After Shattered

Chapter 7 - Unbearable Grief

On the same day that Yvonne fainted at work, sometime much later in the night, she was awoken by the phone.

Frowning at her clock, she saw it was ten in the evening. She picked it up and soon her skin went cold.

"Yvonne!"

There was so much noise in the background.

"Kendo?" she sat up, assailed by a surge of inexplicable fear.

Beyond the static, she could hear at least one woman screaming and other people talking loudly, urgently. Kendo was shouting over the chaos.

"My plane is going down! I don't think we're going to make it."

Her heart leapt into her throat. "What? Ken-"

"I want you to listen-" the line crackled "I love you. No matter what happens, I love you! You have to be strong, Yvonne. You won't have to worry about me..." his voice faded out and she didn't catch the end of his statement.

"I love you too, but- you're breaking Kendo!" she was on the verge of hysterics.

"Be strong!" she heard him say again. "Your life is going to be wonderful... love you. Tell my family I love them too and that I'm sorry... so sorry Yvonne."

The noise in the background nearly drowned him out and the phone connection was so bad she could hardly make out what he was saying.

"Kendo! Kendo!"

Yvonne couldn't believe her ears when she heard him say, "I'm going to stay here on the line with you... until the end."

"Kendo, no," she cried. "No, no, no, you're not- there is no end!"

"Baby, I think this is it..." his voice trembled.

The voices and noise in the background got louder as Ken went quiet, crying silently.

Yvonne sat, shaking violently in her bed, completely overwhelmed by what was happening. This can't be happening! Her mind shouted, tears falling down her face.

"Yvonne! Yvonne- oh my God... I love-" the line went dead.

Yvonne was beyond shock.

The discomfort she had been experiencing before she went to sleep that night was absolutely nothing compared to the trauma that phone call had just inflicted on her. Her lungs filled with air and it felt as though it was burning through her chest and all she could do was let it out again. She didn't want to acknowledge that the call could've have been Kendo's last living moments. If it had been, then she didn't want to live any longer. It just couldn't be.

Yvonne screamed. And continued screaming. She couldn't stop.

It was nearly two minutes before Verna came running into the room but Yvonne was still screaming. "Miss Baker, what's the matter? What happened?"

She saw Yvonne clutching the phone, rocking back and forth. Verna had to wrestle the receiver out of her grief-stricken employer's hand. Her screams were raw and because she did not understand the source of her agony, Verna didn't know what to do. Yvonne had never been hysterical before and nothing Verna tried was stopping the ravaged cries.

So she called Mrs. Baker.

Another thirty minutes saw two phone calls and Avril Baker come into Yvonne's home.

The first phone call was from JB, who was in the Air Force. He had heard of the American plane going down and upon hearing whose it was, he had just wanted to be sure that Yvonne had not been on the Kunosawa's aircraft. Knowing this made Verna's skin go cold. It explained the reason behind the desperate screams Yvonne had emitted. Her heart went out to the young woman, realising how devastated Eve must be. She managed to reassure JB that Yvonne was safe at home before ringing off and returning to the side of her employer.