When Tragedy Strikes (Editing)

Chapter 1

The picture on the side is of the Police officers.

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My fingers drummed nervously on the armrest of my chair, I was sitting in front of the window, watching for my parents’ car.  My ears were trained on the garage in case I had missed their car and they were, in fact, opening the garage door as we speak. Most people wouldn’t worry about their parents going to the store, but…the thing is, my parents had gone to the store over four hours ago, even though they said that they’d be back within the hour.

“Mom?  Dad? When you get this message, PLEASE call me back.” My message said, this was the fourth time I’d called them. There was a knock on the door, I looked through the peep hole and saw two uniformed police officers, and I frowned, looking out the window to search for a squad car. Nope, this isn’t a joke; there is actually a police car in front of my house.

“Hello officer, can I help you?” I asked the older police officer with graying black hair, his name tag read Sergeant Grey.

“Is this the Palmer residence?” He asked somewhat sadly.

“Yes…What happened?” I asked, my eyes widening at all the scenarios running through my head.  The first thing I wondered was if I had done anything illegal.  No, I’ve never done anything against the law that I’m aware of, but there’s always a first for everything.

“Are you related to a Lillian and Thomas Palmer?” The officer asked.

“…Yeah, they’re my parents.” I said suspiciously.  Every time I see a police car, I joke with my dad that they’re coming for him.  He was probably just playing a joke on me, or something.  “Are they in any kind of trouble?”

“There has been an accident.” No, no, no, no! He was joking, that had to be it.  I will sue.

“That’s a really awful joke to play, sir. I don’t appreciate it, and you aren’t funny.” I told him and was about to shut the door, but he put his foot out to stop it. I looked into his green eyes and my heart sank when I realized he wasn’t joking, his young, female partner behind him looked at me with sympathy.

“I’m sorry, but they were both pronounced dead at the scene.” The Sergeant told me sadly, he sounded like he was speaking underwater: muffled and far away.  I felt my knees give out and he caught me before I could hit the ground. He sat me down on the steps just outside of the front door and they both sat down beside me.  I buried my face in my hands, tears threatening to spill out.

“What am I going to do?” I asked desperately, I was an orphan and I had no living relatives that I was aware of.

“There’s a lawyer down at the station, after we get that all sorted out, you need to go identify the bodies.” Sergeant Grey said softly, no doubt wishing he was anywhere other than here. I nodded and stood up, silently following them to the squad car.  The ride to the station seemed to take forever, no one spoke and I was grateful.

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“Hello Catherine.” My parents’ lawyer greeted me sadly when we reached the room at the station.  I had met him a few times, but that was a really long time ago.

“Hi.” I whispered, and surveyed the room.  There was a vaguely familiar black haired woman across the table from me; unshed tears were glistening in her eyes.  She smiled at me sadly, and I returned the gesture.