Chapter Six

Chapter Six

*I*

Julie let the warm water run down her back. She felt good to stand in the steaming shower. It refreshed her, revived her, let her start anew. She looked at her legs disapprovingly. They had not been shaved or put lotion on in 2 days. She had meant to do it the day before, or Sunday. She was so ready to send Ryan back to school. She was excited that he wanted to get out and see the world again. But than this God forsaken accident happened, and once again, where does he wind up, but the hospital.
She stepped out of the shower and looked at herself in the mirror. She help in all of her emotions to the best of her ability, but her best wasn’t good enough. Her perfect blue eyes let a tear escape, which was followed by another, and soon she was sobbing. Lately she had felt every feeling possible, and they were all stirred up inside of her. Finally they had settled, and for the past day she had felt on edge, like she would snap at any second. Finally all of them had let out. Her insides no longer stirred, and she felt better. Each new tear was like an old emotion escaping the body.
She got herself changed, still slightly crying, sniffling, and raspy breathing. The feeling of being a bad parent left her, and she was ready to start fresh, she was ready to start on a clean slate. The car ride to the hospital was boring, and quite dreary. Julie then realized how tired she was becoming. She pulled out her phone to call Linda, but uncontrollably her eyes began to shut. She was petrified; she new she was falling asleep. She was falling asleep at the wheel; she was falling asleep at the wheel on the interstate.
She heard the sound of a truck horn but it was just a blur to her. She was no longer steering the car. She was heading toward the edge of the road. There was one problem to this situation other than the fact she was falling asleep. The one problem was that a 18-wheeler was blocking her way. The horn was louder, but still not loud enough to wake her up.
Now it was Linda’s turn to get the phone. The call that she received was horrific, and well basically, unimaginable. The news she received caused her to lose her breath. It took her several seconds to regain the grasp of reality. She looked over at Ryan. She had felt bad for him, but now she felt even worse. The reason for this was because Julie Corsiva was dead. She was dead and Ryan was the last of his family. Ryan Corsiva was the last of the Corsivas.
Peter did not know what was wrong with his mom’s expression. It was the most sorrowful expression he had ever seen her hold. It was a mixture of complete sadness, and possibly even some anger. He was relieved when she finally chose to speak. He was not so relieved at what he heard.
“Peter, honey, well I don’t know how to put this, but something terrible has happened,” Linda said. Peter was afraid to here the news.
“Well what happened?” he choked out.
“Julie, you know Ryan’s mom, well, she got in an accident on the way here. She died on the spot, she is gone.” Peter was in complete and utter shock. He had never thought someone he had just seen and heard was now dead.
“Oh.” Oh was all he could say, all he could force out. He had said Oh before, but never like this. He had nothing else to say. He felt like crying, not only for Ryan, but for himself. It had been such a stressful past few days. He was only a kid, and he could only handle so much. This pushed the limits.
“I know this sounds crazy, but we have to go. We have to find her will, and you didn’t know this, but she left us to be the guardians.”
“What?!” Peter exclaimed. He didn’t know whether he was excited, shocked, angry, or all three.
“You see Peter he has no more family, you know all of this, so why am I telling you?”
“No more family? What? I know his mom’s side has no family, but what about his dad’s?”
“You know this; his dad’s entire family went on a reunion and the plane crashed. There were no survivors.”
“Why weren’t Ryan and his mom on the plane? Where were they?”
“Peter, for God’s sake, do we have to talk about this now. You already know where they were. Julie told us everything just the other day!”
“Mom, please, just tell me where they were.” He was now in tears and he was holding back sobs. He did not know why he couldn’t remember. He did not know what was wrong with him. He didn’t know much at all at the moment.
“Peter, Peter… I don’t know why you don’t remember. She just said it. They had a basketball tournament.” The room was silent and they exchanged silent stares. Everything in the room stood still, and the white, bare walls seemed to be swallowing them up.
They were at Ryan’s house now. Ryan was at the hospital. He had a nurse to watch over him. They were searching for the will. They did not know how the mysterious man on the phone knew that they would be Ryan’s new guardians, but they left that question buried in the graveyard of dead questions, which was quickly filling up.
They had finally found it and unsurprisingly all of her possessions went to Ryan, jewelry and all. All of the money was to be left to the Stuarts, except for the 10% that was for Ryan. They did not have a truck for all of the items, so they went back to the hospital. They decided that they would deal with this whole thing when Ryan woke back up.
Ryan was still asleep at the hospital. The nurse Anna was waiting anxiously for the guardians to return. She did not like the eerie silence in the room. The silence was broken by a gasp for air. It caused Anna to jump and let out a little yelp. Ryan had woken up and was staring at the hospital wall. He stayed silent for a moment, and then casually spoke, as if nothing had happened.
“Why am I back here?” he asked.
“Let me get a doctor, one minute,” Ana said. A few moments later a doctor entered the room, followed by a happy looking family, the Stuarts.
“Hello, how are you feeling?” the doctor asked in a friendly voice. He felt like he thought he was 2.
“I’m fine, why am I here?” Ryan was severely confused and did not want to be questioned. He felt like he should be the one asking the questions.
“You fell out of a tree and you landed funny. You have been in a coma for 2 days, thank God it wasn’t longer!” Linda said.
“Where is my mom, why isn’t she here?” This time Peter spoke.
“I know you don’t like things to be sugar coated so here is the news. Ryan I don’t know how to say this but your mom is dead.”





*II*

There was to be no funeral. There was to be no ceremonies. This is what Ryan and his mother had mutually agreed on. The will had been confirmed. Yes all of the possessions had been given to Ryan, but he had decided to donate half of it to the Stuarts, and half of it to charity. What was he to do with a couch, and not to menti0n his mother’s bed? All of the money was given to the Stuarts as well, except for 5% of it, which went directly into Ryan’s saving account.
The cremation was to be scheduled May 10th, a Saturday. It had been a week since Ryan had been released from the hospital, and even though he should feel better, the slight blurriness of conscience was still lingering in the vicinity of Ryan’s many emotions. The fact that his last living relative was no longer living, but on a stone slab at the undertaker’s had not hit him yet.
He only had one thing to look forward to. This was just a minor thing to look forward to, and he was wondering if he was even looking forward to it anymore. He had been looking for a good friendship, a sincere friendship. Moving in with his current best friend could strengthen the friendship, or it could brutally and unmercifully slaughter it.
He was thinking about all of these things as he sat on his old bed, but in his new room. He had stayed in his room the entire week, with the exclusion of going to school. The Stuarts didn’t want to intrude on Ryan, and especially not at the moment. All of the feelings he had felt in the past week were probably unknown to most of the human race.
He was staring at the solid blue walls that surrounded him, that stared right on back at him. They were menacing, and were closing in, just like the walls in the hospital. The sound of a TV was drowning out Ryan’s thoughts. He did not recognize the TV show, but it was loud and obnoxious, and completely, well completely a waste of a half an hour.
He no longer felt sad, but he just felt utter carelessness, complete numbness. The realization of everything that had happened to him had not hit him, and he was getting prepared for the day when it all brutally comes to him. From the accident to the death of his mother he had just been drowned in feelings. All he could think about was his feelings, and how he feels almost all of them, all of them except happiness.
That’s when he remembered it. That was when he remembered the assortment of items he bought at the store. One week later he remembered buying these things, and he remembered that he did not know where they were. This thought caused Ryan to shoot out of the bed, for the first time in a week. He ran down the hall to Linda’s room. He had never noticed how perfect the walls were. He guessed that having only one kid and a dead husband didn’t make much of a mess. He burst through the door without knocking, without even warning her.
“Do you know where my target bag is?” he asked loudly. Linda yelped and turned to face Ryan. She was in a towel, and nothing more. Her face showed surprise, and even a bit of anger.
“Umm, Ryan I don’t think I know what you’re talking about, can we talk about this later? I’m kind of busy at the moment,” she said. She looked flustered and felt it to.
“No, you have to tell me, it had some random items in it and it was lying on the kitchen counter. Where did you put it?”
“Now that you mention it I think I put it on our kitchen counter, yeah, that’s where it is. Not to be rude but can you please leave?” He didn’t even reply. He just burst right on out the doors he came in. He raced downstairs into the kitchen, where he saw Peter eating a snack. He and Peter hadn’t talked all week; he assumed it was just the uneasiness of the whole situation. As he grabbed the bag he forced out a “Hi”, and left the room before a reply.
He now ran upstairs and back into his room. He spilled the contents out of the bag. Everything was there, which greatly relieved him. Then he remembered, he remembered the stupid note. “Where the hell did it go?” he thought aloud. He felt bad for the language but that was the least of his worries at the moment. He tried to remember where he put it, but he was drawing a blank. But then it hit him; it was in his back pocket, the pocket of the pants the day he fell out of the tree.
“Oh crap!” he said. “It’s long gone now, God I’m such an idiot, a bloody idiot.” He heard a rapping at the door. “Come in,” he said. He tried to make his voice sound a little less panicky. Peter emerged into the room. He looked at Ryan strangely and scanned the floor.
“Um, hi. I was just wondering if you would like to come to the park with my mom and me. We are going to Legion Park, it’s off of Mariette Street. Ryan thought for a moment, and concluded that it would be a good idea to get some fresh air. He didn’t speak, but just stood up and headed toward the door. He hoped that this gesture would be enough to signal that he wanted to go.
Peter looked at him and let a slight smile form on his frustrated face. Peter was so happy that Ryan was recovering and he was glad that he was there to help him at any time of the day. Peter followed Ryan down the stairs where they met his mom and climbed into the mini van. At the last minute Linda said, “How about we take the convertible.”
“We better not, it looks like its about to storm,” Peter replied, trying not to let too much confusion show in his voice. Ryan just smiled and turned to Peter and winked. Peter thought how odd this was, but dismissed it, and waited to hear what Ryan had to say.
“Ms. Stuart, I think your idea is a fine one. I’d love to go to the park while it was storming, and I definitely don’t mind taking the convertible. I need as much fresh air as possible. I have been cramped up in my room for a week now.” Linda seemed to take this in painfully, but a smile spread across her face and they moved into the convertible.
Ryan gestured Peter into the front seat, but Peter declined and hopped into the back. Ryan showed a smile and was secretly happy that he declined his offer. He had never had the experience of sitting in the front of a convertible, and he was about to find out how magnificent it was. The car was pulled out and Ryan’s “joy ride” began.
The wind was the first thing he felt, which was followed by the occasional drop of rain. No one in the car seemed to mind the drizzle, not even Peter, who tended to avoid all bad weather. Unfortunately the drive was short, and Ryan was surprised he didn’t recognize the park when they pulled in. It contained some slides and some swings. Ryan did not fancy these childish items, but he was looking forward to hearing the roll of thunder, and maybe if he was lucky he would get to see a streak of lightning.
The group climbed out of the car and Peter headed for the bench, but Linda and Ryan ran together to the center of the park. Luckily they were the only ones at the park, because someone else may think they were crazy. Then he heard it, the crack of thunder, followed by a violent streak of lightning. Ryan began to laugh and spin in circles, and Linda followed Ryan’s actions. Then the rain came.
Ryan was wondering why Linda was “playing” with him, and so was Peter, but they both set the thought aside, and Peter joined them.