I woke up to the sound of my mom telling me it was time to get up. I groaned and rolled out of bed at my grandma’s house. We packed up all of our stuff and got in the car and started to drive back home. It was around 7.
My mom and I passed the fields where the deer were roaming 12 hours earlier. I noticed that the fields were empty with only the morning sunlight shining upon the ground. It looked almost peaceful, like I could lay there all day. We finally pulled into our driveway, inching up the blacktop ever so carefully. I was hesitant to open my car door as I had a gut feeling that this day would not be good. Finally, I gained the courage and pulled the handle and swung my feet out onto the driveway. I closed my door and opened the back door and gathered up my things. I looked at my mom as she looked at me. We were ready. I shut the door and walked into the already open garage. We turned the handle of the door and it opened, greeting us was Buffy, our dog, and she lead us through the back office. We took off our shoes and walked through the hallway and into the kitchen. I placed my things on the table and then heard a door opening. Out of the hallway came my dad with a guilty look on his face. My heart quickened, then he said hello to me and hugged me tight, giving me a kiss on my forehead.
“I’m so glad you're home,” he said.
“Me too,” I agreed. He smiled at me, then looked past my shoulder where my mom stood. He nodded his head towards our back patio at her and they walked out the back door and sat in the lawn chairs on the deck to talk through why we left the night before. At that moment I heard footsteps in the hallway. I looked to see a very sleepy Ben emerge already dressed for the day. He said hello to me and took his spot on the couch opening up his IPad and going right to Minecraft. I turned on the TV and joined him, opening my IPad also. A little while later I noticed that Ben had left his seat. While I was standing to my feet I heard barking coming from my parents room. I walked down the hallway and into their room and saw my brother, my dog and my dad all laying on the bed. My dad sometimes liked to pretend to growl at my dog, which then prompts her to bark back in defense. I hopped onto the bed and sat down by the tail of my dog, which was wagging erratically. We all just sat like this for what seemed like 30 minutes. Just us, happy. Like yesterday never even happened. Then, it was over. My dad got up from the bed and started to get ready to go to work. He picked out a nice orange checkered button-up shirt with nice khakis and laid it out on the bed. My brother and I left the room then so he could change and returned to our spots on the couch with our IPads. “Why are you guys always on your IPads? Why not be social with your family?” My dad asked my brother and I. We shrugged our shoulders and went back to whatever we were doing that seemed to be of such more importance. After a while my dad emerged from the hallway all ready to go to work for the day. He walked up to my spot on the couch; I could see he was about to say goodbye. He hugged me and said, “Goodbye cricket, I love you so much. You could not even believe how much I love you.” He seemed to almost be crying when he said these words, which scared me a little. He held me for a few more seconds then he let go and walked over to Ben and did the same thing to him. Then he was gone. He pulled his car out of the driveway and left. I went back to watching TV and playing a game on my IPad. About 15 minutes after my dad left the phone started to ring. I got up from my seat and walked over to the red homephone and lifted it up and pressed the button labeled, TALK. “Hello?” I said into the receiver.
“Hi Ali! Can you please give the phone to Mom?” My dad said seriously yet calm.
“Sure! Bye dad!” I said with enthusiasm.
“Bye cricket.” He said. I walked into my mom’s room and handed the phone to her telling her that it was Dad. I walked out of the room and back to my spot on the couch and sat down. About five minutes later my mom emerged from the hallway and walked across the entrance to the living room into the kitchen. She was saying the date of her birthday into the phone. She stopped midway and asked me to call my dad to see where he was. At this point I was suspicious. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed his number but it went right to voice mail. I decided to go see what was going on. I got to my feet and walked to where my mom was located.
“Mom, what's going on?” I asked her. She looked at me with tired, panicked eyes and said,
“Dad is missing. He's not answering his phone and I don’t know where he is.” I looked at her and could feel my heart in my stomach.
“He’s okay though, right? What did he say on the phone?” I asked frantically.
“He said that he loves me and then he hung up,” she said calmly. I looked at her and then looked at the ground.
“Did you call the police? They can help,” I suggested.
“Yes I did. They are looking for him right now. Don’t worry, honey. They will find him.” I said okay and then walked out of the room and back to the couch. How could I just sit here and do nothing when my dad is missing? Maybe he just needs some time to think so he turned his phone off for a while. He’ll be back tonight to make his famous noodles and tomato soup and he will call me his cricket and tell me stories like he always does. He always comes back home to us. At that moment my mom walked into the back office and into the garage, still on the phone. I got up with my phone and walked into the back office by the door that leads into the garage. I opened up my phone and scrolled to my dad’s contact and pushed call. It rang and rang for what seemed like hours, but no answer. I called again, no answer. And again, still no answer. Eventually it just stopped ringing and instead went straight to voicemail. He probably turned off his phone, I thought. I called again and decided to leave him a voicemail to try to change his mind about leaving.
“Dad, it’s Ali. Mom says you're missing. You won’t answer your phone and mom called the police because she’s so scared. I’m scared too, Daddy. I just want to know that you're safe. Ben doesn’t even know what's going on. We want to help you. We love you.” And with that I hung up. I then realized that the police were going to show up and Ben is going to be in the dark, having no idea whats going on. I had to be the one to tell him. I walked back to my spot and turned off the TV and turned to Ben.
“Ben I need to talk to you.” I told him as he took out his headphones. “Dad is missing and he's not answering his phone.” I told him. At that moment his face changed completely. He started crying his eyes out.
“Is he dead? I just know he's dead!” He sobbed.
“No Ben, he’s not dead. He most likely turned off his phone because he just needed some time to drive and think. But I need you to do something Ben,” I started as sirens wailed in the distance. “I need you to be a strong 13 year old right now and be brave, okay? This is serious, but I need you to be strong no matter what happens.” He nodded and stopped crying and looked ahead with the most mature face I have ever seen on him.
“Can I call him?” he asked me. I gave him my phone and he dialed his number.
“Dad? Please come home. I’m so scared for you. Please, Dad?” Then he hung up, gave the phone back to me and walked down the hall into his room. From the corner of my eye I saw the familiar color of blue and red pull into our driveway. I crept up to the window as my mom came running out of the garage with the home phone up to her ear and up to the two officers. They didn’t have their hats on so that’s a good sign. In movies when the officers come to report a death they put their hats on out of respect, if the hats weren’t on then it was a good sign. My mom and the two officers got together in a huddle to discuss. All of a sudden my mom put her hands on her knees, maybe she dropped something? Then she fell to the ground, her shoulders shaking with sobs, no, I thought. She said into the phone, “He hit a tree!” choking between sobs. At that moment, I knew that from this point on my life was going to be very different than what i'm used to. I also knew at that moment that this was intentional. This just doesn’t happen in our family, We are known as the white picket fence kind of people.  Then Ben emerged out of his room at that moment and saw my mom sobbing on the ground. His face instantly filled with fear. I then walked to the front door and walked out onto the front porch and just looked at them with worry. The officers looked at me with worry, pity almost. They then all started walking up to the house.
“Whats going on? He hit a tree?” I asked to no one in particular as they piled into the house. My mom and the detective walked out onto the back patio and an officer stayed behind with Ben and I.
“Yes he did,” he started, “But we know at this point that he is alive and that hes being transported.” He told us. “Now I need to know everything that you guys know, okay? This is what's becoming an investigation and any sort of information could help.” My brother and I then began to tell the officer everything that we know, from the night before to present. He just listened and nodded his head as we told our story.
“Okay thank you guys, i’m going to go report to the detective.” He said. We nodded our heads and as soon as he goes out I rushed to my room grabbing my phone on the way. I get into my room and go to my best friends contact and press call.
“Hey Ali!” Tristyn said enthusiastically.
“Tris my dad hit a tree and we think he did it on purpose. Hes going to the hospital but hes still alive and its really bad.” I told her really fast. She seemed to understand every word I said,
“What? Oh my god Ali do you need anything?” She asked me frantically.
“No im fine right now I just don’t know what to do theres cops at my house and a detective and a lot of talking. I don’t know what to do.” 
“Okay well call me if you need anything, okay?”
“Okay.” I said then I hung up. I looked out my bedroom window to see a black jeep pull in the driveway, my moms best friend Molly. I met her at the door and she gave me a big hug then went out by my mom on the back porch. I then felt the need to splash cold water on my face so I went into the bathroom and ran cold water and splashed it against my stressed face. I then heard the sound of a helicopter over our house. It’s dad in flight for life, was my thought. And I was right. His favorite sweatshirt, I thought. I need to find it. I then sprinted out of the bathroom and into my parents room. I pulled out drawers and dug up piles until I finally found the familiar gray air force sweatshirt that he purchased in the Dells years ago. I put it over my head and walked out of his room proudly. I walked into the living room and saw that my grandparents had arrived. I smiled at them and they looked back at me with worried and serious eyes. They walked into the back and onto the back patio. I then went and sat on the couch next to my brother who was keeping an emotionless expression through all of this. I then noticed a big black car roll into our driveway. I was confused on who it could be but then I saw who was in the passengers seat, Tristyn. I jumped up from the couch and out the door hurrying down the driveway as she hopped out of the car and started walking towards me. We then hugged each other so tight, then tears started to roll down my face. I just sobbed and sobbed and sobbed into her shoulder and she just held me and rubbed my back. We then parted and I noticed she had tears too. She waved to her mom as she pulled out of the driveway and we walked into the house. My mom, Molly, My grandparents and the officers had all emerged from the back patio and were all conversing in the living room. My mom saw Tristyn and immediately pulled her into a hug. All of us then piled into different cars as we made our trek to the hospital in Oconomowoc. We all arrived and Tristyn, Ben and I sat in the waiting room chairs. My uncle and his girlfriend, Shannon arrived and immediately she pulled me into a big hug. Then the big doors opened and out came a gentle looking African man dressed in all black. His nametag read ‘Steve’. We all huddled around him and he started talking.
“Hello there, my name is Steve and I am the chaplain here at the hospital. If you come with me I can show you all to a more private room.” He said in a African accent. We all nodded our heads and he led us to a little room labeled ‘Family Room’ and we entered and sat down. It held two lounge chairs and a long couch. There was also a window looking out to the highway and the landed flight for life helicopter that carried my dad here. We all sat down in different seats and began to wait. After a while the door to the room opened and a man with a nicely arranged snack cart came into the room and wheeled it into the front and then left. This is serious, I thought, If we need a priest, private room and snacks then that means it doesn’t look very good. At that moment the doctor came into the room alone. We all turned our heads in anticipation as he gave my mom my dads wallet and then turned to all of us to give us a update.
“So, David hit the tree pretty hard and he has lost a lot of blood already and he hasn’t regained consciousness at all. Right now the right thing to do would be to hope and pray because it’s not likely that he will get through this.” He told us. I looked to the ground as my grandparents thanked him as he left the room to go tend to my dad. As the door closed with a click, the chaplain turned to us and started to speak,
“Right now if you are all comfortable I would like to lead you all in a prayer for David. So if anyone who would like to pray I ask you to please join hands.” Everyone then held hands and we prayed for my dads awakening and for him to be healthy. After the prayer my dads boss Linda arrived in our private room and she immediately pulled my mom into a hug. My mom explained the details and she sat down next to her. I then got up from the couch and walked over to where Tristyn was sitting by the window and I sat down on the little table next to her and I gazed out the window as the helicopter began to get ready to take off. The propellers turning round and round and the machine lifting itself off the ground. Up it went, higher and higher until i couldn’t see it anymore. I wish I could be on the helicopter, moving further and further away from this place. I snapped out of my trance as a group of doctors and nurses came into the room. I felt like a kid that was about to get a flu shot. As they all piled in I walked over back to the couch and sat down with my mom and brother.
“David has lost a lot of blood, and he fought a hard fight. But unfortunately, he didn’t survive.” The doctors explained with teary eyes. I looked to the ground, not wanting to look at the sad faces. I covered my mouth with my hand and began to cry. The tears kept coming and coming, this can’t be real. I kept saying no, no, no. wake up Ali, i thought. I looked up at Tristyn and she was already sobbing. Everyone just looked to the ground and cried. We stayed this way for what seemed like forever, until the doctors left. I looked up at my mom and asked, “What now?” She looked at me with teary eyes and choked out, “We go on.”