The Last Handful of Clover - Book 1: The Hereafter

1.54 KUTV News

Plainly anxious and troubled, Keith put down the book and grabbed the remote. They rarely watched TV downstairs, and almost never in the morning. They both preferred to snuggle in bed while watching a movie or a TV show before sleeping. Keith had often asked about getting rid of the TV in the living room, but so far, Richard had always resisted the suggestion. It could have been simply out of habit, or perhaps because there had always been a TV in this room, ever since Richard was a child.

He wondered if Keith would now, finally, get rid of the TV and make this his reading room.

He was surprised when Keith turned on the local news channel. Richard had always been a bit of a news junkie, while Keith had cared very little for the goings-on in the world. But now, his husband sat and watched the TV with a blank expression. The morning news report was just coming on.

What Richard heard finally tore his attention away from Keith.

He had learned about the massacre at the theater, when he overheard the girls gossiping about it in Liberty Park. But to be honest, his mind at that point hadn't been absorbing much. He had been so consumed with his own struggle that any drama elsewhere in Salt Lake City didn't penetrate his consciousness. But what he now gleaned from the newscaster was that there was a lot going on in Salt Lake City, of which his own murder might be the tiniest tip of the iceberg.

Most of the morning news was about the massacre at the theater, but there were also a series of other, equally ominous news reports. As they unfolded upon the screen, Richard sank down on the couch next to Keith, and stared at the parade of horrors.

"Officials at Cottonwood High School have asked for help from the community in responding to a spike in youth suicide. Over the past two months, six students at the school have taken their own lives. The manner of death of the students is not being discussed by authorities, except to say that the method was similar for all six. Salt Lake City Social Services has promised to send additional counseling resources to the high school, as well as psychologists to study why such a horrible outbreak has happened in this regularly placid Salt Lake City Neighborhood."

Cottonwood high was near where Pil worked, at the youth crisis line, where he had once volunteered. He could imagine that things were tense at the crisis line right now. The kids in the city weren't immune to the stresses of daily living, and they also had challenges unique to being in a rather backwards and repressive culture. But still, a wave of youth suicide was relatively uncommon in Utah.

A second news anchor had taken over and moved on to another story.

"A mother in Draper is in custody this morning, charged with the drowning death of her two-month-old baby. Authorities charge she drowned the child in the family bathtub, while her husband and children were sleeping."

Okay, Richard thought. As gruesome as it is, that kind of thing can happen anywhere. He kept watching through a commercial break, and then the anchors were back.

"Eighty-nine-year-old Mabel Hunt is charged with aggravated assault, after she poisoned three residents at her nursing home in Glendale yesterday."

Jesus Christ...

A few minutes later: "Two children are dead this morning, after being struck by a train on their way to school. Our reporter, Morgan Jensen, is on the scene."

Jensen was a staple on KUTV, mostly reporting the crime beat. It seemed strange that she was reporting on a train accident. And as she began to describe the scene, Richard could tell that this incident truly unsettled her.

"Thanks Brenda," Jensen said, taking the hand-off from the anchor. "I wasn't able to talk to the conductor who was driving the train, for obvious reasons. But I did talk with Andy Sorensen, who was the assistant conductor on the westbound Union Pacific train, when the children were killed."