Wide Open spaces

Chapter 3

“I am sorry to tell you, but you father has been stabbed and he died at the scene. He was trying to arrest a man at an armed robbery. Would you please be able to come to the city as soon as possible.” Sergeant Moore said.

“O-okay.” I said, my voice breaking. Sergeant Moore said goodbye and I hung up the phone. I run towards the front door and unlock it and stepped outside.

“Jay!” I screamed as loud as I could. I saw his head pop up from the back of his truck. He jumped out and walked towards me. Once he saw me crying he ran towards me.

“What happened?” He asked as he held my tight. I sniffed and tried to calm down before I told him.

“Sergeant Mo-Moore just called an-and told me d-d-dad was trying to ar-arrest some one b-b-but h-he go-got s-stab-stabbed and d-d-died at the s-scene.” I said stuttering nearly every word. The only thing Jay did for me to know he heard was hugged me tighter. I cried into his shirt as he said soothing words to me. When I couldn’t cry anymore I pulled away from Jay and wiped my face with the sleeve of my shirt. I looked at Jay and the out towards the barn the sun was starting to rise over the horizon. I started to cry again, my dad and I would never sit together and watch the sun rise. Jay hugged me again wiped away my tears. 
“Don’t cry, he wouldn’t want you to cry over him.” I looked up at him and stepped back.

“Yeah and how would you know, if I told you that you would disagree, you haven’t even talked to you’re father in what 4 years now. So do not tell me what my father would think when you don’t even know what you’re father would.” I said with venom dripping through ever word. I ran back into the house and to my bedroom I locked my door once I was in there and closed the curtains over my balcony doors. I lay down on my bed and grabbed my pillow pet; I hugged it close to me. Jay started knocking on my door, but he soon realized I wasn’t going to open the door. I heard he retreating footsteps and a door close. I got up and sat on the balcony and watched the rest of the sunrise. My thought wandered as I replayed some of my favourite memories with my dad.

            It was my 7th birthday when dad took me down to the lake, when we arrived he had set up a party for me. I hopped out of the truck and ran down to where the table of food was. As I neared the table around 15 people stepped out from behind the gum tree by the lake. I jumped in fright when they all yelled ‘Surprise’ I laughed and ran to hug my mum. She hugged me back and whispered ‘I love you’ in my ear and I grinned. I walked over to dad and told him ‘thank-you’ and ran over to play with all of my friends. Jay was there and he walked over to me. Him being 9 made him stand over me, but I didn’t care, he was still my friend.

“Happy birthday Bibi.” He said as he handed me a present. I opened it quickly to see what he got me. I looked at the necklace with such awe. It was the other half of a heart. I looked up at Jay and saw that he had the other half of the heart on. Jay took the necklace out of the box and put it on me. I gave Jay a huge hug and went to play pin the tail on the donkey. The sun started to go down and people started to clear the farm. Dad drove mum; Jay and I back to the house. When we walked inside there was a cake on the bench and presents around it. I walk over to the cake to see that it was chocolate and had a picture of a horse on it. For the rest of the night Jay and I played with all the new toys I got.

            I smiled at the memories that flooded my brain. The branches in the tree swayed from side to side in the breeze. I stood up and walked over to the railing of the balcony. Who owned the farm now? Where am I going to live? With mum in hospital and being deemed an unfit mother who is going to be my guardian? Why did he die? Did they catch the man? The words racked my brain as I tried to think of the answers to them.