I am (on hold)

Chapter 2 - Tick Tock

Chapter two – Tick, Tock

I am standing outside my parents’ home, police lights flash somewhere in the distance. Tape is strewn around the house, marking it an ‘official crime scene’. I am rigid with anger, sadness and tension. Jimmy is by my side, as he always is when I need him most. My eyes are glazed over, staring at nothingness whilst chaos erupts around me.

*******

The first thing I noticed about the police woman walking towards Jimmy and I was the stony set to her features. She was in her early fifties, had serious ebony eyes and wispy grey hairs escaping from her tight bun. Her left eye was drooping slightly and, from the way she slouched when she walked, today had worn her out.

“Miss Evelyn?” She asked as she approached us. I couldn’t find my voice. I hesitated for a breath, opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I closed my mouth again, probably looking like a fish out of water. Luckily, Jimmy covered for me.

“Yes, that’s her. She is a bit shaken by all that has happened.” He said to the police woman.

“Yes, of course. My name is Cassandra Goodwen, and I work for the local police station. What I’m going to do is…” She didn’t get to finish her sentence.

I looked at the house where I had spent 11 years of my life in, as it exploded with a deafening crash. The explosion made debris rain down. We were knocked to the ground. Everyone else was on the ground, ducking in cover, or running for their lives. I struggled to my feet and stumbled around for a few seconds as my vision cleared. I was about to ask Jimmy what was going on, but he wasn’t there.

"Jimmy…? Jimmy?? JIMMY?!" I yelled my heart beating at a thousand miles per hour. I started to pick my way through the rubble. "Jimmy, can you hear me?" I heard a faint moan to the left of me.

"Evie…" Jimmy whispered. I could tell that he was hurt.

"I'm coming!" I shouted back, as I dug my way through the wreckage. I lifted up a piece of maple off the pile, and recognised it as one of the dining room chairs. Tears threatened to spill down my face, but I forced them back. The time for crying was later, I had to find Jimmy. I saw a tuft of hair sticking out from the rubble at my feet. I let out a gasp of surprise and relief, as I scrambled to my knees and scraped away the debris. Within two minutes, I had Jimmy's face staring up at me. Within five, I had his whole body free, and was helping him stand up. He grimaced, and I could tell he wasn’t the only one who was trying to be strong. His hair was caked in dirt, and his face was stained from the mud. His clothes had fared even worse. I lead him over to where I saw Cassandra standing, which was harder than it sounds. We had to jump over the ruins of my former life, and the fact that Jimmy was limping didn’t make it any easier.

As we neared the hose, I could hear the beep, beep, beep of a second bomb over the ringing in my ears. They had yet to blow the bottom half of the house. I groaned.

“What's wrong? Are you okay?” I heard Jimmy say in my ear.

“There is another bomb. They are going to blow the bottom half of the house.” I whispered, more to myself than to anyone around me.

“What? How do you know? We have to get out of here!” He yelled beside me.

“I can hear it beeping. We have to get everyone around here evacuated, now!” I replied. We turned to Cassandra.

“Do you have a megaphone?” She fumbled with the strap holding the megaphone to her waist. The lady’s face was bloody and festered. One side of her face had a long gash where a piece of glass had scraped it. She eventually got the megaphone free and passed it to Jimmy.

“Attention!” He yelled through the megaphone. “There is a chance that another bomb is going to blow any minute now, so I want this whole area evacuated as quickly as possible.”

Everyone was silent during his speech, but as soon as he lowered the megaphone, chaos broke loose. Everyone was running as far away from the house as they could manage. The law enforcement people, like Cassandra, started yelling instructions to the people gathered there and made rendezvous points for the rest of her team.

"Let’s get out of here!” I yelled over the noise. “I don’t want to be in there when the bomb blows!”

We climbed as fast as we could to the top of summer’s Hill. We were puffing and panting with tears running down our cheeks, but we didn’t stop. At any moment, I expected to hear the BOOM of an exploding bomb. It didn’t come.

We reached the top, and stared into the darkness. Jimmy’s shoulder was pressed up against mine. It was the only real warmth I could feel. I held my breath as I watched for the slightest movement in the night. I thought over all of the things I had been through with my family. The summer holidays at the beach, going to theme parks and going hiking.

“What did they do to deserve this?” I asked the night. Were my parents keeping secrets from Ruby and I for all these years? Or was she in on it too?

All of these thoughts left my mind as I saw the red of the fire, the grey of the smoke and the black of debris fly into the sky all at once.

I turned and cupped my face in my hands. James put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and whispered in my ear,

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

All feeling left my body as I started to realize the horrible truth. I stared through the cracks between my fingers at the house, Jimmy and finally down to myself. I was now the only person left in my family. I was now an orphan.