Change

“What’s going on up ahead?” I ask trying to get a view around the huge SUV in front of us.

“Looks like and accident.” My coach replies as we inch closer to it with the full-blown view on his side. My body chills and I start to panic.

I pray to God it isn’t my parents, it just can’t be. I peek out his window and notice a blue Chevy Malibu with a soccer ball and my number inside of it. NO…

No, it can’t be.

The car was so mangled and distorted you could barely even tell that it was a four-door car. I open the door before my coach even has time to stop the car. I take off running towards the car but a firefighter holds me back. “It’s her parents.” I hear my coach say running right behind me. I manage to break free and stop short of the car as I see two sheets covering the two bodies.

I hesitate as I slowly make my way to the driver’s side. I hear protesting in the background as people come closer to stop me. I reach for the sheet and pull it off slowly. It is my dad, with his beautiful blond hair, but where were his thick-framed glasses?

I shift to look deeper into the car and see them on the dash, cracked. I grab them and set them lightly on his face, I touch his cold, soft cheek and fall to the ground in shock. I can’t even find the strength to get up and see what my mother looks like.

I don’t even want to know.

I imagine my beautiful mother, her long blond hair and the sweetest smile that could brighten anyone’s day.

Tears start running harder than before. I feel someone pick me up and carry me away from the car. Away from my parents. I look and see my coach carrying me away from them. I start to pull away but my coach’s grip stops me and sits me on the hood of his car.

We sit there in silence for what seems like forever, until my coach breaks the silence. “It will be ok, you may be broken now but you are strong.” My coach says as he sits there comforting me. “You can get through anything Reina, even this.” He whispers as he steps in front of me to hide my eyes from the horror. As they start taking the car apart to get my parents out. This has been the first time I think my coach has ever given sympathy to me.

How could this happen to me? Why my parents? A police officer comes up to me and starts to talk to me. Telling me exactly what has happened to them. It turns out my parents should not have even been involved in this accident. They were just there at the wrong time, as they were driving around the curve they were struck by a semi that was going to fast around the curve, lost control, and went into the wrong lane and collided. The semi driver is still alive. The police officer said that he will go to jail for what he has done when he gets out of the hospital. I let out a sigh of relief and wipe a tear. At least he has to do something for what he has done.

My parents are finally taken out of the car. I could not watch it. I saw them bringing chain saws and axes to cut down the car to smaller pieces than it already was. I even saw my coach start to let tears fall too as we sat there clueless on what to do. He lost something as well, two good friends who will no longer be a part of either of our lives.

I stand up as they wheel my parents to the ambulance on stretchers. They stop so I can say one last goodbye. I get up slowly and walk over to my dad first. I slide the sheet off of his face. I fix his crooked and broken glasses and sweetly kiss his cheek. I whisper to him a few words and wipe away the tears I let fall on his cheek.

I walk over to my mom next, I haven’t seen what she actually looks like but to me she will always be the most beautiful woman I know. I hesitate to pull her sheet off. Today I lost my two best friends. My mom who I told anything and everything to. She was always there for me and now she is gone. I lower the sheet away from her face. She has scratches all over one side of her face from the glass, her hair a bloodstained mess. I smooth it down into place to make it look like nothing ever happened. I brush my fingers through her soft hair as I tell her I love her.

This is goodbye I guess. I know they will always be with me though.

I can’t hold it in anymore and I start to cry. I turn and run into my coach. He stands there in shock, as I start to cry into him as he wraps and arm around my shoulders. I can tell he is crying too. I turn to look at my parents. They have covered them up with white sheets and I can now no longer see their peaceful faces anymore.

Then it dawns on me. Where am I going to go? My grandparents are all dead. I only have my aunt that lives in the Midwest who I only see about three times a year. The only family I have left.

I pull out my phone and make a call. The phone rings and rings until I think I’m about to get their answering machine.

“Hello?” My Aunt picks up with a sleepy “Reina, what is it?”

“Anna?” I say with my voice quivering. “They are dead. My mom and dad are dead and I need you.” I start to cry even harder and I hear her whisper in shock.

“We will be there as soon as we can,” sadness in her voice as I hear her break down into tears, she lost her only sister.
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They got here at 4 am. Record time, I haven’t gotten much sleep. How could I when both my parents have just died in less than twelve hours? Now I’m alone, all alone. It seems like I can’t talk to anyone about it. Not even Clemmy. It would just bring back the pain and cause her heartbreak; they were like her parents too.

“Rein.” My aunt says coming into my room as I am sitting on my bed staring blankly into the darkness in front of me. “We will get everything taken care of. You will be ok.” She whispers sitting next to me as my head falls onto her shoulder.

I shake my head. She has this all wrong. I will never be ok. How could I when I can’t get those awful images of my parents out of my head? They were dead and I might as well be too. “I’ll be far from ok.” I mutter just barely so my aunt can hear it. “How can I, when all I see are both my parents dead.” I say with clenched teeth. “It’s a twisted and horrific way to die.”

I turn to look at my aunt. She has broken down, crying now. She starts sobbing and I break down too. I don’t know what has gotten into me. It’s not like me or my aunt can go back in time and change it. It just happened, like it was supposed to. But I wish it didn't.

I hand her a box of tissues. “I should never have even talked my parents into leaving work early for them to both come watch me play.” I say closing my eyes. “It’s all my fault.”

My aunt snaps her head in my direction. “How could you say such a thing?”

I start to cry. “Because it is true, I’m the reason my parents are both dead.”

My aunt shakes her head as if trying to get me to stop saying those very words. She reaches over and holds onto me as we both let a few more tears go. “Don’t think of it that way, I know your father and how he would do anything to be at your game, no matter who convinced him and don’t get me started about your mother.” She says through tears. “She is there in a heartbeat, no matter what.”

I look up at her with tear filled eyes.

“And both of them always will be right here with you.” She smiles trying to keep me from being depressed. “Always.”