by Phil Cocker
death.” Sighing very heavily, she trudged over to the door. “Damn!” Thumping the door frame she then noticed that Emma Peterson was standing there, her hand still over her mouth, tears filling her eyes. Doctor Taylor merely patted her on the shoulder saying, “So very, very sorry.” She gulped as her eyes flashed to the adjacent doorway. “Please tell Eric that I did all I could.”
“I know.” Emma Peterson replied through a veil of tears.
Bang !
Eric was released from hospital, and returned home the day after, nothing could console him after the tragic loss of his best friend. They’d been so close, never more than 3 streets away, even recently having holidays with each others families. He returned to a bedroom full of memories, from the football that sat peacefully in a corner, to the posters of the same films they’d enjoyed many times adorning the walls.
Halfway through the second day, in the midst of a terribly angry fit of mourning; he ripped all the posters off the walls, tearing them into many pieces, his eyes not being able to focus because of the tears.
Emma Peterson had heard the anger being released, knowing this moment would happen, and simply walked into his bedroom and hugged him till he calmed down, not being able to understand a single word through his rants and sobs, but completely knowing what he meant, and what his loss was. It had hurt both of them in similar and also different ways. Both had been reminded of who’d they’d lost 2 years previously, and the anger that they had felt then welled back up again.
The next week raced by as Tom’s funeral was held on a day of very mixed weather. In a very strange way Eric was grateful that he’d been hurt and had spent time in hospital, as that meant he’d not had to go to school and see everyone else, but he was also angry that his accident had robbed him of the now very precious memories of the last 2 weeks of being with his best friend.
The loss of his friend was devastating, and he struggled to come to terms with it. Even though it had been 2 years since his dad had died, there was now Tom. At 12 years old, his dad had been the first person who was very close to him who had died, and it had taken a very long time to realise that he was never coming back. There were countless times when he would walk into the house and not see Simon Peterson sat in his chair, or hear him in the garage singing his head off to old 80’s Rock bands, and that had been the most difficult aspect of his loss to come to terms with. His Dad’s Subaru Impreza, with its distinctive big bore exhaust had sold very quickly, and not hearing it reverse up the drive every evening was something so simple, yet something he’d missed so dearly.
It had been a very strange learning experience which had taken a long time to recover from.
Dead meant forever.
Yet this time was a lot harder as he knew from the moment his Mum had walked back into his hospital room, that his friend was never coming back. He understood clearly that he’d never see him again, ever.
The initial couple of days after the funeral passed by slowly. There was nothing Eric could do that didn't remind him of what he'd lost. This feeling continued throughout the first week, which was the hardest to come to terms with. Yet, even after all of this, he eventually started to realise that he had to face the world, and grow from this loss. Accepting that everyone would die sometime, and some would be taken away with tragic consequences, and especially when they were so young and full of life, was difficult, but it was a part of life.
The biggest and most difficult lesson Eric learnt from all that had occurred was very simple; life goes on.
With his mother’s guidance and support, he learnt that it’s not worth mourning the living, but to enjoy them while they were still there, to the full. He had to pick himself up and get on with his life, before he lost it to remorse and doubt. Emma Peterson told him to mourn the loss of his friend and his Dad, but to never forget that he to live his own life again, and to the fullest of his abilities.
It still took a huge amount of courage to step out of the front door to go to the shops, or to walk down to the bridge and see his other friends, all of whom were also mourning the loss, and together, they started to help each other through it. After another week, Eric turned to his Mum one evening and told her that he had finally decided he was able to return to school.
Two weeks after they’d buried Tom, Eric was starting to get nearer his old self, although he still had days where he had regressed into a world of pain, it would take a lot longer as he would always feel that would be a part which would be missing. It was during one of his darker days when his Mum asked him to set off to the local shop for a few things, passing him a short hand-written list so that he didn’t forget anything.
A short, despondent huff from Eric and the cash was scrunched into a pocket. He shrugged on a hooded top, as it was a little breezy outside, and, being summer, the odd splatter of rain did more than threaten at times.
Eric zipped it up tight, pulling the hood all the way over his head, trying to hide his face as much as possible. He was having one of those days where he didn’t feel like talking to anyone on they way to the shops. With his house keys slipped into one of the hooded tops pockets, Eric set off. He turned the end of the drive and with his head down, his eyes searching half a metre ahead of him; he stomped off down the alley that ran along the side of the house at a quick pace.
He never realised that in the very next few seconds his perceptions of life, his grasp on reality as he knew it and his limited understanding of travel would all come literally crashing head-on into him with a bang. All of this would be delivered to him by a very familiar face!
The End.
I hope you enjoyed this prequel story to the Eric Peterson series of books. If you want to have a tiny taster of what happened next, to find out how Eric’s life would be come crashing down with a Bang!, you’ll have to read on, as I've included a taster chapter from the next novel in the series,
The Kylapitar