Page 29 of Our Moon (JACT #1)
Because of the nature of the car accident, which I don’t even want to begin to wonder about, the victims were brought in anonymously.
Which means we can’t get an update on anything until the police officers that were on the scene arrive with their identification.
So we’re just as clueless now as we were at the crash site.
It takes three hours before a police officer comes out and finds us in the waiting room of the emergency wing. “Monroe family?”
We all stand and Alex and Trevor approach the officer.
Joey and I watch from behind as the officer speaks, trying to understand the range of emotions moving across Trevor and Alex’s faces.
First there’s anger, then relief, then fear, then devastation.
Total and complete devastation. The kind that can only come from losing someone you love.
As the officer walks away, Trevor and Alex fall into the seats directly behind them, tears pouring down their faces.
Trevor puts his arm around Alex’s shoulder and pulls him in.
Joey and I get up and walk over. I need to know.
I need to know if it’s her. But I don’t know how to ask. I can’t find words.
Thankfully, Trevor speaks before I have to. “It was a drunk driver. Didn’t wait for their car to finish crossing the bridge, just charged at them, tried to squeeze through I guess.” This was the anger.
Alex leans forward in his seat and rests his head on his knees. Joey sits next to him and puts his hand on his back to let him know he’s there.
“Dad,” Trevor starts, then stops. He shakes his head as more tears flow. “He didn’t make it. The car fell off the bridge and landed in the creek on his side. The officer said he died before they even got there; h-he drowned.” And the devastation.
I look away. That man was a father figure to me. I don’t even know how to process this.
“Mom is in really bad shape. She’s in surgery. They say it doesn’t look good. A lot of internal injuries.” The fear .
“And Ally?” I rasp out, finally finding my voice.
“She has a couple broken bones and she hit her head pretty hard. She’s unconscious, but that looks to be the extent of her injuries.” And the relief. Oh God, the relief.
I breathe for what seems like the first time in hours.
She’s going to be okay. Ally is going to be okay.
But how okay is she going to be if she comes through this without both of her parents?
They were her world. They were all of our world.
They were better parents to me and Joey than our own parents ever were.
I sit down on Trevor’s other side as we wait for more news on his mom and Ally. An hour later, we find out their mom didn’t make it. And three hours after that, we learn that Ally has a traumatic brain injury and is in a coma.
And just like that, the perfect world we were all living in just hours ago is completely shattered.
***
The doctors convince us that there’s nothing we can do at the hospital, so after confirming that they will call us if Ally’s condition changes, we head home the following afternoon.
It killed me to leave her there, but Trevor and Alex got to see her for a few minutes and said she looked peaceful. Bruised, but peaceful .
I drive us home, but later on, I don’t even remember doing it.
My mind is swarming with the events of the past twelve hours.
We had gone from pure elation to total devastation.
When we get to the house, Trevor and Alex invite Joey and me to crash on the couches.
There’s nowhere else I want to be. I feel closest to Ally here, in her home.
They retreat upstairs hoping to get some rest, though I’m not sure that they will.
I’m not sure any of us will. Trevor and Alex just lost both of their parents, and their sister is comatose.
The love of my life is comatose. I sink into the couch and close my eyes.
Joey is already lying down on the other one.
I don’t know that I will sleep, but I need to try.
I’m lying there for about half an hour before I hear movement on the staircase. I know Joey’s awake, too. We haven’t spoken, but I can tell by his breathing and occasional sniffling that he’s still awake. Case in point, he sits up as I do when the footsteps reach the bottom of the stairs.
Through the soft light of the lamp on the table beside the couch, I can just make out Trevor’s shape as he rounds the corner at the bottom of the staircase.
He looks up and catches my eye, then exhales and steps into the room.
I move the useless pillows and blankets out of the way and Trevor sits beside me.
“I don’t know what to do,” he says after several moments of silence .
“There’s not much you can do,” I tell him, not knowing what else to say.
He nods and lays his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes.
“I wish there was something I could do differently. That we all could have done differently, to make this night turn out a different way. Maybe if we didn’t go to the party and followed them home. If Ally was with us, my parents probably wouldn’t have ended up on that bridge.”
“Yeah, or it might have been us that ended up on that bridge,” Joey contributes.
Trevor sighs.
“There’re a whole lot of ‘what ifs,’ Trev. If we could have known what was going to happen, we would have done everything differently. But we didn’t, and we can’t.”
“I know, Chase. It doesn’t make it any easier though.”
We sit in silence for several minutes, and then hear Alex come down the stairs.
“Y’all couldn’t sleep either?” he asks as he steps in the room and sits beside Joey on the other sofa. We all shake our heads in the negative. “Me either.”
Eight lives changed tonight. The drunk driver who hit their car, killing Mr. and Mrs. Monroe and severely injuring Ally.
He died himself. Then there’s the four of us.
Our lives will never be the same, Trevor and Alex more so than Joey and I, but it’s all the same.
Tomorrow, the next day, the day after that.
It will all be different for us. No more Wednesday night dinners.
No more late night phone calls and text conversations with Ally.
But at least she’s alive. That’s what I need to focus on. The good. Ally is alive. We will be together again someday.
At that moment, I remember that today is her birthday. It’s supposed to be one of the happiest days of our lives. The first day of our future together.
Happy birthday, baby girl.
***
The funeral was full of distant relatives, friends, business associates of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, and friends of Trevor, Alex, and Ally.
One of the partners at Mr. Monroe’s firm and his wife, Steve and Laurie Adelson, close friends of the Monroes, helped Trevor and Alex with the arrangements.
Mr. Adelson was also the one who prepared Mr. and Mrs. Monroe’s estate, so he helped with the execution of their will as well.
Mr. and Mrs. Monroe were both only children, and their parents had passed away years before, so they had no immediate relatives. No one to step in and play parents to Trevor and Alex. Not that it mattered since they were both adults now, and no one could ever replace their parents.
Everything was left to their children, and Trevor and Alex saw to it that something was set up for Ally so she could receive her benefits when she woke from the coma.
The house was paid off, so they decided that’s where they would stay.
They wanted Ally to have something familiar to come home to and they weren’t ready to part with the last remaining connection to their parents.
Two weeks went by and Ally didn’t wake up.
After the third week, the hospital transferred her into a long-term care facility.
Trevor and Alex visited her every day, and I visited as often as I could without them getting suspicious.
I couldn’t find it in me to tell them about our relationship without Ally.
We had always planned to tell them together, and that’s how it would stay.
Two months after the accident, we return to our gig at the restaurant near the airport.
They were happy to have us back, Mr. Monroe’s friend was extremely understanding regarding our break, and our small following was thrilled.
Everyone extended their sympathies for our loss, and we really rocked our first night back.
We played that first show back for Mr. and Mrs. Monroe, and for Ally, and it was probably the best one we ever did.