For the better( Benny Rodriguez)

1

May 10th, 1962
New York City

My feet dangle almost dead as I am seated upside down in the cold seat of my dads truck. I cant see or hear anything except the blaring lights of the ambulance that is miles away and the radio playing .

Bum-Bum-Bum-Badada

I look over at the drivers seat where my father sat just a minute ago, laughing and singing to the radio. Now I look at where he lies on the sidewalk next to what is left of our windshield. The neon lights of the local bowling ally about a block away from our apartment light up my fathers face in a very disturbing manner.

Buda- Bum-Bum-Bum

I look away from my father and to a car with a dent in it. A man in a business suit walks out of his car and goes over to my dad, checking his pulse. He has a shocked look on his face and backs away to look at our truck, he sees me and he comes running up to the truck.

I'm walkin, yes in deed

" ma'am the ambulance is on the way, are you ok?" The man said as he got over to our truck and all I could do was nod. " ok well I am going to try to get you out is that ok" I nodded again.

*buffering radio noises until the radio glitches out *

The man got me unbuckled from my seatbelt. I fell to the roof of the vehicle on my head, it felt like I could just die right then and there. My vision soon became blurry and I probably would have passed out if the man didn't get me out of the truck.

He picked me up right as the ambulance stopped. The paramedics rolled out a stretcher and the man laid me on it. The paramedics hoisted me into the ambulance and started asking questions as I started to feel dizzy again.

" Ok honey, what is your name?" A blonde woman said to me in a soft yet rushed tone. " Casey -po-l" my eyes became to heavy for my face and everything was spinning. All of the voices were getting faded out as I closed my eyes.

I think this is the end

I heard the beeping noises of the vital monitor first. Then I heard the sound of crying in the hallway. I opened my eyes to see the blonde woman I saw last, she was checking the machine . She turned to see me awake and out of a soft broken smile.

" your awake, are you ready to start those questions again?" She asked as she grabbed a clipboard and a glass of water for me. " sure "
I said quietly  " okay, first of all what is your name and your age" . " Cassandra Palledorous, you can call me Casey, I'm 14"  she looked at me again with the same smile " great, that's all we needed to know." She said and then walked out of the room.

~

It was hours later, and I was now in the waiting room with hopes of seeing my father. I didn't know where he was but it was hours just sitting in this waiting room with nothing to do. My body felt sore all over but mostly my torso. Being stuck in a upside down flipped over car being only held up buy a seatbelt does something to your waist.

Voices interrupted my train of thought, it was the nurses, they looked over at me and then started talking again. I couldn't make anything out of what they were saying but then it hit me that they were talking about my father. The blonde woman came over and kneeled in front of me, all I could think of was the worst, he could be dead, he could have died hours ago, they could only be telling me now.

"He's dead isn't he?" I said quietly, with a tear running down my cheek. " He has about one hour left to live," the woman said, I looked up making eye contact with her " do you want to say goodbye?" I nodded and followed her

The walk felt like it went on for miles. I was silently crying the whole way there. We got to the door of his room and opened it. I saw him, he looked so sick, so life less. " Casey bug.." he said, his nickname for me, I ran into his arms and cried into his shoulder. I couldn't help it, I have never lived without my dad, I needed him and he was just being dragged away from me.

" Oh honey," he said putting hair behind my ear " why are you crying, everything will be just alright ". I looked up at him " I have never lived without you, I don't have any family left" I said. My dad looked down and sighed " yes you do, you have an aunt" I looked at him with confusion in my eyes, an aunt?, I didn't know about any aunts.

" What?" I said to him. He scooted over so there was enough space for me to sit next to him. "Ok so when I was about your age, I lived in a town, now this town was very special to me, it's were I met your mom and many of my friends." I looked up at him and he sighed again. " me and my brother were close too, we stayed in touch but when your mother got into trouble, he was against her."

I knew all this but my uncle Bobby hasn't been around for years, and he only ever lived alone, I thought. " But dad, uncle Bob lived alone, didn't he" he looked at me " ok" he started " After bob did that, I didn't tell you anything about him, or his life. But I am ready to tell you now, so you aren't confused the rest of your life" he laughed, but with sadness.

" About a year after I stopped visiting and cut off all connections, he called me, he told me he got a girl pregnant, that he was having a boy. He explained how he wanted to name the kid after me and Your grandfather. He said his name is going to be Michael squints it was stupid name really I didn't like the idea very much." He laughed

" did he marry mikes mother?" I asked this genuinely, I wanted to know exactly who I would be living with. " Yes he did Marry his mother and now you have an aunt June."

~

"Dad I don't want you to leave" I said "I know honey but I'll be in a better place soon I promise" he said coughing. "I know but it's just going to be really hard for me" I said hugging into him "I know but just know that I'm always with you and I'll never really be gone okay?" He said again with a cough "Okay dad I love you" I said as the nurse walked me out of the room.

I walked out the hospital room a different person that day, I don't know if I could ever recover from it. It was like the one thing in my life ripped away for me and I had nothing I could do about it. I'm so scared to move all I've ever known is living with my dad.

The next two weeks where horrible, the funeral was horrid, all I did was sleep and cry. An ongoing cycle, that was until I had to pack up to go live with my aunt. I was starting to feel better when I got into the taxi taking me too California . When I got settled I just fell asleep and let myself relax.

————————————————————————

Hello! This is actually the first story I've ever written!

I'm hoping to go a lot of places with this story and make a lot of character development. I didn't want this story to be just a short quick one so hopefully it will stretch over multiple books.

If you guys could please vote and share, it means a lot if my story got out there.

Anyways, love you guys, stay gold!