Chapter 2
Two
The night had turned cooler and the moon had begun its ascent over the lake, but Brian and Carly made no move to leave their secret garden—the only place they were ever truly alone. On this momentous occasion, they were particularly reluctant to leave enchantment for reality.
Carly snuggled closer to Brian, pulling the blanket up over her shoulders against the chill. Usually they were fast to get dressed after their voracious desire had been sated, but not tonight. Caution had taken a back seat to the rare opportunity to linger.
“We should go,” he said.
“Not yet. Ten more minutes.”
“You’re awfully frivolous tonight.”
“I just got engaged, and the only place I want to be is right here with my fiancé.”
He caressed her face and kissed her. “I’ll get you a ring as soon as I can.”
“I don’t need one. Don’t spend the money. We’ll need it for more important things like food.”
“I want you to have a ring,” he insisted.
“As long as I have you, I have everything I need.”
“You’ll always have me.” He stretched and yawned. “But we really should get going.”
When he would’ve sat up, Carly tightened her hold on him.
“What are you doing?”
She slid her hand over his backside, making him groan. “I’m going to my grandmother’s this weekend. Who knows when we’ll get another chance?”
“We’ve never done it three times before.”
“First time for everything.”
“You’ll be sore.”
She urged him onto his back and straddled him. “I don’t care.”
“Carly,” he whispered.
With a coy smile, she leaned forward to kiss him, showering his face with fragrant curls. “You aren’t saying no, are you?”
Looping the curls around his fingers, he said, “I am definitely not saying no.”
“That’s good, because I don’t want a husband who can’t keep up with me.”
The laughter that filled their secret garden faded to moans as she lowered herself down on him.
They had been gone almost two hours by the time they finally got dressed and began the mile-long walk to Brian’s house to meet their friends.
Above the lake, the moon cast a glow on the calm water, but the path they took was dark and shaded from the moonlight by the canopy of trees.
The sound of crickets, another harbinger of spring, filled the air.
When Carly tripped over a tree root, Brian’s tight hold on her hand kept her from falling.
“We can slow down a bit. A few more minutes won’t matter. We’re already in for a serious ball busting.”
She cringed at the idea of the teasing they would receive from their friends. “Can we tell them we’re engaged?”
“Shouldn’t we tell our parents first?”
After a moment of silence, they said, “Nah.”
Carly giggled. “Like we could keep a secret like this from them anyway. Michelle will be able to tell something’s up in two seconds—if it takes that long.”
“True.”
They were about a hundred yards from Tucker Road when the sickening screech of metal colliding with something hard and unyielding sliced through the peaceful night.
“What was that?” Carly asked as they broke into a run.
“Do you smell smoke?” he asked a few minutes later, panting from exertion.
“Yeah.”
Running as fast as they dared on the dark path, Carly and Brian emerged from the thicket and stopped short at the sight of an inferno. A car had hit one of the big oaks that lined the road and was fully engulfed in flames.
“Oh my God,” he gasped.
At the same moment the stench of burning flesh reached the side of the road where they looked on in horror, it registered with Brian that the car was his own station wagon. “No!” he shrieked, bending at the waist as if he had been punched. “Sammy! Noooooooooo!”
In an effort to break free of him, Carly tugged at the grip he had on her hand.
“No, Carly!” He lifted her off her feet to keep her from bolting across the street.
She struggled to break free. “We can’t just stand here!” she shrieked. “We have to do something!”
Tears coursed down his cheeks as he turned her face into his heaving chest. “There’s nothing we can do.”
The initial blast of flame began to die down, making ghastly silhouettes of the bodies burning inside the car.
“Don’t look,” Brian said, choked by sobs and acrid smoke. “Please don’t look.”
Despite his pleas, Carly turned her face toward the heat and stiffened when realization set in. Her screams shattered the night.
Standing by the side of the road, across from the smoldering remains of the car, his brother, and five of his best friends, Brian Westbury felt the fragile hold he had on his childhood give way to the stark, agonizing reality of adulthood.
While the paramedics tended to Carly, who had screamed herself hoarse, the first cop on the scene focused on him.
“Do you know where your father is tonight?” asked Lieutenant Matt Collins, a man Brian knew well.
Brian’s father was the chief of police, and his officers would need his guidance as the full magnitude of the tragedy began to seep through the smoke.
That the chief had lost the younger of his two sons maybe hadn’t occurred to Matt yet.
Brian ran a trembling hand over his face. “They went to my aunt’s in Cedarville.”
“Do you know the number there?”
Brian’s voice broke as he rattled off the number. “You aren’t going to tell him it’s Sam over the phone, are you?”
Lieutenant Collins put his arm around Brian’s shoulders. “No, son.” He barked out orders to the cops who had arrived after him, sending one of them to call in the chief’s contact number to the dispatcher. When Brian’s knees buckled, the lieutenant eased him to the ground and sat next to him.
“Is Carly all right?” Brian asked. He couldn’t see her with the paramedics hovering over her, but her agonized shrieks continued unabated.
“They’re taking good care of her. Don’t worry.” With his hand on Brian’s shoulder, the lieutenant’s voice was gentle. “I know this is awful for you, Brian, but can you tell me who was in the car with Sam?”
Brian took a deep breath and recited the names of five people who meant more to him than life itself.
That they were all gone was simply unimaginable.
The staggering weight of the tragedy settled over him, and sobs shook his body.
Lieutenant Collins put his arms around Brian and held him until he had collected himself.
“I can ask the paramedics to give you something if you think you need it,” the lieutenant offered. “There’s no shame in taking the edge off after what you’ve just witnessed.”
Brian shook his head and wiped his face. “I need to be clearheaded for my mother and Carly.”
“Can you tell me what you saw?”
While they waited for the medical examiner to arrive, the other cops secured a perimeter around the wreck and held back the small group of onlookers that had gathered.
“We didn’t see it happen. Carly and I were walking on the path from the lake when we heard the car hit the tree.”
“What did it sound like?”
“A huge boom followed by the crunch of metal.” If he lived forever, Brian would never forget that sound.
“Did it sound like an explosion?”
“Not really, but I can’t be sure. It happened so fast.” Brian swiped at the tears on his face and struggled to continue.
“We ran as fast as we could, but we were still quite a ways from the road. By the time we got here, the car was burning.” He began to cry again at the memory of the burning bodies and Carly’s horrified screams. With a certainty he couldn’t explain amid the thick fog of shock and disbelief, he knew he would also never forget the sight of the people he loved burning in the car, the sound of Carly’s screams, or the horrific smell of death.
“You know I have to ask if Sam was drinking tonight,” Lieutenant Collins said tentatively.
Brian shook his head. “We were together earlier at Toby’s house, but there was no booze. They went out for pizza while Carly and I took a walk. You can check at Ricardo’s to see what they had, but they don’t serve us there. They know we’re not legal.”
“I appreciate you keeping it together, Brian. Your dad would be proud of you. I’m going to have someone take you home now to wait for your parents.”
“I want to stay with Carly.”
“Let me see what’s going on with her. Stay here.”
Brian rested his head on his knees and imagined his parents receiving the call every parent dreads.
New tears filled his eyes at the thought of his mother hearing Sam was dead, that he had burned to death along with five other kids who had been in and out of their house for so many years his parents considered them their own.
Lieutenant Collins returned a few minutes later. “Carly is understandably in shock. They’ve sedated her and are taking her in as a precaution, but they don’t think there’s anything to worry about.”
Brian stood. “I want to go with her.”
“Her parents are on their way to the hospital.” The lieutenant rested his hand on Brian’s shoulder. “I’m not going to tell you what to do, but I think where you need to be right now is at home waiting for your parents. They’re going to need you, Brian.”
“Yeah, okay.” Brian knew the lieutenant was right, but with all his heart he wanted to stay with Carly. “Can I see her for a minute?”
“Of course.” He led Brian over to where the paramedics had loaded her onto a gurney.
Brian leaned down to kiss her cheek and was startled by the vacant, empty look in her normally vibrant brown eyes.
“Carly, it’s Brian. I’m here.” He took her cold hand and held it tightly.
As tears blinded him, he wanted to assure her that she would be all right but couldn’t bring himself to make such a promise just then.
“They’re going to take you to the hospital to make sure you’re okay.
Your parents will meet you there, so you won’t be alone.
” He wiped the tears on his cheeks. “I’m going to go home to wait for my parents, but I’ll be over to see you just as soon as I can. ”
She never looked at him or acknowledged she had heard him. Fear worked its way past the numbness and settled like a block of ice in his gut.
Lieutenant Collins rested his hand on Brian’s shoulder. “Let the paramedics take care of her. She’ll be okay after they get her to a doctor.”
As Brian kissed her cheek and then her lips, he wondered if either of them would ever be okay again.
“Officer Beckett is going to give you a ride home and wait with you until your parents get there, all right?” Lieutenant Collins asked.
The medical examiner approached, but the lieutenant held up his hand to stop the other man until he had Brian settled.
Brian nodded and was led to one of the patrol cars.
Since the road leading to his house was blocked, the emergency personnel cleared a path to allow the cruiser through.
On the brief ride home, it occurred to Brian that this horrific night would come down to a matter of minutes.
Had the others left the pizza place a minute or two later, maybe they would have arrived safely.
Only two bends in the road separated the place where the lives of his brother and their friends had come to a fiery end and the split-level house where he and Sam lived with their parents.
If Brian and Carly had left the willow a few minutes earlier, they would’ve already been at his house and wouldn’t have witnessed the aftermath.
If Brian hadn’t been worried about the teasing that seemed so ridiculous in hindsight, maybe he and Carly would have lingered at the willow a while longer and wouldn’t have seen it.
Minutes and seconds, making all the difference between life, death, and purgatory.
Because he had given his keys to Sam, Brian had no way to get in the house, so he and the patrolman sat in uneasy silence in the driveway.
While they waited, Brian continued to play the “what if” game as his mind raced with scenarios that somehow might’ve brought about a different end.
If he and Carly hadn’t been so anxious to be alone, they would’ve been in the car, too.
Remembering how Sam had teased him about taking “a walk” with Carly had Brian sobbing again with the kind of helpless, massive grief from which there’s no escape once it wraps itself with maddening finality around those who are left behind.
They were the last words he would ever hear his brother say.
Ever. Sammy. The numbness began to wear off, and Brian cried the brokenhearted tears of a young man who’d lost his only sibling, the one person in the world who shared most of his memories, his very best friend.
He had a lifetime to mourn the others. For right now, he could think only of Sam.
“Is there anything I can do?” Officer Beckett asked.
Brian shook his head but couldn’t speak.
Thirty long minutes passed during which Brian wasn’t sure what he wanted more—his parents to get there because he needed them or for them to stay away for that much longer, to be protected from what they would hear and how it would change them forever.
He was grateful they would be coming from the other direction and wouldn’t have to drive past the accident scene.
By the time they finally pulled into the driveway behind the cruiser, Brian had decided that Sam had gotten the easier end of this deal.
His father came rushing out of the car.
Brian and Officer Beckett got out of the cruiser. The expressions on their faces stopped Chief Westbury in his tracks.
“What?” he whispered, touching Brian’s face and then his chest, as if to confirm his son was safe. “They said there was an accident. What happened?”
“Dad,” Brian said, his voice breaking. “It’s Sammy.”
From behind his father, his mother’s scream was eerily reminiscent of Carly’s. Before Brian could tell them that Sam hadn’t died alone, his mother fainted.