Chapter One

What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. -Albert Pike

chapter one

In about thirty minutes, the ambulance finally came. I was outside of the house with Grandma’s other neighbors. My Uncle Cam came up running.

He asked, “What happened?” I told him that Grandma was maybe on her way to the other side. That she was dying.” He staggered a little but I caught him and he started to cry his eyes out.

            They brought out the body, but not how I expected. She was in a body bag. The worst was coming true.

The ambulance man, whose name appeared to be Jack, came to us and said, “I am sorry, Jonah. Your grandmother has passed away. We will do an autopsy report, and determine if it is a homicide or suicide. We will call you as soon as we can.” Mom was not here yet therefore I decided to give him my phone number. I suddenly fell to the ground and started to whimper.   

My mom swerved onto Grandma’s street and saw me on the ground. She ran to me and asked what happened. “They do not know how she died, they just said that they would call once the autopsy report is completed,” I whispered even though it pained me to say it at all. Mom knelt beside me with Uncle Cam. We all started to shed tears and mourn my grandmother, my mom’s mom.

After that horrifying experience, I went home. My mom, Camden, works at the hospital, so she went back to check on Grandma. We already knew she passed on but she just wanted to check on her and say goodbye. Kingston texted me, but I could not answer. I could not talk to anybody.

I went to a spare garage room and I just sat there, in the middle of the room. I also had a knife beside me. I reached for it and threw it at the door. It went right through. I started to get sleepy, and I could not return to my life. Right there, I fell asleep on the ground.

When I woke up, my mom was right there standing beside me waiting for me to wake up.

She asked, “Do you want to go to school today?”

“Not really. I am not really feeling it today. But I can go on Monday,” I replied.

She responded, “Okay, Jonah. The funeral is going to be tomorrow. So we need you to help us prep for Saturday or tomorrow’s funeral.”

“Oh okay, Ma. Wait… what do you mean by ‘we’?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you but the most of the family flew in this morning. The rest will be coming later today. And yes, Vincent is coming too.”

When she said that, I almost died. Vince gets on my last nerve; he is so annoying and irritating! We used to the best of cousins, but he thought he was better than me and started getting ignorant. At our last family reunion, he revealed my secret that I had a girlfriend. Her name is Kahlar Mizrachi.

My mom continued, “And yeah, Carter is coming.”

When I say that I did backflips, I would be under-exaggerating. Carter and I have also been the best of cousins since we were born in two thousand. My birthday is January 12. He is about two months younger than me. His birthday is March 19, 2000. 

I responded, “Since most of the family came this morning, is either Vince or Carter here?”

She replied, “Well Vince is coming later today, but Carter is already upstairs. He is in your room and he is staying with"” I did not even let her finish her sentence. I ran upstairs to my room to see my favorite cousin.

I practically threw myself into Carter’s arms. He almost fell over. “Nice to see you too, Jonah, but you stink. Go take a shower.” I totally forgot that I spent the night in the spare garage room.

So I said, “Okay but I will be back.” I got me a t-shirt, underwear, and pajama pants, and headed for the bathroom.

At about three thirty in the afternoon everyone was at the house, even Vince. After I put on some clothes, I saw Vince snooping in my room.

“Excuse me Vincent Parson, what are you doing,” I yelled.

He responded, “Oh, just looking for other secrets to out, like I revealed you and Kahlar at the last family reunion.”

I continued, “Are you really that sleazy and retarded to try and out a secret when my grandma and your grand-aunt has just died?!”

“Sure,” said ugly, two-faced Parson.

Before I could start a fight, Uncle Cam called all of the family into the living room.

“All right, we have just found out that my Mommy has passed. I personally think that Aunt Kat and Uncle Morgan should write her obituary, since you both are her siblings.”

Talking about Uncle Morgan, can you believe that we have the same middle name, Marcel? Seems like Mamie M. and Mama had the same mind-set.

Aunt Kat and Uncle Morgan spoke, “Yes, I think we should since she was our sister, and we knew her better than she knew herself sometimes.”

My mom uttered, “At the funeral, I think Cam and I should talk about her, along with Uncle Morgan and Aunt Kat. And Jonah, could you speak too?”

Everyone’s eyes fell on me. Not the way I wanted the spotlight. I finally spoke, “I will do it, only if Carter does it with me since he loved her just as much as I did.”

Now all the eyes fell on Carter. He spoke with no hesitation, “Of course I will.”

Vince, the two-faced hater that I would like to strangle, declared, “Alright, so we have our jobs and they could need some help. I will help with printing the bulletin with Jonah and Carter.”

Carter and I looked at each other and groaned. At least I am not the only one with a hatred for Vince Parson.

We were working for about three hours until we heard the doorbell rang. Uncle Cam opened the door and yelled, “Jonah, someone’s for you!” I ran down the stairs and saw Kingston and Kahlar there.

He stated, “Why didn’t you answer my text last night?”

“Yeah I called you this morning, what is going on,” Kahlar said, who I stated earlier was my girlfriend.

“Yesterday, after I came from the bus, I saw my grandma dead in her home,” I admitted. I walked back in the house and yelled, “Ma, I am going out with Kings and Kay!”

She yelled, “Okay.”

I closed the door and we started to walk around the neighborhood. Kingston said, “I am so sorry about Ms. Hope. She was an exciting, wonderful person.”

I really did not want a pity party, but all I said was, “Thanks, we need that.”

We were now walking past the lake, and I realized that Kahlar and I were still holding hands. I bet my palms were so sweaty. People say I get it from Poppa. For more background information, let’s start from the beginning of our relationship...

It was almost the end of sixth-grade, and Kahlar was the prettiest and funniest girl in school. On the last day of school I asked her, “Uhm, Kahlar, I have liked you for some time now. I don’t know if you like me, but anyway, do you think you want to be my girlfriend?”

Turns out she had a crush on me. So on the third to last week of sixth-grade, we were officially a thing, boyfriend and girlfriend. We started seventh-grade as THAT couple. On our sixth month anniversary, we went on a date to the basketball game and shared our first kiss, and we have still been a couple ever since. Dating for eight months and counting. I know what you are thinking, and yes that is a long time. Anyways back to the story.

Kahlar and I were still holding hands walking past the lake. That is where we had our second date. A picnic by the lake; I can say it was the best date I ever had. I know right, I am very romantic.

She said, “I agree with Kings, Jonah. I am very sorry about your grandmother. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am fine. To me, I just thought she had a lot more years to live,” I told them. “They should be calling us for the completed autopsy report soon.”

We turned back around and decided to sit in front of the lake until sunset. Turns out sunset seemed faster than usual. But it was just what I wanted. My best friend was beside me at the lake, and my girlfriend was lying on my chest.