Seasons of Ferne, Summer's Passion

Chapter 38

The voice struck her like a bullet. "Yes?"

"Would you mind coming with us please? We need to speak with you privately," his voice was low, gentle.

Evelyn squeezed Brandon's hand tightly. "Not without him. I want him with me."

The first officer looked at his companion who gave a small nod in return. "Right this way please."

They led them into a small conference room just off the main lobby and closed the door motioning for them to sit. "You're adopted, is that right?" The first officer asked.

"Yes, for several weeks now," Evelyn replied.

"And your parents are Lenard and Rebecca Jenson?" he asked, flipping through some papers in his hand.

"Yes, they were supposed to come pick me up."

He frowned. "I'm sorry to inform you they've been in an accident. They were taken to..."

Evenly didn't hear much else. The room began to spin around her as the officer confirmed her worst fears. Lenny and Becca, her loving parents, the only two people in the world who had ever chosen her regardless of her impossible to understand differences, were gone. Bits and pieces of what the officer said seeped through the fog in her mind.

Something about a curved section of the road and a tree.

Something about the brakes.

None of it mattered. Evelyn sat in a daze, feeling nothing but her own grief and the hollow pit forming in her stomach. Brandon's hand gripped her own tightly, she could sense his attempts to comfort her. Attempts that at the moment would be in vain.

"...Normally we would have to take you with us tonight, but since you'll be eighteen in just a couple of hours we'll leave the choice up to you. No sense taking you when you'll be an adult before we can even finish the paperwork. Do you have someplace you can go for the night?"

"I, uh..." Evelyn tried to think of something to say, but everything about her seemed to be numb. She felt something warm and wet fall onto her hand, she looked down to find both her and Brandon's hands covered in tears she didn't realize she was crying.

"She can come with me for the night," Brandon interjected, breaking Evelyn's stupor. She turned to him to find tears running down his own face, his heart breaking for hers.

"Yes, yes. I'll, I'll go with him," Evelyn's voice trembled as she forced herself not to break down as a dreadful thought seeped into her mind and heart. A question that needed to be answered before she could properly mourn.

"And you are?"

"He's my boyfriend," Evelyn told the officer, "Brandon Chase."

"Mm hmm," the officer said, pulling out a pen. "And can I get the address of where you'll be bringing her?"

"Sure," Brandon said.

The officer jotted down the address and a few other notes about Brandon, offering a ride to his house.

"No, thank you," Evelyn said. "I need to walk there, you know? Try to let this sink in..."

The officer nodded. "I'm sorry for your loss. We'll need to see you at the station in the morning to answer a few more questions and sign some forms, but for tonight I think you've gone through enough."

"I'll make sure she gets there," Brandon said.

"See that you do," the officer agreed. He turned back to Evelyn. "Are you sure you don't want a ride? It's really no trouble."