Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

Edward

I couldn’t sleep. It was pointless to even close my eyes and try. I felt like such a failure as I sat next to Bella’s sleeping form, replaying the scene of Bella breaking her ankle in my mind. I shouldn’t have even let her run in the forest. She’d told me multiple times how clumsy she was, and even though I’d taken her seriously, I never thought her lack of coordination could cause this.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. From what I could tell, the break wasn’t terrible, but the fact still remained that Bella was now in pain, and I had nothing to fix it. I would have to wait on her hand and foot now, and even though I didn’t mind, I wasn’t sure if I even could. What if another storm passed? I couldn’t just haul her to the grotto. And our measly excuse for shelter--the spot where the trees covered us from the rain--would be no means to protect us in that situation. We were really screwed now. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did just that.

I looked up at the sky. Do you really hate us that much, I thought, . The only good thing that’s come out of this horrible ordeal is the fact that I actually met her. I looked back down at her angelic, heart-shaped face. My body was really worn out, my eyes closing of their own accord. I tried once again to sleep, but even though I was tired, my mind wouldn’t stop.

Hours passed, and I still lay there next to Bella, and the sun started to make its presence known. I wondered how today would go, whether it would be twice as hard as usual, or if we would get on just fine, considering the new circumstances. I laced my hands together and put them behind my head, waiting for Bella to wake up.

Another hour passed, and the sun lightened up the sky with dawn. I guessed it to be about seven, and was just about to get up and find breakfast when I heard the most peculiar sound. It was very faint and far away, but I knew I wasn’t imagining it. Another plane? I thought warily. If it was indeed a plane, and it passed us up, I didn’t know what I would do. I would probably go crazy for good this time. I sat up and looked at the sky. The trees clouded my view, so I got up and walked onto the clear sand. I scrunched my eyes, wishing I had a pair of binoculars to see farther. I looked all around the sky, searching. The sound was stronger now, and I knew it was closer. Hope filled me instantly, especially when I could make out the small dot far away. I didn’t know what it was, but it was something. I waited a few more seconds, holding my breath nervously. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, and I tried not to blink, afraid that if I would close my eyes, it would disappear.

It wasn’t a bird. It wasn’t a plane. It was a helicopter. The sound of the main rotor blades hitting the air loudly was like heaven to my ears. The closer the copter came to the island, the more hopeful I became. It was facing me directly, to where I could see the nose and the blades only from my distance. It wasn’t only passing us, I realized--it was coming for us. When it was close enough that I was sure it wasn’t going to just leave us, I ran back to Bella. She was still sleeping; the sound wasn’t quite loud and close enough for her to be woken by it yet.

I kneeled at her side quickly, overexcited. “Bella!” I called. She didn’t move, still asleep. I shook her gently and said her name again. Her eyes opened slowly, and I beamed in delight. I pointed toward the helicopter, laughing at her confused face.

“Bella! Oh my God, look!” I told her, almost shaking with all the emotions running though me. Bella grabbed her chest and tried to get up. I pushed her back down, and she stared at the helicopter in the sky as I picked her up. She made a few noncommittal noises as I carried her hurriedly though the trees.

“Please tell me I’m not dreaming, Edward,” she whispered finally, still looking at the sky. I pinched her leg playfully and she yelped.

“Nope. Not dreaming,” I told her happily. She smiled so wide and gripped me tightly around my neck, still not looking away from the helicopter. I set her down in the sand and stood. The copter finally reached us, the force of the blades blowing our hair and bits of sand and the trees. It was very loud, but seeing the words “Coast Guard” warmed me enough to not even notice. It lowered close to the ground, only about fifteen feet in the air before stopping. It couldn’t land fully because there wasn’t enough room on the sand. A rope came out of the bottom and a huge man in a red uniform came sliding down onto the ground about ten feet away from us. He was still wearing a headset from the helicopter, and when he faced us, I could see he was of Native American descent. He had very dark skin and cropped black hair, and he was so big that I was surprised he didn’t weigh the whole copter down. He ran over to us, taking in the way I held Bella on the ground. He looked at our attire in confusion.

“My name is Jacob Black, and I’m a member of the United States Coast Guard. We got a call about a week ago saying there was an SOS on an uncharted island. I’m sorry it took us so long to find you, but without having coordinates of this place, it took us forever to locate it,” he yelled in a deep voice, loud enough for me to hear him over the sound of the blades. I nodded and was about to tell him that we were survivors of a plane crash two months ago, but he started again.

“Can she walk? What happened?” he asked, nodding towards Bella.

“She has a broken ankle,” I told him.

He nodded at me and bent down to get Bella’s attention. “I’m going to get a stretcher down here so we can get you into the helicopter. Are you okay with that?” She nodded her head and smiled. He smiled back, and even though we were about to be saved, I scowled at the way he looked at her. He ran back to the rope and started talking to the people inside the copter through his headset, telling them to let down a stretcher.

Bella looked up at me, and I gave her a warming smile, gripping her hand and kissing it.

This is really happening, she mouthed at me. We watched as a cage was lowered down, holding a stretcher. As Jacob grabbed hold of it and got it ready, I picked Bella up and carried her closer. The pressure from the blades made Bella’s hair go crazy in my face, and I was sputtering pieces out of my mouth. She laughed loudly, and I found the sound contagious. We erupted in short hysterics. At that moment, anything would have been funny because we were finally being saved. I think we just wanted a reason to laugh and act happy.

I set a still-grinning Bella onto the stretcher and Jacob shooed me away so he could strap her in. Seeing Jacob in his clean uniform with Bella right next to him in next to nothing, her only clothes filthy and torn, made me think again how hard it was going to be in the real world. Jacob Black was the first person we had seen in what felt like forever, and this moment would be forever burned in my brain. Bella’s long hair fanned out against the white sheet under her. Her dirty clothes stained the whiteness with dirt and sand. The straps came over her chest, stomach, and knees, and she was instructed not to move. She looked from me to Jacob, and then to the helicopter nervously. I watched as Jacob latched her stretcher to the cage and signaled for the people above to lift them up. Bella clenched her eyes and did as she was told. I held my breath, fearing the worse--that they would drop her.

Five minutes later, she was safe inside the copter, and I was still on the ground. Jacob started to lower himself back down to come for me. I looked from under the helicopter to the rippling water that seemed to go on for ages. I looked around at the white sand and the trees, committing it to memory.

Everything that happened here, every touch, kiss, moment that Bella and I experienced here, ran though my mind. The first time we kissed, the first fire I lit for us, climbing the trees with her, catching fish, swimming naked together, making love for the first time just a few feet from where I stood now…it was all coming back to me. We would never experience any of that again. We wouldn’t need each other like we did.

Then all of the bad moments replayed in my mind--Bella running from me and getting lost in the rain, Bella having nightmares, Bella calling me a pervert, Bella breaking her ankle, Bella crying because the plane left us, and finally, Bella letting go of me in the water during the storm and nearly drowning. The image of her pale face under the water, her hair flowing upward as she sank lower--my falling angel--would never be forgotten. I would give anything to never have to go through that feeling again, the feeling of complete loss and uselessness.

This island was beautiful, and we made really great memories on it. It was our destiny to find each other this way and fall in love while stranded, but it was time for us to go. We needed to make more memories elsewhere, happier memories.

I looked back at the helicopter as Jake was running toward me again. He asked me if there were any others on the island, and I told him no. He strapped me to the rope and told me to hold on. I complied, and we were both pulled to the top.

Once inside, I walked to Bella, who was still on the stretcher, ignoring everyone else. A splint had been put on her ankle for the moment until she could get medical assistance. She looked up at me and gripped my hand again. We both looked out the window at the island getting smaller as we flew away.

We were both given a headset to block out the loud sound, and I could see tears leaking from Bella’s eyes. I wiped them away with my thumb. She bit her lip and said, “I’m going to miss it.” I nodded my head and mouthed, Me too.

When the island was completely out of view, I looked around at the others, who had been pretty silent so far. I realized they were probably trying to give us a few short minutes of privacy before questioning us. Three of them were Native American, just like Jacob, but I couldn’t tell what the pilot looked like with his back to me.

One of the men started talking to me though the headset. His name was Sam.

“Do you mind telling me how you got on that island?” he asked.

“We survived a plane crash two months ago. We were Flight 1107 from Voyage Airlines on our way to France,” I explained. Sam’s eyes widened.

“Are you two the only survivors?” he asked next. I nodded.

“I don’t think anyone else made it.”

Sam looked to the others. “The press is going to have a field day.” They nodded in agreement, and Bella and I looked at each other.

“What are your names?” Sam asked, getting my attention again.

“I’m Edward Cullen, and she’s Bella Swan,” I told him. He wrote down our names and asked if we were related or if we had any family members on the plane. Then he asked where we were from, and when Bella said she was from Florida, he said that we would land there so she could go to a hospital and call her family. I could call my family, too, and Sam said he would get someone to book me a plane to Chicago.

“NO!” Bella and I both shouted at the same time. Sam jumped in surprise at our outburst. “No planes, please,” I amended.

“Oh, sorry,” he muttered.

We spent another two hours in the helicopter before we finally saw land. Bella sighed happily when Jacob pointed down and announced we were almost in Tampa.

We landed on top of a hospital, like in the movies, and people rushed toward us to get Bella out of the helicopter. They got her out first, and she tried to remain calm, keeping her eyes on me. I held her hand until we were at the doors, and a woman tried to push me away from her. Sam explained our situation to the doctors, and I wanted to tell them that I was a doctor, and I knew that Bella wasn’t in any immediate danger with only a broken ankle and being a bit under weight, but I knew that they wouldn’t listen to me since I was really only an intern. The woman kept pushing me away, however, and telling me that they needed to bring Bella in separately. I wasn’t happy about that.

“No, I don’t want to be away from her,” I said. I probably sounded really pathetic, but I didn’t care. I hadn’t been away from her in two months, and I didn’t want to start now. I was afraid that if they took her out of my sight, I would never see her again. I knew that since I wasn’t related to her or married to her, they didn’t have to give me any information or let me see her. I started to panic, especially when Bella looked up at me with scared eyes. She didn’t want to be away from me, either.

Sam held me back, though, stopping me from going after her. They rolled her through the doors, out of my line of vision.

I turned to Sam. “Why are they doing this? A broken ankle doesn’t require all this rushing.”

He shrugged. “Well, you two were on an island for a long time. They’ll want to check for diseases, and we told them we were coming with two victims of a plane crash. It’s understandable that they would be on high alert. Just wait till this gets around the country. I remember when they announced on the news that the plane had crashed. It was…absolutely horrible. We even went looking for the…remains, and couldn’t find anything. It was like the plane just disappeared.”

A man came up to me and told me to follow him. “It sank pretty fast, from what I can remember,” I said. Sam grimaced.

“They’re going to want the whole story,” he said before I was pulled though the doors and into the hospital. I wasn’t even paying attention to where I was being led to. I just kept looking for Bella, desperate to see her. People stared at me as I walked through the halls. I was still only in the ragged, dirty shorts, and my hair was still full of sand and other things. I must have really looked like a swamp monster to everyone. Plus, it was freezing in this hospital, and I hadn’t known the comfort of an air conditioner in the longest time. It was so surreal, walking here with people all around me. Just this morning, Bella and I had been together, and I was worrying about how we would manage our predicament with her fractured ankle. I covered my chest as I walked, trying to ignore the stares and whispers of people who didn’t know me and didn’t know what Bella and I had gone through. The man leading me took me to an empty room and gave me a clean white shirt and pants. He showed me to a shower and told me to get cleaned up so they could run a few tests. Apparently I was too filthy for anything right now, or maybe I just stunk.

I did as I was told, wondering if they were asking Isabella to do the same thing at that particular moment. Turning the knob for hot water, I remembered how I had really wanted my first bath to be with Bella. I had wanted to wash her clean and have her do the same for me. Instead, I was alone in this small hospital shower. I hurried anxiously, hoping that if I was fast enough, they would let me see Bella and make sure she was okay.

When I got out, dressed and feeling clean, but still not quite satisfied since it wasn’t a shared experience with my Bella, I found the same man waiting for me on the bed closest to me. I guessed he was a nurse by the way he was dressed. Or maybe he was an intern like me. It didn’t really matter, but I was trying not to focus on how mad I was that they weren’t letting me see my girl.

“You’re going to have to fill this out for me, and if you give me a family member’s name and number, I’ll call for you,” he said. He handed me a clipboard with papers, and I gave him Carlisle’s name and number. When he left the room, I sat on the bed and started filling out the papers.

I wondered what they would tell Carlisle. Why wouldn’t they let me call him? And what would Carlisle think? Would he think someone was playing a crude joke on him and simply hang up? I wasn’t sure. My “death” may have really shaken up the family. What if he believed it? I could imagine him telling Esme, and then they would rush here to see me and take me home. I could be with my family in only a few hours, and we would hug and cry and embrace. My mom would tell me she was never letting me out of her sight again, and we would laugh and be happy.

Bella….I suddenly thought. I wasn’t going home without her. My gut did a flip at the thought of her parents coming here. Surely, they would call her family and they would come straight away. What if they took her home, and I never got to see her again. I didn’t have any way of reaching her.

I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down. I knew her full name, and I knew her parents’ names, and I even knew her address. It wouldn’t be hard to find her, even if--Heaven forbid--we got separated. I took comfort in that, and tried to finish the paperwork.

When I finished, I pushed the nurse button like the man had asked me to. I found it strange that I was ordered to sit in here instead of a waiting room. Did they really think I was diseased enough to corrupt the hospital? I mean, I had been on an island, not in a brothel.

The nurse man came quickly, and he led me down a hall. Workers in scrubs stared at me again as we walked. The man told me his name was Andy, and that I needed to have a blood test and a physical.

“Do you know if I’ll get to see Bella?” I asked him. He looked at me curiously. “The girl that was rescued with me,” I explained.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what they’re doing with her, probably running more tests than you since she broke her ankle. We haven’t been able to get in touch with either of your families, but we’ll keep trying. When everything with her is done, and she asks for you, I’m sure they’ll let you see each other,” Andy said. I nodded, and he asked for another number they might be able to reach, so I gave him Esme’s cell. It was strange that Carlisle wouldn’t answer his phone, but I didn’t dwell on that at the moment.

I did my physical, and then Andy said he would fetch me later for my blood test. Esme hadn’t answered her phone, either, so I told him to just wait, and that I would try later. Again, instead of putting me in a waiting room, he brought me to wait in that empty room again. I lost my composure and asked what the hell was going on.

He sighed. “The news is all over this already. Our phones have been ringing off the hook since word got out that survivors from the crash came to this hospital. No one can believe that you two actually lived, and the press is trying to get pictures and the story from you and Bella. The waiting room isn’t safe for you right now, and we put you in here for privacy. Unless you want to be interrogated by them…” he added.

Oh. I felt like an asshole. I shook my head and apologized.

“Our security is trying to get a hold of the situation, and hopefully by the time you leave, there won’t be anyone to attack you for information. There will be some officers in here later to question you about everything, though. I hope you don’t mind talking to them. They just need to know the whole story.”
After I agreed, Andy left me in the room and said he would be back shortly to escort me to get my blood tests. I sat down on the little white bed and wondered where in the hell Isabella was in this hospital. She was near, I could just feel it, and I wished I could run to her. We’d only been apart maybe an hour, and I was already going insane.

I walked over to the window, curious. Opening the blinds, I saw newscast vans parked in the large lot, people swarming everywhere, probably trying to get the scoop. I wondered how long it would take for the news to reach my parents. Why weren’t they answering their phones, anyway? My mom always answered her phone, and Carlisle usually picked up unknown calls because he got so many being that he was a doctor. I closed the blinds and turned away, frustrated. What was so important that they were ignoring the most important call probably in my whole life?

Ten minutes later Andy showed up again and took me to the little office where a woman was taking blood tests. I wondered if Bella had been tested yet, and suddenly found hope that she would be in the room with me for that. I was sorely disappointed, though, when I saw the other chairs around the room empty. I groaned and sat down. I fucking hated giving blood. It was the only thing in the world that had ever managed to make me weak enough to pass out.

“Please get this over with, and don’t miss the vein,” I barked at the woman. She glared at me for a second before tying the band around my upper arm. I really didn’t even care about being polite anymore; I just wanted to see Bella, bring her home, shave, bathe, and have sexy time. Was that too much to ask for?

Feeling sluggish, I walked back to the stupid room. Andy piped questions at me, but the only one I heard was whether I wanted food. I nodded vigorously at him and he assured me he would try to get me something. The man probably felt sorry for me or something for being stuck on an island. I didn’t think I looked like a skinny barbarian, but that was how I was being treated.

I put my head down on the pillow of the bed. It was so soft, and memories of my own pillow came back to me. I couldn’t wait to go home. And now I wouldn’t feel so lonely in that huge house anymore. Bella would be with me, and we could start our lives over.

I just hoped my parents hadn’t sold my house already.

Exhaustion was starting to take over, and my eyes drooped. I let sleep take me.

A female nurse came in some time later and woke me up. She gave me a plate of nasty hospital food and juice. She informed me that she was going to get the police to come in for a few minutes so I could explain what had happened. I drank the disgusting apple juice while waiting.

Ugh. Just when I think I’m finally going to get away from eating fruit nonstop, they give me fucking apple juice. I think I’d rather just starve. At least the hospital I interned at had better food.

I wondered if Bella was eating the food they were giving her. Was she thinking of how much she’d rather have fish right now? I chuckled at the thought of her thinking about me while I was thinking about nothing but her.

A knock on the door notified me that the officers were here. It was the Chief of Police of the city, and he introduced himself as Marcus Harold. He asked me what flight I had been on and what airline. I knew that he was just following protocol--everyone knew what plane had crashed and where we were headed.

When he asked how we survived, I told him how neither Bella nor I had been buckled at the time, and how when we started to go down, I grabbed her and held onto the most stable thing I could find. It was hard to remember every detail, and when I thought of how the people had screamed and shook, I shivered. The actual crash hadn’t affected me much while on the island. I never really thought about how many lives were lost. Now I felt incredibly selfish for never even giving it a thought.

“I remember when we hit water, the plane started to fill up from the nose, and we were at the back of the plane, so we had a minute to figure out what to do. Well, I had a minute; Bella had passed out already. Everyone else was still buckled in, and even if they were still conscious, the water wasn’t letting them unbuckle to get out. The left wing had been ripped off near us, so there was a big gap. When the water reached my feet, I swam to the gap and got out of the plane. The pressure of it sinking pulled me down, but I managed to keep upright in the water and kick up. Then I reached the surface,” I said, drifting off.

“And there were no others? No one else came up after you?” he asked. I shook my head. “Tell me how you found the island.”

“We drifted all that night and the whole next day. We finally spotted the land at sunset the next day and we swam to it. And the rest is history.”

“Why were you going to France? Business? Pleasure?”

“My sister was getting married there, and I was on my way to the wedding,” I whispered. He nodded and tucked away the little pad of paper he had been writing everything on.

“Well, Mr. Cullen, your story matches Miss Swan’s account of what happened. I understand you two had never met before this ordeal?”

“No.” He had already talked to Bella?

“You’re both very lucky. From what I understand, the plane had almost two hundred passengers.”

“So you’ve talked to Bella? How is she?” I asked. He looked at the nurse and said that he couldn’t relay information about her condition to me. I rolled my eyes as he thanked me and walked out.

A few minutes later, the nurse was still in my room, seemingly debating something. She sat on the edge of my bed and I looked at her curiously. She looked back at me piteously and hesitated.

“Please don’t tell anyone I told you, but I think you have a right to know this, okay?” she asked in a whisper, as if she were afraid there were cameras around. I scrunched my brows in confusion before she continued.

“That girl, Bella,…she’s going to be fine. She fractured her fibula, and it’s out of place, so they’re going to give her surgery tomorrow. Other than that, she’s just slightly underweight, as are you. I didn’t catch the whole story, but I think the doctor is going to give her some iron supplements. She’s sleeping right now, from what I’ve heard,” the woman said. I sighed in relief; Bella was okay.

“What about our blood test results?” I asked.

“Those should be in by tomorrow morning. They want you to stay here until tomorrow, but I don’t know when they’re going to let Bella out.”

“Thank you. I really appreciate you telling me this. I won’t tell anyone you blabbed,” I promised.

“So you haven’t gotten in touch with anyone?” she asked me next. I shook my head.

“Try using my phone. I get free calls after nine at night.” She handed me her cell and I freaked out at the fact that it was after nine already.

I dialed my mom’s cell first, but it went straight to voicemail. Then I dialed Carlisle’s and it rang, but he never picked up. I knew that they didn’t even know how to check their voicemail, so I didn’t bother leaving one. I called the house phone next, and after three rings, someone finally picked up.

“Hello?” the sweet voice of my parent’s live-in-maid said.

“Mrs. Cope! Are my parents around? I’ve been calling their cells, but no one’s answering!” I said frantically.

“Emmett? Are you sleep calling again? Are you intoxicated? Sweetie, this behavior needs to stop,” she said firmly. What the hell? I thought. Mrs. Cope knew my voice; she’d been like my grandmother for the last seven years.

Oh. Until I died.

“No, Mrs. Cope! It’s me, Edward! Remember that plane crash? I’m not dead! I lived, and now I’m back. I’m at a hospital in Florida, and I really need to talk to my parents!” I practically yelled. It was quiet for nearly a whole minute before she spoke again.

“Emmett, really…this is not funny,” she said sternly.

“No! It’s me, I swear, Mrs. Cope! Ask me anything and I’ll prove it to you! My first car, my favorite shirt that you accidentally turned pink and told me not to tell anyone…it’s me, Edward! C’mon, you know my voice!”

“Edward?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes! It’s me, I promise, I promise!”

“Where are you again?” she asked.

“I’m at a hospital in Tampa Bay. I’ve been on an island the last two months, and I was saved this morning. I need to talk to Mom and Dad.” I was so happy that she was finally believing me.

“You’re alive! Oh, Edward!” Then she was silent for a few seconds. “Oh, no, Honey. Everyone’s in France again. Alice rescheduled her wedding, and it’s in three days!”

My heart dropped then. No one was even in the states to know what had happened. They weren’t answering their phones because they were probably too busy getting everything in order for the wedding.

“Edward? Edward?” Mrs. Cope called, getting my attention.

“Yes, Mrs. Cope, I’m still here,” I said flatly.

“Tell me exactly where you are, and I’ll get take the first plane to get you. Are you hurt, dear? Are you going to be okay? You sound fine, but I can’t be sure,” she said.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” I let out a breath and gave her directions to the hospital. She told me she would be there early the next day, and we hung up.

I decided I would try one more time with my parent’s phones. It was pointless again, so I tried Emmett’s

After two rings, I heard the phone click, and Rose’s voice flooded my ear.

“Hello?” Finally, I might be getting somewhere.

“Rose, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need you to listen before you hang up, okay?” I pleaded.

“Who is this?” she asked angrily. Why couldn’t Emmett have picked up instead?

“It’s Edward, listen--”

“Edward?” she cut me off.

“Yes--”

She cut me off again. “Look, I don’t know what kind of sick fuck you think you are, but this isn’t funny. My husband is still fucked up over what happened, and you think you can prank call him about it? Fuck you!” And she hung up.

I sighed and gave the nurse back her phone.

“Sorry,” she said. She left and I was alone in the room for the rest of the night, aggravated and pissed off.


(three days later)

Alice



I stared at my reflection in the floor to ceiling length mirror, ignoring the constant chatter of my bridesmaids. My dress was a Vera Wang, the most beautiful one I had seen almost a year ago now. The beading was very intricate, making subtle patterns from the top to the waistline, where it bunched up into many pearls. It was very poofy, not something I would normally pick because of my height, but when I put it on for the first time, I just knew.

I looked up to my face, which seemed to have bloomed worry lines over the last two months alone. This was supposed to be a happy day, the happiest day of my life. I was getting married to the man I loved more than anything in the entire world.

The green eyes in the mirror matched the ones of my brother. The brother that was supposed to be here.


“What’s wrong, honey?” my mom asked, laying a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me. No bride was supposed to be frowning like this.

“Edward,” I explained, fighting the tears back. “I wish he was here.”

My mom hugged me tightly, trying to keep her chest away from mine in fear of damaging the dress. “Me, too, Sweetheart. But even though he’s not here doesn’t mean he’s not going to see his baby sister get married.” She kissed my cheek and pulled away.

“And no one’s going to eat the fancy shrimp poppers that will be served. I got them especially for Edward because he’s the only one who actually likes them,” I said sadly.

Mom laughed. “I bet he’s eating as many shrimp poppers as he likes right now.” She laughed at loud at a memory. “I remember when he first started at the hospital--he wanted me to pack him a lunch and send it with your father every day just so he wouldn’t have to eat the hospital’s food. His first day, I sent him some of that, and he called me during his break to thank me and asked if we had any more at the house.” She laughed some more and wiped a tear from her eyes.

“Your brother is probably scowling at us right now for teasing him,” she continued.

“Yeah,” I agreed. I would give anything to see that grumpy-but-humorous face of his again.

“Remember when I told him I was getting married?” I asked her.

She chuckled. “Oh, yes. He threw a fit, especially when I asked him when he was going to get married.” She sighed, reminiscing. “I would have loved to see that crazy hair of his on a grandchild.” She shook her head, fighting tears. “You know, the first day I went grocery shopping after his…death…I went straight to the aisle with Vienna sausage because it was something I bought for him every time. He always did like the weirdest foods, your brother. Anyway, I picked up a can and was about to put it in the buggy, and I stopped and remembered that I didn’t need to buy it anymore. I started sobbing when I set the can back down on the shelf, and your father and I just starved for the next week because I couldn’t bear to go out again.”

I was taken aback at my mother’s admission. She looked at me sadly, but placed a smile on her face. “And then I realized something very important. Edward would not want me and your father to suffer because of what happened. We mourn him, yes, but he would not want us to be miserable. And he wouldn’t want you to be crying on your wedding day. I’m sure that wherever he is, he wishes he could be here. And I bet he would do anything possible to see his sister get married,” she finished. I smiled at her, realizing she was right.

“Ladies, line up!” someone called from the door to the dressing room. It was time to go down the aisle. It was time to start our future.





All pictures are taken from either Google or Deviantart.