The whole of the school mornig I was texting Adam’s phone and searching the school for Adam. Eli had to work on drama stuff so I hanged with Imogen. Imogen and I searched every room in the school and we were brave enoughto enter bully area to try find Adam. As we were near the garden I went to the car park to see if he was with his brother in the car. While I was talking to David about about from the garden you heard Imogen give a piercing scream.
David and I ran to Imogen but Imogen yelled “Get back Becky it’s too much! David come to me!”
I styed back and couldn’t see what she was looking at. I saw David’s face turn pale and then he started screaming in anger and started to cry in sadness. Imogen was weeping on the floor. Everyone heard the scream and the principle came running to us. He told a student to call the police and he took David away to comfort him. I slowly walked up to Imogen and lifted her up I turned my head and saw Adam’s lifeless body lying on the ground.
Emma ran up to us and took Imogen away. Soon Eli came sprinting and hugged me.
I cryed and cryed and screamed “He needed help! We should have been there for him! We should have done something!”
Eli squeezes me in his arms and comforted me for the whole morning. School was cancelled but we still had to stay for the whole day. All the corridoors were filled with people crying in grief. I talked to the school councellor about seeing Adam’s body.
The lady’s name was Lucy. She had many questions for me to answer on a sheet like:
1. Describe your emotions at the time.
2. What did the scene look like?
3. Who were with you?
4. What is your approach to recovery?
5. Tell me how you can act on this event.
And many more. I sat in front of Adam’s locker for the whole day filling out my question sheet and crying. Eli tried to take my mind off the pain by trying to cheer me up, but all it did was build up more sadness in me.
David was sent home early and had days off from school. The whole week the school was silent no one said anything it was like a ghost town. At lunch one day the police came to remove everything from Adam’s locker as evidence of him. The school crowed around them and watched as his stuff was taken away. I watched on and felt as if my heart was being thrown away with Adam’s stuff. When they left everyone wrote a message on a paper and slid it through a crack in his locker. At the end of the day his locker was filled with notes about anything to Adam. When everyone left I spent another hour at school just staring at his locker until the principle said it was lock up time. My life had changed dramatically without Adam but I knew we had memoried that would last forever.
Eli slept over at my house for another week to comfort me more. As we studying together on Sunday night Eli checked his school Email and said to me “Not to spoil this study moment but everyone has been sent and email….. about Adam.”
I look at his screen and clicked onto the email. The principle said:
‘On the Monday everyone is to come to school for our whole school candle light vigil for Adam Baker. Everyone will light a candle and say a prayer for Adam. After wards the police will join us in the hall and tell us some of the details about Adam’s death (If you don’t want to hear you may leave the hall to your homeroom) . We will then have no classes this day but all students are to stay and answer our reflection sheet you may have been given during the past week.’
Eli looked at me and said “Are you going to stay in the hall?”
I replied “Yes I have to face this so I can recover and not say goodbye.”
Monday had come and everone was crying still. Eli clenched my hand for most of the morning. I held back my tears to be brave. The hall started to fill up with studentes from every year even though they never knew him. Each of us were given a candle which had wax name printed on it ‘R.I.P Adam Baker’. The police sat at the side of the hall waiting for the vigil to end. Eli squeezed my hand again and while listening to the principle repete Adam over and over again I began to cry.
Eli whispered “Do you need anything, I can get you something, what can I do for you?”
I looked at Eli in the eyes and said “You can’t do anything….”
Eli frowned and I rested on Eli’s shoulder. Everyone joined in the final prayer for Adam. The room went silent all you could here was sniffles and weeping. The senior cunstable who was at the garden stood up infront of everyone.
The cops first words were “Were sorry, were sorry for your loss and we pray for you all…..”
David yelled out from the side “You barley know him! You should just shut up with your prayers and continue with the details. Only people who knew him should say their prayers. You just come and say his dead and continue on with your cop lives!”
The principle took David away from the hall with him kicking and screaming. The policeman continued to read the report card:
“Name: Adam Baker
Age: 17
Occupation: Student
Family: Mother – Martha Baker (in jail), Father – James Baker (In jail), Brother – David Baker.
Type of death: Commited suicide
Time of death: 9.00pm
Environment of death: School Garden.
Before death: Mother and Father abused him and are in jail. He used to live with his brother and grandparents.
Physical health: Self conflicted scars and burns on arm but fine health.
Mental health: Heard from friends supposedly depressed.”
How the death happened: Strangled to death by hose. The hose wrapped around Adam’s neck 3 times and he was asphixiated. A note was left in his backpack that he wrote before his death to his family and friends.
After the police report the whole day Imogen, Emma, Eli, David and I stayed as a group so that none of us could cry.
