Rachel

Volkswagen Trauma

While on a trip to the country with his teenage son, Steve (…….) had become deeply immersed in the appearance of a Volkswagen, that he had manoeuvred the car off his side of the road, resulting in an accident involving a truck. His son, Jake (……) was taken to hospital suffering a broken arm, three broken ribs and numerous cuts and bruises. Steve died almost instantly but remained conscious for enough time to grant his son a farewell speech. For several weeks now, speculation has formed over the cause of the accident. However, yesterday Senior Constable Lawson confirmed the cause. A simple reckless action made by the trusted medical practitioner, has resulted in his own death and caused a time of horrible mourning for his family.

"What the hell?" I shouted, unnecessarily.

"Rachel, keep your voice down," my mum snapped. "Sara's asleep."

I slammed the newspaper down on the kitchen table and looked up at mum.

"They make it sound so dramatic," I raged. "Like some sort of Days of Our Lives episode."

My mum shrugged.

One week had passed since Jake had confessed all to the police. He spent a week in counselling and was practically back to normal. I think we've been on more battles this week than we had in a long time. Once again, Cassie had done her magic. But something was still bugging at me. I still hadn't spoken to my dad since he left. I tried to act like I didn't care, but I worried and very indignant.

"I'm going to use the cordless," I informed my mum as I picked up the cordless phone and ran up the stairs to my bedroom.

Closing the door hurriedly, I dialled my dad's home number. It was supposed to be his day off.

The phone rang for sometime and I was considering hanging up when he answered.

"Hey, Dan here," he paused, giving me room to speak.

"Hey, dad," I said casually.

"Oh, hi sweetheart, how's it going?" he asked.

"How's it going?" I echoed, firing up. "How's it going? That's all you have to say?"

There was a stunned silence on his end of the line. "What's wrong Rachel?" he finally asked.

"You left without saying goodbye!" I answered, shrilly. "That's what's wrong."

"You were asleep," he replied. "I didn't want to wake you. It's not like I've never done that before."

I shifted uncomfortably, but said nothing.

"What's wrong Rachel?" he asked.

"What if something happened?" I raged. "What if your plane had crashed?"

He was silent for a while.

"Rachel," he said in a low voice. "That will never happen."

"But, Uncle…"

"I'm not your uncle," he said.