"Hello?"
"Shi?" It was one of her friends, Amanda. She was a little surprised to hear from her. Sheena figured Amanda would be getting ready for Lance to come home.
"Hey, Manda. I can't talk right now, I'm trying to get the house back in order. Shouldn't you be doing the same and getting ready for Lance?"
"Shi, can you come over to my house?" Amanda asked her. It was then Sheena noticed that it sounded as if her friend was crying.
"Mandi, what's wrong?"
"I...I can't tell you over the phone, just, please, can you come over?"
"Sure, I guess, give me about half an hour and I'll be there." Sheena hung up the phone and ran to grab her shoes and jacket, then pulled her hair back in a messy ponytail. She was worried because she knew it usually took a lot to make Amanda cry, and the fact that she was scared Sheena. In the twenty minute drive to the house Amanda shared with Lance, she mentally went through what could possibly be wrong, but couldn't figure it out. When she arrived at the house, she parked behind a vehicle she recognized as belonging to their friend, Tracy, and ran into the house without even bothering to knock on the door.
Amanda was sitting on the couch, holding her two-year-old daughter and crying. Tracy was sitting on one side of her, and Tracy's sister, Jane, was on the other and both of them were crying as well.
"What's wrong? What's going on?" The three girls looked up at her, but none of them spoke, they all just stared blankly, a void look in their eyes. "Someone better tell me what's going on and they better tell me, NOW!"
"They're gone," Amanda finally whispered softly.
"WHAT'S gone? You're gonna have to be a little more specific."
"Th... The guys are, they... they're g... gone... all.... all five of them."
"WHAT? What do you mean, GONE?"
"Just what I said, gone. The plane went down about two hours ago, and I just got the call an hour ago. Their bodies were pulled out of the wreckage, none of them survived."
"NO! No, you're lying to me. This is THE cruelest joke you've EVER pulled, it's not funny, Amanda! Take it back! Admit you're lying!"
"Shi, she's not lying, it's true, all of it."
"NO, it's not, it's a LIE! You bitch, I can't believe you're doing this, saying things like that, that aren't true! TAKE IT BACK!"
"Sheena, calm down, please, it's the truth."
"No, it can't be, please, take it back, please..." By this time, Sheena had finished yelling and, as it all began to sink in, had just started crying uncontrollably. Tracy got up off the couch and put her arms around her friend, just as Sheena's legs gave out and she sank slowly to the floor. "No, please, not Joey, it can't be true, it can't."
"I'm sorry Shi, I wish it weren't," Amanda whispered as she held her daughter closer to her.
"Mommy, when daddy home?" Little Brianna asked as she looked innocently up into Amanda's eyes. Amanda began crying harder as she looked down at the little girl she held in her arms.
"Baby, daddy's not going to be coming home."
"WHY MOMMY? I WANT DADDY!!!!" It was too much for Amanda to handle, so Jane took the crying child from her arms and carried her upstairs where she held her until she fell asleep and the laid her in the crib before coming back downstairs.
"Thank you, Janie."
"No problem, I could tell you just couldn't handle that right now."
"I don't think I'm going to be able to do this, I can't handle two on my own."
"Two what?"
"Little ones."
"WHAT?"
"I'm pregnant again, I just told Lance last week when I talked to him on the phone, he was so excited too, talking about how this one was going to be a boy and we could name it after him."
"At least you got the chance to tell him," Sheena said, looking up from her place on the floor. "I never got to tell Joey, I was planning on surprising him when he came home today."
"What?" Tracy and Jane exclaimed in unison, looking back and forth between Sheena and Amanda.
"I'm going to have a baby, in about seven months or so."
"Are you serious?"
"No, Tracy, I'm just making it up, YES I'M SERIOUS! What am I going to do? I can't raise a baby by myself!"
"We're here for you, Shi." Tracy said as she put a comforting arm around her.
"And we'll be here for you, too, Manda." Jane added.
The girls continued to sit and talk for several hours before they finally fell into restless sleeps, with one of them waking up every once in a while from a nightmare. The next couple of days passed in a blur for them as the bodies were shipped home and funeral arrangements were made. They decided to have one big funeral, instead of five separate ones, knowing that's what the guys would have wanted and also to make it easier for them, getting it all done and over with all at once. After the funeral, the girls stayed by the graves to give their private goodbyes, then slowly walked out of the cemetery, arms around each other in a wall of support.
