Page 77 of Poetry of Flowers

I walked him over to the front door and hugged him goodbye before I watched him walk over to his house. The Kidd house always looked so majestic, while my house was an eyesore next to it. But mine will always be more of a home to the both of us. For some reason, Kayden always loved my home more than his.

Closing the door behind me, I sat back down on the sofa and finished my food while watching Cinderella instead.

The movie was almost over when I curled up under the blanket my Mémé had made me. Dad must have fallen asleep with Remy again, but Mom wasn’t home yet. She should have been home an hour ago, and she was never late. The doorbell rang and I got up. Maybe she left her keys again. She is forgetful like me. But when I opened the door, it was not my mom but two police officers looking down at me.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

Oh, they most likely want to speak to Nash, he burned down a tree again by accident or something. He does that sort of thing often.

“Is your father here, love?” the female officer asked me. She goes down on her knees to my level. It’s weird because I’m not a little baby and I think she should know that because if I remembered right, she was at Dad’s birthday party a few months ago.

“He’s asleep, you can tell me, and I will tell him when he wakes up, I promise I won’t forget.”

“No, it’s really important. Can you please wake him up for us?” she asked softly.

It felt like something was wrong. My heart suddenly skipped a beat. I saw this kind of thing in a movie before.

But movies weren’t real life.

“Is my mom okay?” I asked her quietly, the words felt like they were stuck in my throat.

“Can you get your dad, please, sweetheart?”

I didn’t say anything before I ran up the stairs straight to my brother’s room where Dad was asleep with Remy in his arms.

“Dad! Dad! Wake up!” I pulled on his arm when he jerked awake.

“Tillie, what’s wrong, baby?”

Tears are streaming down my face when he gets up from the tiny bed. The noise woke Remy too.

He cowers down to my height and made me look at him.

“What’s wrong, Tillie, are you hurt?” I quickly shock my head.

“Something happened to Mom, the police are downstairs.” I told him between sobs I couldn’t hold back. I knew from the way the officer reacted that Mom wasn’t okay. Nash always said nothing good happens when a police officer comes to your door.

Fear was written in my father’s eyes as he straightened himself and told me to stay here with my brother before he closed the door behind him, I heard him run down the stairs. Remy had fallen asleep again, and now I felt alone in the dark. I stared at Remy’s little sheep nightlight. I couldn’t wait till Dad would come back to tell me what happened. I slipped outside my baby brother’s bedroom and sat down at the top of our wooden stairs to listen to the conversation downstairs.

“We are so sorry, Jonas.” The male officer said to my dad, who sounded like he was dry heaving but not crying. They called him by his name, so I did recognize them.

“No, no, not my Elle, you must have the wrong identity, we can wait together until she comes home-.”

“Jonas, Joyelle’s Toyota Camry collided with another unknown car and her car went over the railing of the Grand Lee Lake Bridge. Another driver noticed the broken railing and contacted us, we did everything we could, but it was too late, we are so sorry, Jonas.”

My father starts telling them that this wasn’t true all over again, but I knew for certain that this night I had lost my best friend, and I will never understand why.

I ran to my room and where I rolled onto the floor in a fetal position and started screaming and crying.

How could someone take my mom away from me.

I needed my mommy.

Fix us - June 17, 2021

Let me fix you, he says

But how can a broken soul help another?

---