One more night

What most people don't realize is that just one phone call, word, or knock (in my case) can change your life forever, for me this happened at 9:47 on July 8, 2013. It was a normal Monday at the Folland household, not much happening except today I started packing for college, I was leaving in a month and 4 days and there was a lot to do. I was finally sitting down to eat my toasted ravioli when there was a knock at the door. "Who could that be", I said as I got up a trudged my way to the door. I looked through the window and saw a police officer if it was anyone else except for one of my friends I would not have opened it and at this point I wish I hadn't.

"Miss. Folland", he said with a strange look on his face. "Yes, I'm Miss Foland and may I ask you what did I do", I said totally confused on why he was here, I hadn't done anything that bad recently. "Oh, it's nothing you did", he said "by the way I'm Officer Reiss and would you mind stepping outside". I did what he asked but I had no idea where he was going with this. "I hate to inform you", he said "that your parents have been in a pretty bad car accident on Interstate 44 just south of Rolla". I felt my heart sink, like somebody had attacked a bungee cord to my heart pulled it as tight as it could go then let go. I sat down on the front step of my house I already knew where this was going. I wanted officer what ever his name was to leave I did not want him to finish I just wanted to go inside lock myself in my room and cry. The officer said that they died I don't know how he said it and I'm happy I didn't because then those words would be in my head for the rest of my eternity. He told me that they called my grandparents and they were on their way, he asked if I wanted him to stay but before he could finish his sentence I stormed through my front door and into my bedroom I locked the door and stayed there for the rest of the night.

Some time around 11:00 I heard my grandma knock on the door, she said "Alva I baked you some cookies, can I come in". I didn't answer I didn't want to see anyone except my parents, I wanted to see their smiles. I wanted to hear my moms calming voice but I knew I could never have her comforting words again. I wanted to hear my dad's corny jokes even though I hated him and would always yell at him about them they made me smile, and now I'm sorry for telling him to stop. The last time I looked at the clock it was 1:26, and at that point I just wanted to go to sleep and never wake up.

The next morning I woke up around 10, my phone had about 30 messages on it but the only one I cared about was Jiri's text. He didn't say anything about my parents death like the rest of them probably did, but I never even opened the other ones they went straight to the trash can. Jiri's text just said " I'm still coming over to pick you up our plans are still on for today". I love him just for that reason, no matter what is going on in the world or in our lives he wants me to be happy and live life like there is no tomorrow. I had fifteen minutes to get myself together and get ready. I put in some simi-nice clothes, put my hair up in a bun ,I didn't bother brushing it, and walked into the kitchen to get a handful of cereal so I had something on my cramping stomach. When I got a text from Jiri saying he was here I slowly walked past my sleeping grandma and quietly exited the house so I had some sort of relief from this awful thing I have come to know as life.

Every minute with Jiri was like a dream, I never knew how lucky I was to find him until today. He was the new kid in school and every girl wanted to date him. Which I didn't blame them he was cute and he was from Annapolis, Maryland, which was a bonus because he was from outside of Missouri. I could tell he liked me from the way he acted towards me in band, I had always been first chair and when he came in he was second so we had to share a stand. He would do all these cute little things to catch my attention like spill our folder, or he would lose his valve oil which gave him a reason to talk to me. My parents liked him because he was the one person that could me smile on the worst days. At around 5 I got a text from my grandmother freaking out about where am I at, how long have I been gone, and who am I with. The thing was even though Jiri have "dated" for almost a year I have hidden it from most of my crazy family. My family would not approve of him because he has many flaws most of them are not his fault but the fact is my family will not overlook that. First of all his parents are divorced, which is a total " no no" due to reason number two, my family is extremely religious and his family is to but they are protestants and my grandma has my entire family brainwashed thinking that protestants are "sent from the devil".

"I don't know what to do", I said to Jiri "I can't stay in this town for another minute, everywhere I am going to go I'm going to see them. All that will do is remind me of all the things I will be deprived of for the rest of my life". Jiri stayed silent, he didn't know what to say but I wouldn't know what to do either. He was probably thinking something along the lines of "what am I supposed to do, the girl I love has had her life destroyed". This silence was driving me crazy it was the best thing but the worst thing I need him and he is just sitting there, maybe mom was right and I am bipolar. "Don't just sit there say something" I said due to the stress building up inside of me. "Why don't we leave", he said looking down towards the ground. "What", I said shocked that something like that came out of his mouth. " I mean", he said "why don't we pack up everything and leave, run away, start our own life somewhere far away from here". " Okay", I said "tonight once my grandma goes to sleep we'll do it".

As soon as I got home I went to the basement and grabbed the largest suitcase we had, which happened to be the suitcase my mom and dad shared on our vacations, and drug it up the stairs to bring to my room. "What is that for", my grandma yelled from the couch where she was watching the news. "Oh", I said "I just want to collect some of mom and dads old stuff to give to goodwill or the salvation army". "Okay, I'm glad you're feeling better about the situation", my grandma said with a smile and she went back to watching the news. I went into my room and grabbed about every piece of clothing I had and stuffed it into the suitcase, bras, underwear, pajamas, jeans, t-shirts, dresses, everything I owned. I wrestled with the suitcase for a minute until I just sat on it to get it zipped shut. When Grandma went to take a smoke I went out into the hallway and grabbed all of the toiletries a girl would need and soap, shampoo,and even my towel, I stuck them into the outside pocket of the suitcase. Grandma made dinner and so I went ahead and ate with her, she made my favorite chicken and dumplings with mashed potatoes.

At this point I'm regretting our plan to run away, but now that I think about it my Grandma is the only person I have left that I care about so once she dies I'm done. She has her other kids and grandkids but I don't care about them my cousins are spoiled brats and my aunts and uncles don't even send cards on my birthday or christmas. I love my grandma don't get me wrong, but this is the first time I've seen her since Christmas, she didn't even come to my graduation, so at this point I don't know how to feel about her.