Up The Down Escalator

Chapter 4

And then the endless downhill slope of my life began.
It started on a Monday morning in March. This was the day after I had had a flute competition. The competition was an invitational one for intermediate and advanced flutists, so you can probably imagine how excited I was when I got that invitation in the mail.  I was so happy when I found out later that day that I had won second place in my age group. The euphoria still hasn't worn off when I woke up the next morning.
I open my eyes and check the clock on my bedside table.
8:42.
I bolt upright. How come no one woke me up for school?  What's going on? 
I quickly get dressed and run into my fifteen-year-old sisters room. She is holding my one-year-old sister Destiny on her lap and sitting on her bed.
"Hannah, how come no one woke me up?  And why aren't you in school?"
She looks me in the eye. "Uncle Dallas died last night."
Just about then was when my life fell apart.
Death. A word you would normally associate with old people after living a long, happy life. After seeing children growing up, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
The problem was, my uncle was not old. Uncle Dallas was 37. He would never see any of that.
He was dead?  How could he have died?  I had alway known he had had heart problems since he was born, but he never let that stop him. I remember him always taking my cousins, one seven, Alexander, and one five, Lisa, skiing and horseback riding.
And then I remember. His wife, my Aunt Diane was pregnant. He would never meet the kid and the kid would grow up without a father. I guess never knowing your dad is better than knowing him and losing him.
My mother told me it had happened at around twelve am during a tennis game with a few of his friends. He had had a heart attack and apparently defibrillators in Skarsdale don't work so great.
Sure, people had died in my family before but never this young, and they were never this close to me.
The funeral was really tough. The whole time, I just wanted to go to school and pretend it hadn't happened. Imagine that.  I actually would've preferred to go to school.
I really hated life that day.

_________

Well that was quite....sad.
I'm really ruining the moment aren't I?
Thank you all for the continuous support. Once again, if anyone ever wants to just talk, I'm always open to listening.
Don't die.