6 Cranbrooke Avenue

Chapter 27

It was a sunny summer day and I had planned to occupy most if not all of it in front of the television.  My father came to join me after a while, as it was his day off, but as soon as he sat down, his phone rang from inside the kitchen.

"Nope." He said.

"I think you should answer it daddy." I said.

He got up from the chair and walked to the kitchen.  I could only hear his voice but not what he was saying.  But then again I didn't care.  After less than a minute, he came rushing into the living room.

"Get dressed.  We're going to the hospital." The urgency in his voice got me worried.

"What happened?  What happened?" I turned off the television and jumped out of the settee.

"Devon woke up." My father said.

My face lit up immediately and I ran to my room and changed into some fresh jeans and a t-shirt and ran to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth.  Soon we were on the road heading towards the hospital.  When we got there, my father parked at the closest spot and we hurried inside.  On the phone, Devon's mother had told my father the room number, and he in turn told me, as my brain was better at remembering stuff than his.

My father had to sign a visiting form of some kind before we were given the directions to the room Devon was in.  We hurried down to Devon's room and when I reached the door and saw him sitting up in the hospital for, tears ran down my face.  I ran inside and squeezed him tightly in a hug.

"My lungs." He said and wheezed a bit.

"Sorry.  I just haven't seen you awake in over a year.  I missed you." I let go of him.

Devon waved to my father who waved back at him and I greeted Devon's mother, who was keeping her composure quite remarkably.

"So when are you getting out?" I asked him.

"Don't know yet.  I would surely love to be able to go somewhere with you and Anthony."

About that.  Back before school had closed, Anthony had gone on a school trip, a science trip to be specific, out of Salsan City, far out.  It was said that the bus they were travelling in lost control and spun off the road into a huge lake.  The bus was found, but nobody was found in it.  It was speculated that they had drowned, but if they had indeed drowned, why had their bodies not floated to the surface yet?

"Yeah." I said.

I didn't want to burden him with anything at all as he just came out of a coma.

"So what did I miss?" He asked.

"Not much really.  Katy Andrews dropped a new song, and the band Systematic broke up, but they're doing great on their own though.  Zavier even quit music and went into cooking. Uhh, I can't remember anything more right now." I purposely left out everything about the portal.

"Woah.  So what about the portal?"

Why did he find it necessary to ask about it?

"We destroyed it." His mother answered.

"And they fixed up the place?"

"Yes." My father said.

"It's all put together, so when you are discharged you will be able to come back." I said.

"But I don't want to." He said calmly.

I understood why he didn't want to, but it hurt my heart.  It was awful enough not having a conversation with him for over a year.  I wouldn't have been able to go the rest of my life without him, but I respected his wishes.  I just wondered if his mother would agree.

"Are you sure son?" His mother asked.

"Yes.  I can't go back there." He answered.

"But it's safe now." I defended the community.  "How about staying one week and then you decide?"

"No.  I've been thinking about it for a good two weeks now.  I don't want to go back."

I was hurt by the fact that Devon had been awake for two weeks and we had just been told about it.  The reason we were given was that his mother knew that we wouldn't have been able to visit him that quickly and she didn't want us to worry too much so she told us the first day people outside of the family could visit him.  I didn't believe her, but what could I do?  Screaming at her in disappointment would have gotten us nothing but kicked out, so I kept calm.

We stayed until two and then we got lunch nearby and drove home.  I was exhausted so I bathed and went to sleep as soon as we got home.  When I woke up and went downstairs, dinner was waiting for me on the dining table.  But even my favourite meal couldn't get me smiling after Devon said he didn't want to move back into Salsan City Heights.  I ate and then slammed myself into the settee in front of the television and put it on a news channel.  The headline was : 'FOURTEEN BODIES OF TEENAGERS FOUND MUTILATED'.

My mind immediately ran on Anthony.  Was he one of the dead teenagers?  Where did they find the bodies?  Were they identified as the students from Simon Downs who went missing on their science trip?