Boys Don't Cry

Highway

Simple.

Nathan Daniel River was born to two married parents.

Robert Christopher River, a man with thick, wavy, yellow-blonde hair and an impeccably charming smile and

Phoebe Elizabeth Taylor River, a breath of a woman with wispy platinum locks.

Five years before him, they had a daughter, Julia Emma River, who grew tall and thin like the rest of her mother's side was.

After, two twin boys, Andrew James River and Noah Thomas River. Noah was stillborn, Andrew died two days after being born. They were both severely underweight premies and had undeveloped lungs and kidneys. It happens... She just kept saying "It happens"...

The thought of more children was extinguished, they decided to be happy with the two they had.

They lived as a happy family in a simple two story house outside of Manchester with white siding, gray shingles, and two white rosebushes out in front of the kitchen window. Dad went to work every morning at the bank, and Mom went to work in financial aid at Manchester University.

At five years old, Nate was diagnosed with something called "Aspberger's Syndrome" after years of being marked as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) and was going to therapy once a week, although he functioned reasonably well in public anyway.

Julia was a normal girl, and loved to play football with the three Farley boys from down the street.

All of this is very simple.

One Saturday, they decided to head out to lunch and maybe to the park in their simple car. Nate was in his booster seat, and all were in their seatbelts except Dad, who liked to relax when he wasn't driving. Mom was behind the wheel.

The two cars in front of them crashed on quick succession, and she found that they were headed too quickly towards the pileup. She hit first, her ribs crushing against the steering wheel and giving her aorta a small, but effective, tear as her lungs filled.

Dad hit the windshield, and his brain was bleeding. His neck left little to be desired, either. Through the sunburst of shattered glass where he had hit, one could hardly see the blood pouring out of his nose as a summertime crowd would rush out of a soiled pool.

Julia screamed, but Nate didn't make a sound. The force had knocked him against his mother's seat, and he was unconscious. A rib had bent inward on impact through the sheer force, and one of his small lungs was believed to be filling up, just like Mummy.

And then, crunching metal filled the air again, muting Julia as she slipped two spinal vertebrae, loosing the feeling from her forearms down.

The two children were taken out of the car first by the jaws of life once the EMS got around to the newest addition. The two parents were found already dead.

Cars were gridlocked behind the pileup, the drivers in the front praying and hoping in horror as the girl roused and wailed for her family- and her little brother was already receiving CPR.

She was stabilized quickly, and the ambulance screeched by, sirens whooping, as electrode pads were stuck on the boy's small chest. The EMT made haste connecting them up to the white box to his immediate right.

"Shock Advised."

And his body tensed as the button was pressed.

"Scanning... Begin five sets of Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation."

The man continued, the box beeping and keeping the pace for him until the robotic feminine voice called out again.

"Scanning... Do not touch the patient... Shock Advised."