Suzie Coltrane Saves the Day

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Suzie was numb as she rode in the squad car to the police station.  Everyone seemed to be moving around her, but she was frozen in time.  She just kept returning to that surreal scene.  Suzie could picture every little detail of the car that had chased them down.  She hadn't seen the driver or the man in the back seat.  The passenger had looked old, but that was about it.

​Suzie tried to describe all of this in detail to the police, but somewhere between her brain and her mouth, the words got confused.  No matter how well she could see the accident, Suzie wasn't able to relate that to the officer.  Finally, after an hour or two, what seemed like an eternity, the police told Suzie that she could go home.  The ride was a blur as Suzie's mind spun just thinking about her life to come.

​The police officer in charge of the case dropped Suzie off at her house where she found her mom staring out the window in a state of shock.  Suzie ran up to her and collapsed into her arms before her mom noticed she had entered the house.  They both welled up at the sight of each other and cried as hard as they could.

​"What are we going to do?"  Her mom sobbed.

​For days the two of them sat at home staring off into space, not sure what was going on.  Family and friends came and went.  The police came again and asked more questions but could not give them any answers.  Suzie wasn't sure why this had happened, and anyone else knew either.

​"Sometimes life just isn't fair."  Said an officer trying to sound sympathetic.
​Suzie didn't think things could get any worse than they were right now.

***

​The funeral came and went with a lot of emotion for Suzie.  She still couldn't believe that her father was gone, and she certainly didn't know how to say goodbye to him.  It was nice to see how many people came out that day.  Even though they had moved around all the time, her father had made a bunch of friends. 

Letters and flowers poured in from all of the people who were too far away to attend.  The people who spoke about her dad all said great (and true) things about him.  Suzie wanted to get up and say something, anything, but she just couldn't make herself get out of the chair and walk to the front of the church. 

She just whispered to herself what she would have said.  That made her feel better.  Finally, everything was over and all of the mourners gave her and her mom their condolences as they left.  The two of them made it back to the house where they went their separate ways and cried themselves to sleep.