April 26, 2004

The sun was out and shinning against the crystal blue sky it was absolutely beautiful. It was the perfect day to be at my favorite park. The air smelled like leaves, freshly cut grass, and McDonalds. I held a chicken nugget up to my mouth and bit down. Chewing happily I looked around, my mom sat across from me, my sister Natasha on my left, my sister Rachel to my right, for some reason they all looked sad. My mom grabbed Rachel and Natasha’s hands and they each grabbed one of mine.
“Devon?” my mother said. Her eyes were wet and red.

“Daddy’s . . . . . . Daddy’s. . . . . . Daddy’s . . . gone.” She whispered.

“Where’d he go?” I asked clueless.

“Hevan,” Natasha whispered.
“Huh?” I asked.

“He’s dead!” Rachel said. Her voice was normally raspy, but right now her voice sounded hollow, scary, dead.

“Dead?” I asked. My six year old brain didn’t know what that was. “What's ‘dead’?” I asked.

“Well sweetie, dead is when someone is gone from the earth . . . and they can’t come back.” my mom explained as salty tears slipped from her closed eyes.

“What?” I said. “Daddys not dead.”

This made Natasha sob, normally she was a rock, but then her eyes were spilling like a hose. My mom and Rachel walked over and hugged her. then they all looked at me. Reality seeped in, he was gone. My father, my best friend, my protector, was . . . gone.

“HE’S NOT DEAD!” I shouted sobbing. “HE CAN’T BE!” I screamed louder and louder. Everyone looked at me. I was sobbing harder and harder. Screaming at the top of my lungs.

He was gone.

Gone forever.