Beginning to End

Chapter 3: Promises (childhood)

Edd woke to the sound of the sirens outside his home, and the sound of voices running through the hall. He crept out of his bedroom just in time to see two big men carrying his father down the stairs on an odd looking broad. He jumped when his mother placed her hand on his shoulder, his hand instinctively grabbed a hold of the oversized black ski hat that sat upon his head. Edd looked up at his mother's somber face, there were tears clinging to her eyelashes. She didn't try to smile or hide the pain in her eyes, she simply ushered Edd down the stairs and into the family car.

It was not until he was in the waiting room with the watchful eyes of a candy stripe volunteer, that Eddward understood something very bad had happened. It was three more hours of the volunteer girl putting on different children's movies that only she was really watching, before Edd's mother came back into the room announcing they were leaving for the remainder of the night. She thanked the young candy stripe girl and carried her son out if the hospital.

Edd did not ask a single question the drive back to their home. He waited until he was being tucked back into bed, just after his mother gave him a good night kiss to speak up.

"Mother? We are going to visit father tomorrow aren't we?" His mother replied with a smile and a sight nod, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. Edd's door was closed, and the small boy sent a hopeful thought out to the universe and the powers that be, wishing his father would get better.

He didn't show up for school that today. This was the fifth week and the ninth day that the little ravenette had been absent from the New Year. As it stood for the Cul De Sac children no one had really seen much of Eddward St Vincent since the ambulances had visited his house in early October. They were luck if he attended a full day of third grade.

Kevin sighed, marking the date off in his calendar. He had started making lists of the days Edd was in school and marking the days that he did not attend. He was told very little from his mother as to what had happened that night the sirens called out into the dark world. All he did know was that Edd's father needed help feeling better.

Kevin closed the cap on his pen; he had already agreed with himself that morning that if Edd did not show up at the bus stop then it would be up to Kevin to sneak his way into the house a crossed the street. Kevin, however; did not even make out down the stairs before his mother was calling out to him. With a groan he drugged his feet into the kitchen.

"Yeah ma?" The red head stuffed his hands into his pockets and gave a pout.

Without turning to look at Kevin, his mother pointed at his back pack abandoned on the couch the moment the boy had arrived home. "Mr. Michaels called, said he asked you to give Eddward his homework. Did you forget or something Kev?"

Kevin instantly grinned, racing out into the living room to grab his bag. "Yeah... sorry mom, it just slipped my mind. I'll just... Go give it to him before dad gets home." He ran from the house, racing around the Cul De Sac before his mother could call him back into the house for some measly task she would demand him to do. When he stopped at the Vincent house, Kevin held his breath. He knocked once, pressed his ear against the door and counted to three before knocking slightly harder.

When he had done this routine four times in a row he grabbed hold of the door knob and gave it a quick turn. To his amazement the door swung open to reveal a quiet living room. Next to the door there was a roll of neat shoes, Edd had told him about this one time; his mother had a problem with dirty and untidy things apparently. "... Edd?"

Cautiously, the red head made his way into the living room. When he did not find anyone on the first floor, Kevin made his way up the stairs. "Double D? You aren't going to jump out and try to scare me are ya?" the little red head recalled a day over the summer when he playfully scared his friend by hiding in the shed behind the red heads home. The day ended with the ravenette in tears and Kevin giving over all of his jawbreakers to make up for it.