Chapter 2

Muriel POV

6 years earlier

"Who would be knocking at my door at2 am" I muttered to myself as I threw on a house coat and clumsily made my way to my door. "If this is a prank….." I growled as I swung the door open but trailed off at the sight of two officers standing in my doorway.

"Muriel Finster?" One of the officers asked I nodded slightly. If there was one thing I knew (and I am the first to admit that at 2 am I don't know all that much) that having the police at my door was not a good thing.

"May we come in?" The other officer asks and I move to the side allowing them entrance. My mind is racing through the possibilities. Did the school burn down no that can't be it they would go to Principal Prickly first… Did something happen to my brother… no that can't be it either they would have contacted his wife…. Maybe….

My thoughts are interrupted as I realize one of them is now leading me to the couch.

They ask me to sit and I comply just like one of my students. I notice he's talking and try to focus on what is being said.

"…their car was hit by a drunk driver. I'm sorry to be the one to say this but Robert and Flo Spinelli died instantly there son Joey died on the way to hospital." He pauses as he lets me take in the news that my two closes friends are gone as well as their son. I must be staring stupidly at him because he's started to shift uncomfortably just like my students do when they have more to tell but don't know how to do it.

"Their daughter Ashley was in the car" my stomach drops "She's in critical condition but she's fighting for life" I close my eyes thinking that's my girl fighting until the end. "Your listed as her next of kin"

For the first time since they got there I talk saying one statement that I had hoped I would never have to use. "Yes..yes I'm her godmother."

I look up at the cops who smile sadly down at me. "I don't suppose you know were we could find her other brother Vitto do you?" I shake my head trying to think of anything Flo might have said about her middle child but nothing comes to mind. "Why don't you go get dressed and we'll take you to the hospital." Once again I nod stupidly and quickly get changed grabbing my purse and head out the door with the police.

When we arrive they ask if there is anyone they can call for me I reply with a rather shaky no. One of them pats me one the back and leads me to a waiting room. The other leaves but returns quickly with a doctor.

"Muriel Finster, I'm Ashley's doctor my name is Doctor Thompson. I'm happy to say that at the moment Ashley is stable, she has quiet the bump on her head and is at the moment unconscious but she should pull through." After hearing that I tune out the doctor as she begins to talk medical talk. She's going to be okay keeps running through my mind as I nod every once and awhile letting the doctor think I'm paying attention. She smiles kindly and asks me to follow her into a room. And there she is.

She looks so tiny in the bed. Her face is all black blue. Her leftleg is in a cast. She's hooked up to more machine than I thought would be possible for someone so tiny. A machine monitors her heart another is hooked up to an IV and the worst one is hooked up helping her breath. The little girl I know to be so feisty looks like she went to hell and back. But there is a steady beep from the heart monitor and she is breathing steadily. With each breath I feel a little more steady myself.

I sit by her side and carefully take her right hand into mine once again feeling just how fragile she really is. As I look down at her I can see how much she looks like her mother, my best friend. And I finally let the tears fall for what I have lost but mostly for what the little girl in the bed before me has lost… her family.

I think back to when Flo and I met working in a diner. She was trying to get enough money together to travel and I was working to pay my way through school. We hit it off almost immediately. She was such a dreamer while I was such a realist. The day she met Bob at the diner she had told me she was going to marry him, I had rolled my eyes at her at the time having heard this before but some how found myself as her maid of honor a year later. I was at her side for both Joey and Vitto's birth and although they were special there was just something about little Ashley.

She was two months early and at the time she was given very poor odds. But even at the early of an age she fought to survive. The first time I saw her she was hooked up to a breathing machine and heart monitor like she is now. But unlike the other babies she was struggling to open her eyes. When she finally did that she stole everyone's heart.

She started walking before she could talk. And once she was mobile there was no stopping her. She had such determination that nothing could stop her. And I was her favorite person in the whole world.

When it was time for her to start school I sat her down and explained to her that it would be best for her to pretend that she didn't know me. It broke my heart the day she called me Miss. Finster instead of Aunty Muriel but I knew that it would be best for her. But I still always kept a close eye on her making sure that she never gottoo hurt or got tooover her head.

I snap back to the present when I hear the door behind me open.Lookingbehind me I see Vitto standing in the door way,behind himis oneof the officers who had brought me. Vittostands frozen justoutside the door way staring at his sister. Tears fill his eyes ashe quickly makes his way over to his sister's bed. I stand up and for the first time in years he throws himself into my arms and cries like the little boy he used to be. I hear the door close as the cop leaves us to our grief.