Sofe

A girl's life seems completely changed by tragedy, but not everything is what it seems.

Darkness. Darkness engulfed her vision. A faint ringing broke the silence of the darkness. She struggled to make out the sound. The clarity of the sound came like waves breaking on the shore. One moment, the sound was clear and audible to her ear, but the next, it was not. The sound was nearly at full audibility. She slowly began to make it out as a telephone ringing. The ringing’s volume increased until it was piercing her eardrums. It stopped. Startled by the sudden change in environment, Sofia opened her eyes. The image of her bedroom entered her vision as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She rose, stretched, and looked at the clock on her nightstand. It read “2:14 AM” in bright, red characters. She picked up her phone and saw a missed call from a number she did not recognize. She set the phone back down on the nightstand and got up from her queen-sized bed. It was old. It had given her back problems for a few years now, and she walked at a slower pace than in her younger years. Younger years? Ha! I’m only 24, she thought. She hobbled over to the wall and flipped on the light switch. The four bulbs in each corner of her room lit up and illuminated the small area. Sofia had just graduated college a few years before and had moved out of her college dorm and into the small one-bedroom apartment shortly after. It wasn’t much. For her, it worked. She was single. Not many friends. However, her father always stopped by at least once a week to check on her. He had visited just a few days before, and as always, they had laughed until they cried. Sofia’s father was the only one who truly cared about her. He had always been there for her.

            She heard a knocking on the front door. Who could that possibly be? She opened the door from her bedroom into the main part of her apartment. It was a 20” x 25” room that combined a living room, kitchen, and dining area all into one cozy space. The knocking continued. She made her way to the door, rubbing her eyes as she reached for the handle. She opened the door, its hinges creaking eerily in the night. She blinked a few times to clear her vision. A Suffolk County policeman was standing in front of her.

            “Miss Green?” the officer enquired of her.

            “Yes, that’s me. What’s the problem, officer?”

            “Well, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we found your father’s body in the Charles River today. A couple of tourists found him under the bridge a few hours ago. His face was unrecognizable, but his wallet identified him as Steven Green. Is that your father?”

            Sofia looked down at her bracelet. It was silver with the name “Sofe” engraved on it. Her father had used that nickname for her for as long as she could remember. No one else had. It was one of the many things that defined the close relationship that they had. Their weekly visits were filled with laughs and memories. They had always joked about how much easier life would be without Sofia’s mom in the picture. He had always joked about her nagging. Up until their divorce, the house was filled with fighting. Her father’s memory was surrounded by his jokes that could lighten any situation. But, those were gone now. She would never again joke with her father. She would never again be able to tell him that she"

            “Miss Green?” the officer interrupted her thoughts.

            “Yes, that’s my father,” she replied coldly as a lone tear rolled down her face.

            “I’m sorry for your loss. Our grievance counselors will"”

            She closed the door, cutting off the officer’s words. She went to her couch and sat down. She stared blankly at the television in front of her. She could faintly see her reflection in the blackness of the screen. She looked like a mess. Her hair was everywhere. Her pajamas were wrinkled. She was wearing no makeup. Her eyes were still heavy. None of this, however, could compare to the chaos going on inside of her heart and head. She was slowly breaking down both emotionally and mentally. She knew not how long she sat there, but she cried every minute of it. The sun shone through the small gap in the curtains. The brightness of it made her eyes squint. She got up from the couch and walked back to her bedroom. She stared at the picture of her and her father on the day of her graduation from the University of Massachusetts. She removed it from her dresser and carried it to her bed. She crawled under the sheets and pressed the picture to her chest. The photograph was the last piece of her father that she had left. She closed her eyes and fell asleep almost instantaneously, exhausted from the night’s events.

            The next few days were some of the worst of her life. She received more visitors than ever, all of them giving their condolences. Most of them hadn’t spoken to her since college. How meaningless the words felt from people who hadn’t cared enough to stay in touch. They’re probably just writing this off as their good deed for the day. Not only that, they all brought flowers. The entire kitchen countertop was covered with roses, daisies, and tulips. The amount of flowers also annoyed her, upset her even. The fact that her father’s entire life had been condensed into a few meaningless words and some cheap, grocery store flowers severely angered her. He was the greatest man to ever live. He was always there for her. Every need, want, and request was met by her father. Some called it spoiling, but he had called it love. She threw away most of the flowers, and the trashcan was nearly full of them. She cursed those who had brought them and sat down on her couch. She turned on the television. A sports anchor was rattling off stats to the Celtics game. She turned it off, sick of people talking about meaningless things. Her father had died not even a week ago, and the entire city of Boston moved on at its incredibly fast pace.

            Knocking once more filled the room. Oh great, more flowers. She got up and walked over to the door. She opened it and saw two men standing outside. Complete opposites of each other. One was tall and blonde, while the other was short with brown hair.

            “Miss Green, we’re with the Boston Police Department, and we’d like to ask you a few questions about your father’s death,” the tall, blonde man declared in a stern tone.

            “Sure,” replied Sofia, as she opened the door and allowed the men to enter.

            “We have reason to believe that your father was murdered. Do you know anyone who would want to harm your father?” enquired the short man.

            “Uh, well, my parents divorced when I was fourteen. My mom wasn’t too fond of him, but she would never kill him,” replied Sofia.

            “Are you sure of that, Miss Green?” the first officer was now speaking.

            The second officer’s phone rang. He removed it from his hip and checked the number. He flipped it open and brought it to his ear. The voice on the other end was barely audible. The officer was silent as the other voice dominated the conversation. He finally replied with a “Yes, sir” and closed his phone.

            “We just found your mother’s body a few miles from here. Foul play appears to be evident.”

            Sofia’s reaction to this news was hardly as dramatic as the news of her father’s death. She and her mother had never been close. She had always been daddy’s little girl, and it was almost like her mother envied the close relationship that Sofia and her father had. After she went to college, Sofia rarely, if ever, spoke to her mother. They stopped giving each other Christmas gifts and birthday cards. She hadn’t physically seen her mother since the day of her graduation. She managed to spot her in the crowd of people hugging their children. However, she wasn’t even looking toward Sofia. She was with her boyfriend and her daughter, who had also graduated that day. Sofia thought it strange how quickly their relationship had diminished.

            “Miss, are you okay?” the officer’s words once again interrupted her thoughts.

            “Yes. I’m still in shock, I guess.”

            “Well, it looks like we need to be going, but we’ll call you if we have any questions related to either investigation,” the blonde officer said as the two left the apartment.

            She sat back down on the couch and turned on the TV. Another news story of the government’s inability to do anything was running. The new budget was once again delayed for six months. To the ear, six months sounded like just a short time away. She remembered, however, that six months ago she still had both her mother and father. Officers weren’t showing up at her door asking the same questions over and over. People weren’t stopping by and offering their meaningless condolences and cheap flowers. She was just a single girl barely scraping on her $10 an hour salary at a local paper production company. This was her life now. Officers, questions, visitors, and flowers were all constants in her everyday life.

            Sofia remembered that her father’s funeral was set for the following Sunday. It was Thursday, so she had only a couple of days to prepare. She decided to wear the lone black dress in her closet with black heels. It was the dress her father had given to her for her 23^rd birthday. The thought of wearing it to his funeral nearly made her sick. She had worn it many times before, and this was sure to be the last. She couldn’t imagine wearing it ever again after seeing her father buried. He was her best friend. What little spare time she had during college was not spent with friends at parties but was spent with him at restaurants and movie theaters. Now, she was truly alone. There were no friends or close relatives to console her anymore. With this thought still in her head, she crawled into bed and went back to sleep.

            Saturday was more mundane than the others. The day before the funeral was filled with sadness and grief. Sofia had closed the curtains and locked the door to keep out any potential visitors. She figured she would see enough of those people tomorrow at the funeral. She stayed in bed all day long and wept while thinking of her father. Tears drenched her pillowcase, and the sounds of her sobbing were audible to any passers-by. She did not eat. She did not drink. She did not get out of bed except to use the bathroom which was a rarity in itself. As nighttime approached, she began to feel weak. She had exhausted herself emotionally, which, in turn, caused a physical exhaustion. She fell asleep before 8:00 PM and slept until 7:00 AM.

            She got out of bed, showered, and dressed herself in the outfit she had previously picked out. She looked at herself in the mirror. On any other occasion, she would have considered herself to be beautiful. Today, however, there was no beauty in the world at all. Though the sun was shining and the birds were chirping, Sofia’s life was nothing but darkness. She didn’t eat any breakfast, so she got into her car and headed to the burial site. She was an hour early. The funeral service was set to begin at 10:00 AM. When Sofia arrived, no one was there except for the priest and a few estranged family members. No words were exchanged between Sofia and her family. Even when more people arrived, people dared not say a word to her. They just gave strange glances toward Sofia and exchanged whispers into each other’s ears. By 10:00 AM, about thirty friends and family members had arrived at the site. Not a one spoke to Sofia.

            The ceremony itself was very short. The priest quoted scripture and blessed Sofia’s father as the closed casket was lowered into the ground. The entire ceremony had featured a closed casket due to the mangled features of Steven Green’s face. As the dirt was piled on top of the casket, Sofia once more stared down at the bracelet he had given her. The name “Sofe” was now the only personal connection she had to her father. No one else had called her that, and no one else ever would. As the last few piles of dirt were stacked on top of the casket, Sofia closed her eyes and prayed for the first time in a long time. She had never really been a religious person, but after all that had happened, she was willing to give anything a shot. The priest said his final words, and people begin to leave the burial site. Sofia stayed behind and knelt before her father’s headstone. She placed a flower that she had carried with her on top of the freshly-dug dirt. Her father had never cared for flowers, but it only seemed fitting for the occasion. She closed her eyes and began to speak to her father.

            “Dad, I’m sorry for not always being the best daughter. Like most teenage girls, I didn’t always agree with what you had to say, but it all worked out in the end. You were my best friend, and you helped me through everything that ever went wrong. You’re not here anymore, but I can still feel your presence in my heart. My only wish is that you would continue to guide me throughout my life. I’m going to miss you. I love you.”

            Sofia opened her eyes. She wiped away the tears and stared at the headstone. Seeing her father’s name engraved on it was the first time she completely understood what had happened. Her vision was blurred by tears. She wiped away the tears and noticed a shadow next to her own. She stood up and turned around to see what was causing the shadow. A look of shock and surprise came across her face. The sight of the man took away her speech.

            “I love you too, Sofe.”

Author's Note

This is a rough draft. I wrote this for school, and I received an A+ on it, but I was looking for more criticisms on the style and plot. I am also looking for title suggestions. Any help would be appreciated.