Morgue
Her phone was ringing in her pocket. Ella couldn’t ignore it, even though now seemed like an awful time to take a phone call. Aunt Genevieve was sitting next to her, bawling again, and Henry was trying to navigate driving in LA, which wasn’t all that easy for natives, let alone visitors. Ella wanted to just sit there and be quiet, but when she saw it was Bart calling, she had to take the call.
“Hello,” she said, her voice soft and serious.
“Ella?”
“Yes?”
“Hi. Uh… I have something to tell you.”
She cleared her throat. “Now isn’t really a good time. I, uh, just got some really bad news.”
“About… Tim?” Bart asked, and she could tell he didn’t want to be the one to tell her.
Not wanting to let her aunt know that the person she was talking to already knew what had happened, and not wanting for her to think Ella was willing to tell anyone what was going on, she said, “Yes… I can call you back later.”
“So you do know what happened?”
“I’m not sure what time, but that might work.”
“God, Ella, I’m so sorry. But… you should know, Rome tried to save him. They both fell in, and Rome tried to find him and pull him out, but he couldn’t.”
Ell had tears in her eyes. “That’s fine. I’ll call you when I get a chance.”
“I’m so very sorry,” he said again.
“Okay. Thanks. Bye.” She wished she could say more, that she could question him about where Rome was, how Rome was, but under the circumstances, she couldn’t.
“Who was that?” Aunt Genevieve asked between sobs.
“It was a friend who wanted to know if I could get together later. I didn’t want to say what was going on.”
“No, I appreciate that, dear.” Aunt Genevieve reached over and grabbed her hand. “I’ll need to call your Uncle Thomas, but I want to see… for myself first. I hope he doesn’t see it on the news or hear anything from anyone else before I have a chance to call him. God, I can’t even imagine what I’m going to say.”
“Do you want me to call him?” Ella asked, praying she said no. She had no idea what she would tell her uncle either. He worked a lot, and was often out of town, as he was at the moment, but he still loved Tim dearly. To think, he’d never see his son again…. Ella felt tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Oh, no, honey. That’s okay. I’ll manage to call him myself. I just… I need to see my boy first.”
It broke her heart to hear her aunt speak of him that way, as if Tim were still a little boy. She imagined he always would be to his mother. Ella wondered if they’d even be allowed to see him considering he’d been pulled from the water. Would he look like himself? Or someone--something--else?
Henry pulled the car up outside of the morgue, and Genevieve immediately started crying again. Thinking she needed to be strong for her aunt, Ella took a deep breath. “Come on, Aunt Gen. We can do this… together.”
Her aunt nodded, and when Henry opened her car door, she got out. Ella walked around the front of the car and looped her arm through her aunt’s, praying they were both strong enough to do this.
It seemed to take forever to make it up the walkway, up the steps, and through the door. The second they walked in, Aunt Genevieve started sobbing, and Henry pulled her against his shoulder. That left Ella to tell the woman at the window what they were doing there.
“Can I help you?” a blonde, busty woman who seemed annoyed asked.
“Yes, I’m Ella V-- uh, Sinders--and this is my Aunt Genevieve Bolt. We are here to see… my cousin, Tim Bolt. Has he been brought in yet?”
“Not sure.” The woman’s face and tone did not soften. “Just a minute, please.”
Ella nodded, noting she’d have to be more careful about not using her married name. She’d been practicing it so much lately, she’d almost said it just then.
A few minutes later, a technician came to get them. Ella had never done anything like this before, so she had no idea how it worked. They followed the man in a lab coat down a long, stark, narrow hallway. Behind some of the other doors, Ella heard crying and sobbing. It seemed like someone was screaming in the distance. She wondered if that would be Aunt Gen in a few moments.
The man opened a door and the two women walked in, Henry insisting he’d wait outside. Ella couldn’t blame him. She wanted to wait outside, too.
There he was. A white sheet covered the outline of Tim’s tall, muscular body, but Ella knew it was him even before the technician walked over. “He has some discoloration because of the water,” he said in a quiet voice.
Aunt Genevieve wiped her eyes with the same tattered tissue she’d been using since they’d left the house, and as the tech brought the sheet down, revealing Tim’s face, she broke into horrific sobs, throwing herself on her son’s still chest. Ella put her hand on Aunt Gen’s back as tears cascaded down her face.
The technician looked at Ella with wide eyes, as if he already knew the answer to his unspoken question but needed to make sure.
“That’s him,” Ella confirmed. “That’s my cousin, Tim Bolt.”
The tech nodded and stepped back. “Take your time.”
Down the hall, Ella could make out what the woman she’d heard earlier was screaming now, and it broke her heart. “Mark! Mark! Dear God, why?”
Ella wished she didn’t have an answer to that question, but to a degree, she did. This had happened because of her--because she wanted to be with Rome. If her husband hadn’t been trying so hard to get their two families to get along, he wouldn’t have pushed to be in the movie with Tim, and Mark probably wouldn’t have been in it either, which meant they never would’ve been on the same boat together with Tim.
“Why?” she thought to herself. “Because I love Rome. And now two innocent people are dead.” She prayed no one else would die, but she wondered how in the world they could ever be together now. If anything, this would drive the two sides further apart than ever.
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