Oklahoma Sunrise

The days after (chapter 4)

So my family actually liked Mason and things are really going good between us, we got to hangout some more and I was able to get to know Ms. Jenn and her son Jackson. Ms. Jenn told me her story and how she became a single mom. Her husband was a firefighter and he died while saving a family from a burning house. The family got out and he was the last person to leave the house, but as he tried to exit, and beam fell on him and he died instantly from the high impact the beam had when it fell on his neck. Ms. Grey said that Mike (her husband) was on organ donor, so the hospital had to take him to examine his organs to see if any of them were reusable for other patients. The doctors said that he was a healthy man and his labs were perfect, if it weren't for the beam breaking his neck he would've lived a long healthy life.

Ms. Jenn started to talk about when she first wanted to adopt a kid. She wanted to adopt an older boy who is kind and has a good heart. She heard a little bit about Masons story, she also heard about how good he was at school, for being moved around the foster system so much, his grades were excellent, all of his teachers said that he was such a responsible student and always made up all of his work and tests and all of it came back completed and correct, and whenever he didn't understand material he always asked if he could stay after school or come into school early so he could get caught up on everything. Ms. Jenn wanted Jackson to have someone he could talk and look up to, but she also wanted it to be someone she knew she could bring into her home and trust, so that's why she chose Mason, and she doesn't plan on letting him go because Jackson seems to really love his "older brother" and Ms. Jenn is so thankful that Mason is here for Jackson, and that Mason is just such a good kid and helps out a lot around the house and everything.

Mason never told me or Ms. Jenn his full story, but once we all got talking he just let it all out, and it seemed like he hadn't talked about it in a long time.

"So, my real parents were in a car crash. They went out to go get some drinks and eat dinner with some of their friends for someone's birthday, I was in 4th grade so I was capable of taking care of myself for a couple of hours while they went out, it wasn't a big deal. They had already made me dinner and I cleaned up my dishes as they left, and then I made sure all the doors were locked and I went to bed, later I woke up to police lights and sirens outside my front door. I opened the door as I heard someone knocking on it. It was a police officer, he gave me two names and asked me if they lived here, I told him that they were my parents. The officer asked to come in and then he told me that I need to pack a bag with some clothes and my necessities for a couple of days. He took my backpack and then he helped me into the back of his police car and he drove me to the station, but he had never told me what was going on. When we got to the station he told me that I was going to be staying with a nice man for a couple of days. At this point in life, I was about 10 years old, I wanted to know what had happened, after 20 minutes of answering questions about myself and my parents, I grew very impatient and wanted to know what had happened to my parents and why I was brought to the police station and why I was going to stay with some man I have never met in my entire life. The police officer told me that the man I was staying with was a social worker. The officer had ran a call with two people who were in the car crash, those people who were in it were my parents and another random driver that they also asked me about but I had no ties to him what-so-ever. My mom was killed on the scene and my dad died when they had him in the ambulance, they tried everything, but after 40 minutes of CPR he kept on flatlining and there wasn't much more that they could do, so they stopped because he was dead. They told me that a drunk man in his late 40's hit my parents head on and he is severely injured the officer said from when he arrived to the scene, it looked as if that man might end up brain dead because of how bad the wreck was."

When Mason finished I was in tears and I couldn't speak, every time I opened my mouth and went to say something nothing came out. He saw how bad I felt and he wrapped his arm around me and just held me tight.

"You have us now and we're not going to leave you." Ms. Jenn said to Mason as she held onto his hand.

I could tell Mason was upset but he didn't want to show to it. The day went on and we watched movies, ate snacks, and we started to talk about after school things, and Mason brought up how I show horses and compete. When he told her about all of my trophies and first place wins I've earned, Ms. Jenn's eyes lit up and she had the happiest smile on her face.

"I did the same thing when I was your age Tay."

I was in shock when Ms. Jenn said that. She grabbed a box from her office and it was full of trophies and metals and pictures. One of the pictures that caught my eye was one of Ms. Jenn and one of her friends, I flipped the card over and it said "Jennifer Stewart and Emily Andrews c/o '90" 1990 was the year my mom graduated from high school, and Andrews was my mom's last name before she married my dad. The girl standing next to Ms. Jenn in this photo was my mom.