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Chapter 30: The Long Day Is Over
Darren awoke the next morning around six, his thoughts focused on Hope. She was
crying from her crib. Fearing that it would wake up Faith, he took the baby to
the kitchen and began warming a bottle for her.
"Morning," Morgan said as she walked out of her room, her hair
standing on end and wearing one of Ben's tee shirts. "I see you've got the
duties this morning. Need any help?"
"No, I'll be fine," Darren replied. "You're up early. Having a
hard time sleeping?"
"Yeah, I wasn't feeling well when I woke up. I think I'm getting sick or
something," she answered.
"Go to the doctor today and see what's wrong. You really don't wanna hold
this off for too long."
"Yeah. Well, I'm going to try and go back to sleep. If I don't, you can
find me in the living room watching TV."
"Okay."
Morgan walked out of the room as Darren picked the warm bottle up out of the
boiling water over the stove. He sat down at the kitchen table and began to feed
Hope her milk. He yawned, his desire to fall asleep becoming all too great.
As Hope finished her bottle, Darren walked back into Faith's room and put her
back into her crib. It was time for Faith to wake up. Gently sitting down on the
bed beside her, he noticed the large envelope on the nightstand. He picked it
up, also noticing his and Morgan's names on top. He began to wonder if he was
supposed to open it now or later.
"Faith," Darren whispered softly as he shook her shoulder.
"Faith, honey. Wake up. I need to ask you something." Usually this
would wake her up, but today he sensed something was not quite right.
"Faith, come on. Wake up," he said again, a little more loudly this
time. Still, no luck. He stood up and opened the blinds then walked back to
where he had been seated.
With the light pouring into the room, Darren noticed something about Faith that
he would usually miss, her lips. They were light blue. He touched her hand. It
was cold. Suddenly, he stood up, unable to comprehend the situation. His heart
had already stopped beating. "Faith?" he asked once more, hoping to
get a response, but she was long gone.
Darren fell to his knees beside the bed and began to cry. He picked up her cold
hand, his own trembling violently, and kissed it. He could feel the pain
bubbling up in his mind as he stared at her, blurry eyed. "No," he
sobbed softly. "Why? Why you? Why today?" He stayed on his knees for
how long, he didn't know. When he finally stood, his legs were asleep, and he
barely made it out of the room without stumbling.
Morgan was sitting on the couch watching the news when she heard Darren enter.
Looking up, she saw the tears in his eyes. At first she didn't know what was
wrong, but seeing the pain in his eyes and his inability to walk, she realized
what had happened. Morgan quickly stood up and wrapped his arms around him. It
didn't take too long for her own tears to start flowing.
"NO!" Morgan screamed. "She can't be! Not now! Not so soon!"
Ben ran into the room hearing Morgan's scream. He saw her and Darren crying,
their arms wrapped around each other, and knew almost immediately what this
meant. "She's not . . . " his voice trailed off when Morgan and Darren
nodded.
Ben stepped back for a few minutes trying to collect his thoughts. It was just
as hard on him as it had been on Morgan and Darren, but it took him a little
longer to get the tears flowing. They all stood there, arms around each other,
sobbing until no more tears could possibly be shed.
Morgan pulled away from the group and said, "I have so much shit to do.
I've got to call quite a few people and start making plans for the . . . the
thing." She didn't want to say the "F" word just yet. Looking
over at the clock on the wall, she realized it had taken them a little over two
hours to calm down.
"I've got to make a few phone calls," Ben replied as he started to
walk towards the kitchen.
"Wait," Darren interrupted. "I've got a better way." He
motioned for everyone to follow him into Faith's room. Morgan almost instantly
started to cry when she saw Faith's body lying lifelessly on the bed. Ben held
her as Darren grabbed the camera and Hope out of her crib. Before walking out of
the room, he covered her with a white sheet and stood at the foot of the bed for
a couple of moments.
They walked back into the living room and sat down on the couches. Darren turned
on his computer and connected the camera to it. With everything ready to go, he
started filming.
* * *
Leonie was just sitting down at her computer when she heard her doorbell ring.
Standing up, she found Daniel, Karl, Lee, and Angi all standing there with boxes
of food in their hands. "Finally!" she exclaimed, ushering them into
her home. "It took you only about three hours to get all this food. Thank
you, though."
"So, when are we gonna watch this video?" Karl excitedly asked as he
plopped down on the couch in front of her computer.
"Now, I was just about to open the email," Leonie replied, sitting
back down on her chair and opening the file that was marked "Good
Times." The video inside started to play.
"Hey guys!" Faith and Darren said together from their king sized bed
in the large white room. "We are having a blast here in Chicago,"
Faith continued. "Leo, thanks so much for everything that you gave us at
the wedding. That was so nice of you. And Daniel, we can never thank you enough.
You know you'll always be our best friend in the whole world. Angi, Karl, and
Lee, you guys are awesome for setting up that party before the wedding. That was
so cool. Thank you so much."
"Right now, we're in the middle of what we'd like to call the time of our
lives! We are having so much fun just exploring Chicago and going to all the
museums and doing stuff," Darren said. "I never thought I'd say this,
but I think Chicago is so much better than San Francisco. The people here are
great. There aren't as many reporters as we thought there would be. I don't
think we've been seen even once while we've been out. What else?"
"Well, Morgan and Ben are great. So is Hope!" Faith added. "She's
right here with us in her crib." Faith walked off camera and grabbed the
baby. "See!" she said, holding Hope up for all to see. "She's so
cute, isn't she? She's growing up so big and strong. She's got one hell of a
kick. I think she's gonna grow up to be a soccer player."
"We'd better split," Darren interrupted. "We have plans tonight,
and we'd really like to get ready now. Sorry to cut this so short. We hope all
you guys are doing well and having a great time back home. We'll be sending the
wedding video and photos soon, so be looking out for those within the next few
weeks. And you'd better give a copy to my parents, otherwise someone in that
room is gonna pay. Daniel, you know what I mean."
"Bye for now, guys," Faith said. "We'll see you later!" They
waved just as the video cut out.
"That's it?" Daniel asked. "Are there anymore in your
mailbox?"
"Keep your pants on, I'm checking," Leonie replied as she refreshed
her mailbox. Another message from Darren had appeared, except this time there
was no heading. Opening it, the second video began to play. This time, only
Darren, Morgan, and Ben were in the shot. They all had somber, almost grave
faces and red eyes. Leonie knew something was very wrong before either of them
began to speak.
Darren reached out of camera range and picked up a sheet of paper from another
table then started to read. "Dear Leo, Daniel, Angi, Karl, and Lee. We
regret to inform you that Faith died in her sleep this morning at 6:18 AM . .
." He paused for a moment as a tear dripped down his cheek and fell on the
paper. "We didn't have the heart to call you and tell you because we knew
it would be impossible to carry on a conversation without crying, so we opted
for the video instead. I know that today is my one month anniversary and that
its ironic she died today, but at least I had a month with her before she went.
We should all be glad for the time we spent with her. Faith was a wonderful
person."
Morgan stopped him as he started to cry. "The funeral will be held this
Saturday from one to three in the afternoon at the Western Chicago
Cemetery," she said. Looking over at Darren, she added, "Again, we're
all sorry to break the news to you. Believe me, if we called, you wouldn't be
able to hear a word we said. We've been crying all morning and all afternoon.
This is the most composure we've had all day. We'd better get going now before
we start crying in front of the camera. Please give us a day to get all this
emotion out of our systems before you call us. Bye, everybody. See you
Saturday."
The camera cut off suddenly as Leonie, Daniel, Lee, Angi, and Karl all stared at
the blank screen in front of them. All five were shocked by the news. Leonie
rested her head on her hand, but was soon crying when reality hit her. Daniel
wrapped his arms around her shoulders to comfort her. Karl stood up and walked
out of the room, as did Angi. Lee stayed behind still trying to get everything
to process.
"This is so unfair. Just a few minutes ago, they were the happiest couple
in the world, and now Faith is dead. This kind of thing isn't supposed to happen
to someone like that," Leonie cried. "I feel horrible right now, but I
don't even wanna know what Darren's going through. I know whatever we feel must
be ten times worse for him, Morgan, and Ben."
"I know," Daniel replied, trying his best to comfort her feelings
along with his. "I know. But look at this way; at least Faith isn't in any
more pain. She's at peace now."
Leonie started to cry harder with Daniel's explanation. He tightened her grip
around her trying to keep his own feelings back, but soon the barrier broke, and
he too was tearing up. They cried together as Lee, Karl, and Angi returned to
the room, their faces splashed with the tears they had shed.
"I think we'd better call and tell everybody that doesn't know," Karl
suggested as he picked up the phone beside Leonie's desk.
"Hold on, we'll just send this. Like they said, it'll be hard to keep
composed on the phone," Leonie replied as she pressed the forward button on
the email.
Chapter 31: Final Will and Testament
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