing the walls. It took the combined efforts of Jesse, Jack, Steve and Cheryl to keep him on something that resembled an even keel. Steve decided that it might be a good idea and, hopefully keep Dion occupied, if everyone got together for a meal. In the days after Mark had disappeared he himself had found great comfort in the company of his friends, even if he hadn't managed to show it.
Mae and Shona had spent most of the day in the kitchen of the beach house with Cheryl cooking up a storm as they put it. By six thirty everyone had arrived and they had sat down at the table to eat. The conversation was general and a little stilted to begin with but as the evening wore on everyone, including Dion, relaxed a little and now and then a small ripple of laughter was heard. The ringing of the phone cut through the conversation and the silence that followed it was total.
"Sloan here," Steve answered the phone very aware that every eye and ear in the room was on him and the conversation.
He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone and, suddenly, his face drained of all colour and he swayed, clutching onto the back of the nearest chair. Dion his face almost as pale as Steve's, also stood and asked, in the voice who knew the answer already, "What's happened? Have they found them? Are they okay?"
Slowly and with tears in his eyes Steve shook his head. Like Steve a few seconds earlier Dion swayed and sat back down in his chair with a thud. Jesse and Jack looked stunned whilst Cheryl, Mae and Shona had tears coursing down their cheeks.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
A few days later Steve and Dion were sitting in the office of the County Coroner waiting for his report on CJ and Amanda. The door opened and a man dressed in a pale grey suit walked in. Jonathan Cramer was not looking forward to this interview at all. Actually he had not enjoyed performing either autopsy. He had known and worked with Amanda for many years and the last couple of days had been the hardest in his career. He gave a small smile to both men and sat down behind his desk.
"Dion," he began, "I can't tell you how sorry I am that this has happened and I will try to make the procedure as painless as I can."
"Can you bring them back?" Dion asked expressionlessly.
"No I can't" Jonathan answered.
"Then nothing you can say can make me feel any more or less pain than I am at the moment." Dion replied.
Taking a deep breath and opening the file he had placed on his desk began to speak.
"I won't go into specific details with you Dion, but I can tell you that I think that neither your mother nor CJ survived the impact when their plane crashed. I believe that, from my investigations, that they were both killed on impact. I know that that won't bring them back but at least you can be sure that they did not suffer."
"Not once the plane had crashed perhaps," Dion said, "but we will never know what they went through while CJ was trying to either stop them crashing or trying to find a safe place to land."
Jonathan continued, "Actually Dion I believe that neither of them were conscious when the plane crashed. From the injuries that I found I think that a freak bolt of lightening hit the plane and sent a powerful enough electric charge through the plane to knock out all the planes electrical systems but also to render them both unconscious."
"Are you sure?" Steve queried for, like Dion, he could not bear to think of either Amanda or CJ suffering pain or fear.
"Yes I do Steve," Jonathan was firm.
Dion stood and shook Jonathans hand, "Thank you. I know that nothing will ever bring them back to me but I can gain some comfort from knowing that they suffered as little as was possible."
After the two men left the office Jonathan Cramer sat with his head buried in his hands. He had never lied to a relative before, but he felt fully justified in doing so on this occasion.
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
It was a week later and Dion stood on the edge of a grave which was twice the width of normal graves. Dion had requested that not only were his mother and CJ buried together but that they lay side by side in the same grave. He looked down at the two identical caskets with a single rose resting on each.
"Mom, you took me in when I had no-one and was in great need. I will never forget that and will always love you for it. CJ, you never once showed that you resented someone else coming into your family and always loved me as if we were blood brothers. You will never know how much that meant to me and how I needed your love. I love you both and will always miss you."
Closing his eyes, Dion bent his head and prayed a silent prayer. Then he stepped away and joined the rest of the group where they were waiting for him a little way off. He knew that there would be some tough times ahead but he also knew that, with the help of his friends, he would survive.
THE END