* Pink Roses *
She woke up in a cold sweat. She sat up in bed, and took in the surroundings. She was at her best friends house. She looked around for him, why was she there? She hadn’t spent the night at his house since middle school.
"Madeline, are you okay?" His younger brother asked. He was in the next bed over.
"Taylor is that you?" She asked him.
"Yeah, are you okay?"
"No I’m not okay, I’m confused. Why am I here? What happened?" Taylor looked at Madeline, she wasn’t making any sense. She knew what had happened that’s why she was here. He walked over and turned the light on next to her. He sat next to her on the bed.
"Madeline, Isaac died last night, remember?" Taylor’s voice cracked as he said that. "Maddie, you were there, why don’t you remember?"
"What, but I thought…wasn’t….. but that was only a night mare, I thought it was only a bad dream." She managed to spit out. She threw her head into the pillow and started to sob. She thought that the past week and a half was just a bad dream. She heard the phone ring. Taylor got off the bed to go answer it.
"Hello…I’m sorry this is a private line. Yes that is true. What station? Okay, thank you. Yes, I am sorry too. Thank you. Okay, it’s alright. Bye."
"Everyone knows now. Do you want to watch the news? They are having a special on him right now."
"Yes." Taylor turned on the TV.
"…yes it is true, the teen pop sensation Hanson is not the same as they used to be. The eldest of the Hanson’s, Isaac, died last night at 11:35 p.m. No one ever thought a Hanson hater, could hate Hanson so much, that they would kill one of them. Last week on the way to there concert in their home town a ‘Hanson Hater’ intentionally broad sided the Hanson’s van. The rest of the Hanson’s made it out alive, but the seventeen year old wasn’t so lucky. With the help of his sons, Mr. Hanson carried Isaac out of the car and laid him down on the street. Laying there unconscious while EMS workers worked on him for forty five minutes. Soon they got him into the ambulance and to the hospital. The doctors said that he had some internal bleeding, and they could not stop the swelling in his head. Soon, Isaac fell into a coma. Last night before he past away, he was awake and alert for an hour and a half saying his final good byes…"
Madeline looked at Taylor who was crying on his bed. She was crying too. It was all coming back to her. She thought about the last night.
****
"He’s awake!!!" Zac, Isaac’s younger brother screeched.
"Quiet." His mother said sternly. "Isaac honey! It’s Mommy! How are you feeling dear?"
"Hi Mom! I know who you are!" He said. His voice was scratchy, from the tube going down his throat to help him breath. "I have a headache mom." He looked around and saw his family all around him. His family, and Madeline. His best friend in the whole world. "Do you all mind if I have a minute alone with Maddie?"
"Of course not. I love you Isaac." She kissed him on the forehead and left the room. They all did the same, telling him messages as they left.
"Ikey, I’m glad you are awake!" Jessie, his younger sister said to him.
"Yeah, me too Ikey." His other sister Avie said.
"Me too!" Ike commented.
"I love you Isaac." His Dad said. "We will be right outside." Ike nodded. It was now just his two other brothers and Madeline. Together he and his brothers formed the pop/rock band Hanson.
"Hey Ike, you have got to get better, so we can jam again." Zac said.
"Yeah…but I’m afraid that that’s not going to happen for quite sometime! You keep practicing though, okay?"
"You bet! Okay, I’m going to get mom to buy me some skittles. I’ll see you later Ike." Isaac grabbed Zac’s arm.
"I love you Zac, and no matter what anyone says, you are the best drummer I know."
"Thanks Ike. You rule too." Zac left the room with a confused look on his face.
"So, Tay…" Ike said. "I know, that you know you are the best keyboarder."
"Yeah right Ike. Your just as good as me and you know it!" Isaac laughed, but he was so weak it turned into a cough.
"Ike, maybe we should both leave." Madeline said worried.
"Oh no you shouldn’t!" Ike said taking her hand. "I have to talk to you missy."
She smiled. Even with him being in a coma for a week, and looking so sick he could still make her laugh.
"Okay Ike, well I’m going to go. I’ll see you okay?" Taylor said nervously.
"Okay Tay." Isaac said. "Hey, Tay?"
"Yeah?" Taylor said turning back to look at him.
"I love you! You are a great brother. Don’t forget about me okay?" Taylor looked at Isaac and then Madeline who was crying.
"I love you too Isaac, and how am I supposed to forget about you? We share the same room, live in the same house, and travel together."
"You know what I mean." He said. Taylor just nodded and walked out of the room.
"So what did you have to talk to me about?" Madeline asked. He motioned her to sit next to him. "On the bed?" She asked.
"Well of course."
"I don’t know if this is a good idea." She said, but she sat down anyway. "So…" she said uncomfortably.
"Well, Madeline, you are my best friend…" He breathed in deeply. "I don’t want you ever to forget me…"
"Forget you?" She said cutting him off, telling him a lie. "But, your doing better Ike. Your going to come home soon. I’m going to take care of you, like when we were little and used to play house."
"NO!" He said sternly. "I’m not coming home, you know that Maddie. You know, and I know that I am going to die."
"NO! You can’t leave me Isaac! You can’t! I can’t live without you!" She said crying.
"Yes you can Maddie." He put his hand on her face. "Madeline, look at me. I want you to know something." He wiped the tears that were streaming from her face. "I want you to have something." He wrote something down, and gave her a folded piece of paper.
"What’s this?" She asked.
"Don’t open this until you are alone with Taylor. You have to promise me that you wont open it, until after…"
"Okay." She tried to smile. "You know, you can always get my curiosity peaked when ever I’m around you."
"I know!" He said. He took her hand and kissed it. "Maddie, you are the light of my life. Thank you for being such a good friend." He started to get tired. He closed his eyes.
"I love you Isaac." She said. But it was to late, he was already to far away to hear her.
****
Madeline woke up from the daze she was in. Taylor was still sitting on the bed crying.
"Hey Taylor?" Madeline walked over to her bag where her jeans were from the night before. "I have to ask you something." She grabbed the piece of white folded up paper and sat next to Taylor on his bed. "Isaac said not to open this until I was alone with you. Can I open it now?"
"He remembered. Of course you can open it now." Madeline opened the note. When she saw what was written she was confused. It said ‘top right drawer Taylor, page 56.’ Taylor got up and walked to Isaac’s dresser. He saw the brown journal that he had always hidden from the family. He opened it up to page 56. There it was written about his feelings for Madeline.
‘Madeline means the world to me. She always has and she always will. Tonight I’m going to tell her how I feel. After the concert of course. She will be there, in the front row, her eyes so brown, and her smile so bright. I have a pink rose waiting back stage for her. She always said that those were her favorite, I told her last summer that the man who loved her would give her a pink rose everyday of the year. I am going to do that for her. She deserves it. If only I could have not been a chicken last night when she was over, then I wouldn’t be so nervous to perform tonight. Okay, well I have to go. Four hours and thirty-seven minutes! I can’t wait!’
Madeline looked at Taylor. She didn’t even know what to say. She just cried. Taylor handed her the book. "You keep this Maddie. It belongs to you." Taylor said. "Are you going to be okay?"
"Yes, I’ll be fine. I’m just going to get some sleep before the funeral tomorrow." She crawled back into bed, she fell fast asleep with the journal held close to her heart.
****
The next morning Madeline and Taylor were awoken by Zac barging in the room. "Maddie, and Tay, we have got to go soon. Girls are lining the street, and if we want to get to the funeral home early we have to get ready now. Zac’s eye’s were still a light red from the night before, as were Taylor’s and Madeline’s. They each took a shower, and got ready in about twenty minutes. They headed down stairs. No one said a word to anyone. They got in the car and headed down the drive way. Madeline noticed all of the girls that had flowers, and wearing all black. She felt bad for them.
When they arrived at the funeral home, Madeline couldn’t go in. She sat in the back of the room with Taylor, before they both decided it was only right to go and see him. The smell of flowers overwhelmed Maddie. She saw Isaac’s body laying there. He looked so cold. So...dead.
It seemed like minutes to Madeline, but hours past, and soon they were at the cemetery. Madeline had a pink rose in her hand. She stood there alone and stared at his coffin. Before she turned she set the rose down on Isaac’s resting spot. "Here Isaac, you said you would give me a rose everyday, but now you can’t so I’m going to give you one." She walked away from her best friend, and whispered. "I love you Clarke Isaac Hanson."
****A Year Later
Madeline walked to the cemetery. She hadn’t been here for a while. She hadn’t done anything she used to do. She didn’t see the Hanson’s anymore, she just couldn’t bring herself to see them, it just wasn’t the same. She missed Isaac too much. Today was the first day she had been to the cemetery since the funeral. She didn’t know why she wanted to go, but she had to, there was just this feeling. She walked to Isaac’s grave. She noticed something she had never noticed before. There was a rose bush growing right next to his headstone.
"I came here the other day, and it was here." A familiar voice said walking up behind her.
"Hi Taylor! You didn’t plant this?" She said.
"Nope! It was just here." He picked a rose. "This is from Isaac, Maddie . He loved you so much. I knew he would get you these flowers some how or another." Madeline knelt down next to the grave and cried.
"I just miss him so much Tay. I don’t know how to go on with out him. I can’t even look at anything that reminds me of him."
"That’s why you don’t come over anymore, Maddie we miss him just as much as you, but you are apart of him, and we need you around. I know that Zac is going crazy not seeing you. Zac and I need you to help us, help you."
"How are you going to help me?" Madeline asked.
"I don’t know. I have a idea. Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? Zac would love it. Everyone would love it! We are having pizza, like every Friday."
"I don’t know…."
"Madeline," Taylor said raising his voice. "you are coming home to my house…Isaac would not have it any other way. Think about it. You guys were best friends, not just with him, but with us…as a family. Do you really think that he would want you to give up coming around us?"
"No…" Madeline said. He hit a tough spot. He knew that was all she needed to get her back to her old self. "Fine I’ll come over."
"Good! Let’s go."
They walked into the sunset back to the Hanson’s. Isaac’s rose in Madeline’s hand, she knew that his love would be with her forever!
Email: terrific_trio@hotmail.com