Day of Black 1: What started it all.

As I sit here I wish my thoughts would quit breaking my concentration. I need to get focused and study. I do not know how long I have been sitting in front of my computer screen remembering that fateful day October sixteenth 1996. It was just a few months after my sixteenth birthday, and still I had not gotten my driver’s license.  It was a Wednesday, my dad’s day off from work. I was dressed and ready to go participate in spirit day at my high school. I was wearing a faded white t-shirt that was from the rival school’s gym department. I had on jean shorts that were probably a little too short, Softball socks (the kind that had a dark blue stripe around the top and down the sides) and, to polish of the look, Birkenstocks. I was ready to go cause a disturbance. I grabbed my book bag and kissed my dad on the cheek saying ‘see ya later, have fun’ like I do every Wednesday morning.

The puzzled look on his face was worth the outfit. He asked me if I was going to start dressing like one of those weirdo girls. I exclaimed of course not, its just spirit day and I have a statement to make. That was the last time I would ever talk to him but I did not know that at the time.

The day before had been a nice October day but when I left for school the sky was foreboding. The clouds loomed low and heavy like it was going to rain and flood the world like in Noah’s time. The silence in the air as I walked the block and a half to school was odd too. I wondered what this day would have in store and if this was foreshadow for what would happen to me for sporting the rival colors on spirit day. I was hoping that it would end up a nice day after all since I had plans to ditch school at lunch time and come home, change and hang out with my dad. It was mostly uneventful and I decided at the last minute just before lunch to stay in class, this was the right thing to do; my dad would still be home when I was done anyway.

As we were let out for lunch, I heard the sirens and thought ‘that does not sound like the usual cop sounds’ because it sounded close by and really loud. I asked my friend why that siren sounded different while looking into the distance to see if I could hear were the ruckus was going or coming from. She strained to hear and once she heard it she told me it was an ambulance and asked how I heard it so well. We went out to lunch; school made fresh cinnamon rolls the size of a Denny’s pancake which we ate with our traditional soda, Dr. Pepper.

Fifth period, after lunch, I was a teacher assistant for the physics teacher Mr. Rich. He was the ex-marine, skydiving football coach that had a true passion for the plight of teenagers. He once discovered that my fellow TA was not eating to loose weight. He sat down and discussed with us about nutrition, what to look for in a meal and snack, and also what was healthy was not necessarily skinny (or light) all the while his class sat waiting for their teacher to show up for class.

Mid way through this class period the phone rang, it had such an ominous sound for such a simple normal occurrence. I guess that is why the teacher decided to stop lecturing and answer it instead of the normal ignoring that we all do. We all watched and as he listened. He glanced at me and said things like ‘uh-huh’, ‘alright’, ‘I understand’ and ‘she will be their in a minute’. He pulled me aside, told me I had to go to the office, striking instant fear even to the best of students. He also asked what was going to see if he could head off the trouble if that is why I was being called. He said it sounded serious. I told him, not really wanting to spill the beans, that I had been late the other day and that there was no way they would be calling for that. As I was leaving, he handed me my bag.

As I approached the building I saw a close family friend. He had plans to ditch that day too but I never told him I had changed my mind. Goo, a nickname we have called him for years, looked worried and agitated. He had gone to my house, a safe haven for a troubled teen, and saw the ambulance loading my dad into the back. They told him which location they were taking him too. Goo had tried to pick up my little brother from school but the principle would not release him to some one not of the ‘pink list’. He came to see if he could get me. He was not on the list technically either, but his dad was and we never specified Jr. or sr. We went quickly back to my little brother’s school (he told me what was going on) and spoke with the principle. She knew me from when I had to come get my little brother when he was too sick to stay at school. I explained what was going on and made her tell the lunch aides to go find him. While I was doing this Goo called my mom at the work number I gave him and explained to her how to get to were dad was. We all called him dad, even if they were not from his loins.

By the time we got to the hospital my mom was there. She was shocked to see me and her nerves looked shot but she was doing her best to keep it together. She told us that my dad was in the ICU because he had a major heart attack and they did not know any other details then that.

Later, when we were home for the night, we found out some interesting information. We picked up the shoe the medics had taken off my dad and we dumped his half drank beer and leaving the empty bottle full of staleness on the counter. The boys next door told us that they ditched like they always do. They had seen my dad working on the car, his day off hobby, and had waved to him as they went from one friend’s place into our neighbor’s house. They came out a few minutes later and noticed he was still in the same position. They called to him with no response, so they ran to their medic uncle that was home and he started CPR while the boys called 911. I could just imagine our Dalmatian watching helplessly from the other side of our fence; he never liked people to lie on the floor after that.
 To be continued…