Saddest Moment

Every sound made us jump. Two of my sisters and I sat in deafening silence waiting for the call that would change everything. I sat, hands clenched, staring at a hole in our blue couch, that had been burnt in by my hair straightener. My eyes were filled with tears that would not fall.

I leaned back upon the beaten down cushion and replayed the dreadful conversation that had caused this feeling of total dread. I had just gotten out of the shower and was singing along with my new Carrie Underwood CD. As i was wiping away the fog on the large mirror, my older sister, Alyssa, pounded on the door. At first I thought she was yelling at me to get out, yet when i turned down the music, I could hear the panic lacing her voice. I turned off my old boom box and she told me to get dressed. She said that Kevin had been hit by a car.

A feeling of absolute helplessness filled my entire body. Fear was like a large, cold rock in the pit of my stomach. My mind went completely numb, and i walked around in a confused daze. When I "woke" up, I was dressed in an Old Navy t-shirt and old faded shorts. I was sitting on our old, blue couch in our family room. Two of my sisters, Emily and Alyssa sitting in different chairs. I thought this was all a dream. It couldn't be true. I had just laughed and teased and fought with him the weekend before. He couldn't be...but I couldn't bring myself to say the word. I finally settled on a hope that the car had just bumped him, no worries, not even a bruise. My family didn't need another Isaac.

So we sat, and we waited, listening to the clock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Finally i heard the putter of our old, tan van enter the driveway. The slam of the car door and finally my dad walks in. His usual smile of delight falters when he see's the tears in our eyes. Alyssa, my older sister, tells him what she knows. my dad, my strong, always-will-protect you daddy, shakes his head and sprints to the phone in the kitchen.

I sit there like a cold statue and hear the delicate beeps of him dialing. Finally I hear him muttering into the phone desperately. A tortured sob followed the tiny beep as he hung up the phone. My heart tore.

A warm substance falled out of the corner of my eye and trailed a long path down my cheek. I reached up and realized i was crying silently. Mt whole body ached with the news my fathers sob had brought.

My eleven year old cousin was dead.