Forever Together.

I stare at the front door, waiting. They said they would be home soon, its been four hours. Where were they? I pick up the phone again and call my mother's number again. In between the rings I hear the static. I hoped she'd answer, I even prayed.

Hours pass and I'm sure something is wrong. No one is answering my calls. They're never this late. To be honest, I'm scared. I keep thinking the worst... Maybe they're out Christmas shopping... Or eating out? Who eats out at 5 am? I hear a knock at the door and my heart races, I'm so happy... Yet something is wrong... Why would they knock at their own house?

I take a deep breath and walk over to the door. With my hand on the doornob I slowly turn it. I'm looking at the ground so I don't have to face what I know is coming. I see shiny black shoes and pants that are perfectly folded. As I moved my eyes upward I noticed the man's uniform. I felt tears in my eyes when I realized why he was here. I felt a lump rise to my throat as I tried to speak, but failed.

"Hello ma'am, are you Charlie?" The officer said removing his cap.

I swallowed and nodded my head.

"Well, I"m officer Nigu, are your parents home?" I shook my head and tears started to fall. I knew what he was going to say.

I shook my head, I knew I couldn't talk.

"Uh, Ma'am, your folks were driving home from a casino earlier this evnin' an there was another car, who was drunk. Well the drunk driver kissed your parents car and pushed 'em off the side of the cliff. I'm sorry to tell ya that your parents are dead."

I couldn't believe this, no, I wouldn't believe this. "I'm sorry sir, I think you have the wrong house. You see my parents went to church and should be back any minute... Any minute." As I said that a pair of head lights pulled into the drive way. "That's probably them now."

"Sorry Charlie, I have the right house. You parents are Joan and Christopher Barnes, I saw their licenses myself. One of my colleagues just got here, he's going to spend the night here with you until we can settle out your situation." Officer Nigu ran his hand through his sandy blond hair as he sighed.

At that moment a handsome young man walked up to my door. His face was so amazing I kind of lost my breath. I had been staring at his face and didn't notice the Dalmation that he was leading on a leash.

"Hi Charlie! I'm Officer Johnson, but you can just call me Mike. I'm going to be your buddy for tonight, does that sound good?" He was cute, but he didn't have to talk to me like I was an idiot.

"Yeah, hi." I responded, I hated being treated as an idiot. "So Office Nigu, what did you mean about settling out this situation?"

"Well Charlie, you are still a minor for a few more months so we can't just leave you here to fend for yourself. Tomorrow we're going to look up your family records to see if there is anyone you can live with until you're eighteen. Then we're going to have to make him/ her your guardians. If we cannot find any family we will have to put you in foster care, I'm afraid."

"Great, just great. I'm most likely going to end up in foster care. My mom's side of the family died in a house fire seven years ago, and I've never met my father's family."

"Don't worry about it now Charlie, we'll get it figured out in the morning. Right now you and Officer Johnson should go inside. It's getting late." Officer Johnson walked inside and closed the door behind him. He looked around the front room, then he smiled at me.