Evelyn

Evelyn - Chapter Fourteen

Almost immediately after the hotel hung up on me, I received another call back. I jumped onto the phone, hoping it was the dull woman on the other end, although I was shocked when my dad answered.

"Charlie, it's your mother..." He started.

"What about her? Is she okay?"

"Charlie, I'm sorry." he pleaded. "They found her body this morning. Last night she went on your Aunt Chrissie's hen party. Your Aunt found her down an alleyway near her house. They ran an autopsy and said it was congestive heart failure. They said she had a lack of red blood cells and her blood pressure was dangerously high. She was all alone and nobody could help her."

I dropped to the floor, my whole world came crashing down on my shoulders, threatening to crush my whole body. "She died alone?" I whimpered. My father muttered a quiet 'yes' on the other end and hot tears cascaded down my face. "Would it have been painful?" I asked, trying to disguise the shaking of my voice.

"The doctors said no, but I guess we won't really know." He replied.

"Is Olivia okay?"

"No. She's locked herself in her room. She won't let me in. I don't know what to do Charlie."

"I'm coming home. I'll set off tomorrow, tell Olivia I'm coming." I replied standing to my feet and looking at the messy room, mentally packing a travel bag.

"No Charlie, you have school. You can't drop everything to come home."

I protested until he allowed me to return home for a little while. I guess mission 'Find Evelyn' would have to be put on hold for a bit. We bid our goodbyes and I immediately began to pack the essentials. I deduced that I would only be staying for a maximum of 3 days, still giving us time to find Evelyn. Jonah stirred in his sleep, and I was extra careful not to wake him in his drunken state. When he awoke I would bring him a full English Breakfast, along with toast to cure his hangover. It seemed almost positive that I would receive near enough no sleep tonight.

The next morning as I had antisipated, Jonah was extremely hung over and free from his drunken state. I had previously ventured down to the cafeteria minutes after it opened and brought him the lot: eggs, bacon, sausages, toast, tomatoes, mushrooms and beans. I told him that he should feel better if he ate all of the food after he thanked me. Whilst he ate I proceeded to tell him about what had happened to my mother. I fought the tears that filled my water line and managed to hold them back. I told him how I planned to set off soon and head home for a bit to comfort my family and attend her funeral. Jonah pressed his sympathy towards me and I just nodded, I knew that if I spoke one word I would break.

He let out a little laugh, "Two funerals in a few months? Ya on a roll...". Once he realised that I didn't find it funny he apologised. I left him to devour his meal as I exited towards my car. The humming of the live engine warming up caused me to reminisce of the day I left to come here only months before. I wished that I had taken a gap year and stayed t home with my mother. If only we'd had some sort of warning that this would happen. I couldn't wrap my head around all these tragedies that had occurred throughout the past few months.

My mothers favourite song erupted through the vehicle. Too drained to care, I let it play the lyrics reminding me of old memories I had shared with her when I was a child.

My 6th birthday party, where she helped me blow out my candles because I was too scared of being set on fire. And she helped me it the cake because neither of us wanted me to it myself. And the few friends I had there cheered as she kissed my forehead. "Happy Birthday sweetie!" she cooed before I returned to play with my classmates.

Christmas Day. I was 11 and Olivia was 7. My mother was tired but she soldiered through cooking the food for us all while we played with out new toys. My father helped me set up my new bike, and Olivia styled her dolls hair and dressed them in outfits.

When I got accepted to Warmsmede and my parents took Olivia and I to see the West End show, The Lion King. We stayed in a hotel and ordered Chinese food to the room. We stayed up late and played board games whilst the busy city carried on moving outside of the window.