Polaroid

Chapter 10: Oreos

Eli, Vaughan, and I curled up together on the couch. They didn't care that I probably had the flu. We just wanted to be together since we were going to have to remain this way for the rest of our lives. Our father was probably already dead from the drunk driver as he was pulling into CVS. It was well past 7:13. My dad was probably already dead. We sat in silence waiting to get a knock on the door from the police again, or a phone call. The phone lines were still out, so any calls we get would be on our cell phones. It was already 7:52. My dad had left about an hour ago. We were all positive that he was gone, and we had no parents left. Suddenly, my phone lit up and rang. I glanced at the screen to see who was calling. It was our dad.

"Hello?" I answered with a bit of confusion and uncertainty in my voice. It was probably the police calling from my dad's somehow not destroyed phone.

"Hi honey," my dad's warm voice responded. He wasn't dead.

"How are you not..." I paused. "Why aren't you home yet?" I asked.

"It's a long story. First, there was a ton of traffic on the main road. When I finally got to CVS, they had the parking lot blocked off. The police were investigating an incident in the CVS parking lot," my dad explained.

"What kind of incident?" I questioned. I obviously knew the answer, but was just so confused.

"There was a drunk driver. He was leaving the parking lot, but was going the wrong way. He hit a car pulling in head-on, and killed the driver of that car," explained my dad.

"Oh..." I trailed off.

"But anyways the parking lot was blocked off, so I decided to go all the way to Walmart. I picked up your Tylenol. I actually called to see if you wanted Oreos," my dad replied.

"Yes! Can you get me some Red Velvet Oreos?" I exclaimed. I was so happy. Our dad wasn't dead. The traffic caused him to get near CVS after 7:13. Someone else was killed in the car accident and that was absolutely terrible, but at least it wasn't my dad.

"Sure thing! I'm gonna go now! Bye," my dad responded. He sounded overly happy, but I was just glad to hear his voice. He was trying to take his mind off our mom, but it was gonna hit him really hard soon.

"Drive safely. I love you so much. Bye," I replied. I couldn't stop smiling. Our dad didn't realize that a simple phone call asking about Oreos could change our lives

Eli and Vaughan heard the whole conversation. We were all cheering, and had the looks of 5 year olds on Christmas morning on our faces. I didn't even feel sick anymore. The queasy feeling and dizziness was all gone. It's almost as if the stupid letter knew it failed, and undid everything that it just had tried to do. Our dad wasn't dead. Traffic had caused him to arrive at CVS very late. This stupid curse or whatever it is, failed to kill my dad. We randomly got really excited over the existence of Red Velvet Oreos. If my dad never had called asking about Oreos, then we would still be thinking about how he was most likely dead. Eli, Vaughan, and I all were nonstop celebrating. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw our dad's car pull into the driveway.