By:
Stephanie Woodworth
©2000 Chaotic Bliss Fan Fiction
Days
had passed since the funeral and Kinsey wondered if she was going to be able to
survive. The children upstairs in their
beds needed her to be there for them, not only as their mother, but now their father
too. She wondered if Nick realized all
that he’d left behind.
Kinsey had always believed in
God and right now her faith in Him was faltering. How could He take her life, her hope, her dreams? Nick was all that and much more. He was her confidant, the father of her
children, her lover, and most importantly her best friend. He was her everything.
Their love affair was romantic
and when he proposed Kinsey thought she had to be floating on air. Their wedding was magical and their life
full of love and laughter.
Why did Nick have to take that
road home? Why was the driver of the
other car drunk? What if she hadn’t
insisted that he make it home for dinner?
Whys and what ifs filled Kinsey mind.
She now found herself sitting on
their deck out back. Visions of Nick
and his friends filled her mind. What
was going to happen to the group? Could
they go on without Nick? She wondered
if Nick was looking down on her.
Looking up at the stars she whispered, “Nick, why did you have to leave
me?” She began to sob again. She sat there for what seemed like hours
wrapped up tight in one of Nick’s sweatshirts and couldn’t believe how much it
felt like he was there. “Why Nick?” she
asked again.
As if an answer, their oldest
son, Adam, came up and tapped Kinsey on the shoulder. “Mama,” he said slightly above a whisper.
She jumped, “Oh my goodness you
scared me.”
“Sorry mama.” The six year old climbed up into his
mother’s arms. “Mama, something strange
just happened.”
“What?” she asked rustling his
blond hair and hugging him tight.
“I was playing Nintendo in the
game room when the scanner on the computer started up. I wasn’t anywhere near it I promise.” The kids weren’t allowed to play with the
computer without adult supervision.
“Okay sweetie, I believe you.”
Adam turned in her arms and
continued, “I waited until it was done
scanning and lifted the lid. I found
this.” He held his small little hand
out and produced a card.
With shaking hands Kinsey took
the card from her son. She held the
card up so that she could see it in the lights coming from the house. It was a small prayer card with a prayer to
Saint Nicholas on it. She flipped it
over and strained to read the writing on it.
The penciled writing was faded and old.
‘To Nickolas from Kathy and Bob 1986’ I wonder who Kathy and Bob are?
she thought. That wasn’t important
now. Was this a sign from Nick? “Sweetie, was anyone playing with the
computer today?”
Adam shook his head. “No mama, not since Uncle Kevin and Uncle
Brian scanned stuff for the funeral.”
That was days ago. “Are you sure Ashleigh or Alisha didn’t do
it?” The girls were only four and two,
but one of them could have done it on accident. She’d never seen this card before and from the looks of it Nick
had taken great care of it over the years.
“Positive mama, they would never
touch the computer, they know better.”
“Well, thank you for bringing
this to me,” she said kissing his forehead.
“I think you should go to bed now.
It’s a school day.”
“Okay. Night mama.” He hugged
her before disappearing back into the house.
“Nick, is this a sign?” She looked down at the prayer card and read
it. She never knew that the meaning of
Nicholas was ‘victory’. Was this Nick’s
way of telling her that he was okay and that she should be okay too one day?
Days went past and Kinsey tried
to go on with her life. Nick’s birthday
was approaching and she wondered if she’d make it through that day. Little did she know, but Nick’s closest
friends were planning on going to the cemetery to visit Nick on that day. They’d planned on taking flowers, singing
‘Happy Birthday’ and visiting with their friend.
As AJ, Brian, Kevin and Howie
approached Nick’s grave the overcast day made them realize even more how sad
the day really was. They’d been there
no more than five minutes when and complete stranger wandered up to them. The man was well over 300 pounds, kind of
scruffy around the edges, wearing a old t-shirt and faded shorts. He was carrying an old time trumpet and
before the four could speak he said, “Do you realize that it only takes the
time it takes me to blow this horn for a life to pass from this world into that
of Heaven?” he paused and watched the four men’s faces. “I’ve come a great distance today and I’m
not sure why I’m here. I know that
someone died and that you all are grieving.”
As if to make things more eerie to the foursome the clouds had appeared
to clear in just the small area that they were standing and a ray of sunlight
shone brightly around them. He quoted a
scripture before raising the horn to his lips and blowing it. It appeared to them that there was an odor
of incense coming from the horn and they could have sworn that there was a puff
of smoke too.
The man turned and walked back
to his beat up car. They couldn’t make
out the license plate, but knew that it wasn’t a local one. The four men turned and looked at each
other. If they hadn’t all seen the same
thing they would have sworn that they were hallucinating. They left the cemetery that day with a
feeling of reassurance that Nick was in a better place and that he was watching
over them.
“Do you think we should mention this to
Kinsey?” Brian asked. They all knew that she was having a tough
time dealing with her loss.
“Um . . . I’m not sure how she’d take it,” Kevin
worried.
“I think she’d like to know,” AJ assured them.
“I think it would be best if we all told her
together,” Howie suggested.
The four men decided that now would be the best
time to tell her. They headed over to
her house and found her baking a cake in the kitchen. She was startled to see them at first. “Oh my, I wasn’t expecting you,” she said wiping the flour on her
apron.
“Kinsey, I think you should sit down,” Kevin warned
her.
“Is everything all right?” she asked extremely
worried about the concerned look on the four men’s faces.
“Um . .” Brian started, and then relayed the story
of their experience at the cemetery.
It wasn’t until later that night after she’d tucked
the kids in that Kinsey pulled her Bible out of her nightstand and began to
look up the references to trumpets.
There were only four and it was in I Corinthians 15:50-15:58 that she
found what she was looking for. The
reference made there helped her to come to terms with the fact that Nick would
now be an angel and that he’d always be there watching out for her and their
family. This was God’s way of helping
to ease the pain Kinsey was experiencing allowing her to move on with her
grieving and her life.
The End
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