It was snowy as I sat in the silent and cozy house. I was home from college for Christmas hiatus and I was enjoying the stress free month. The family was out shopping and my brother was out with all of his friends doing things that teenagers do. I sat on the couch with my laptop on my lap and as I began writing a report my cell phone started ringing. I had a text message from my younger brother. He didn’t seem okay and it made me leery. I knew he was not alright so I called him and it went straight to his voicemail. “Hi you reached, Joe leave a message. BEEP”
Of course he turned off his phone; he is so immature I thought to myself. The kid was pretty wry for his age and it really bugged me how he never got caught. This was an apotheosis that my parents had begun to given up after three kids. My older brother Tyler was quite the troublemaker in high school and he was constantly getting kicked out of school, but now he has finally got his act together and he is married with a child on the way. My mom told me to stay home so that I could greet him when they arrived.
Christmas was two days away and the house was very festive. I heard a clamor outside and it was Tyler and his wife Amanda. I ran to the door and opened it up. “Tyler!” I screamed.
He laughed and grabbed his luggage from the car’s trunk. Amanda came up the front steps and gave me a hug. I hadn’t seen either of them in so long since they had moved to Colorado. We all gathered inside the house and within fifteen minutes of their arrival my parents had came home from the mall with bags of presents. I helped my mom bring them upstairs to her room and then the phone rang. It was Mrs. Smith, Joe’s best friend’s mother. She talked on the phone with my dad for awhile and when my dad hung up he said, “Cali go call your brother.”
I knew Joe had turned off his phone but I did what my dad said and called Joe. Surprisingly Joe’s had turned his phone back on because it rang, and rang. But he never answered. I walked down stairs, “Dad he didn’t answer.” I exclaimed.
“That boy is in deep!” my father said gravely, “Did he tell anyone where he was going?”
“He told me he was going out with the his bevy dad, which could be anywhere.” I said.
“I am going to reprimand him when he comes home. We need to start being more authoritarian with him if he thinks he can just go out and not answer his phone.” My dad said to my mom.
At this point my mother had begun to cry. Amanda and I took her in the other room to comfort her and tell her everything will be okaywhile my father and Tyler took out the cars to go look for him. After about an hour of him not answering his phone and no luck of finding his car anywhere the phone rang. I answered it and the person on the other end said, “Hello, is this the Brown’s house?”
“Um yes it is, how can I help you? I said with a confused countenance.
“This is the Oakland police department, is there an adult I can speak too?”
“I can speak, my name is Calli."
“We need you to come down to the hospital. Your brother,” he coughed, “was found in a car accident about an hour ago. We were just able to reach you and Joe was not recognizable as himself after the accident. The driver was under the influence of alcohol and made a glib and irrevocable decision because neither of them survived.”
"What? No that can't be Joe im sorry it just can't be Joe."
"Im sorry dear but we need someone to come to the hospital to make sure it's him."
I began to cry on the phone. "Calli we need someone to come to the hospital. If you need anymore information you can call the police department and someone will talk to you."
At that moment I hyperventilated and I hung up the phone. I have never imagined my brother, my younger brother, would die before me. It couldn’t be true; they must have the wrong kid. There was no way that either Joe or his friend were drinking. It wasn’t even dinner time yet, how could they have been drunk? I didn’t know how to tell my mother. As soon as she saw the tears rolling down my face she knew what it was and Amanda ran to the phone to call Tyler and my dad and they went to the hospital to make sure it was my brother.
I had received the worst Christmas present that you could ever imagine. Christmas Eve we weren’t like everyone else, we were picking out the casket and setting up funeral plans with the Smith family. Two families lost there 17 year old sons 2 days before Christmas and there was no way to change what had happened.
The day of the wake and funeral were the hardest two days of my life. Joe and his friend had a lot of friends at school. They were pretty popular and played sports. This was a huge loss for out town and especially for our family. The entire high school came to the wake and the line of cars went 2 miles down the road from the funeral home. After the funeral I went with Tyler and Amanda for a ride to give my mom and dad some time alone. We went back to the house that night and it didn’t seem right, we all knew that it would never be the same without Joe. He completed our family.
After dinner I went into Joe’s room and cried myself to sleep on his bed. I woke up later that night and no one was asleep yet. It was 2 in the morning and everyone was awake with every light in the house on. Confused I walked down stairs to find my family watching family videos. As soon as I heard Joe’s voice I lamented and when I walked into the living room and saw his face on the TV screen I fell to the ground. My mom came over to me and wrapped her arms around me. I didn’t know how to handle my brother being dead and it was a real reality check. I wish he had thought about us before he ruined his life and ours.
