(LSWC) Helena, page 1

Tom walked into the room and was met by a loving smile on his
father's face. He was clearly very pleased to see Tom and it
showed.

After a few introductions and a piece of birthday cake adorned
with the full 75 candles, All the guests spent the entire
evening, talking, reminiscing and enjoying each-others company.
Tom was actually amazed with himself for being able to find the
strength to put his grief aside if only for a few hours, but it
made all the difference, He'd never felt closer to his parents.

After saying his goodbyes and making absolutely certain to tell
both his mother and father how much he loved them and how much
he appreciated everything they had done for him, Tom left
his parents house and began to walk to the taxi rank which was
only a few streets away, leaving his car on the driveway.

With a mixed sense of elation and a strange feeling of
accomplishment, Tom wandered down the street looking at the
floor, busy with his thoughts. He stopped outside the pub where
his Dad had taken him on his 18th birthday and let out a laugh
at the hazy memory of being sick on the pavement somewhere near
where he was now stood.

With a grin on his face he made his way to the taxi rank, and
home.

It was early when Tom's phone woke him up. He grabbed his
mobile from the bed-side table. "Hello?" he said, still a
little delirious from being woken, He'd not even looked at who
was calling.

"Tommy" His mother said.

He was instantly awake, his mother sounded different, she never
called him Tommy He knew something was wrong.

"what is it Mum?"

"its your Father....." She began to cry.." he's had a heart
attack...."

The phone dropped from Tom's hand. This couldn't be happening,
He felt a hopeless desperation take hold of his soul and he
began weeping uncontrollably.

------------------

Two months had passed since His Father's death and Tom sat in
his Mother's house after spending the afternoon with her. She
was a strong woman but Her husband's death had taken its toll
and she somehow looked older to him. After making sure she had
all she needed, Tom took a last look at the chair his Dad used
to sit in and left. He felt numb.

It was a clear evening and the sun lit up the clouds
beautifully on the horizon as they cast long shadows on the
fields in the distance.

As he pulled off the driveway, Tom scowled at the vista he was
presented with and thought of how he would never derive
pleasure from anything again. Everything seemed pointless and
cruel to him now, he had suffered too much. He hated the world
for taking away his loved ones and he hated his Mother's belief
that they were in a better place.

Tom did not agree, although he never said so in front of her.
He did not believe in anything religious or supernatural and to
him, the reality was that they were dead and gone and that’s
that.

Stopping at the traffic lights down the road, he looked around
and noticed the pub. It had been refurbished since he last saw
it and looked a lot different. As he realised he didn't care
the memory of a memory came back to him like a soap bubble on a
breeze.

His Dad's party.

That night he remembered standing outside being a little bit
drunk thinking about his eighteenth and feeling happy. That
night was probably the only night since the accident that he
had actually felt anything but grief.

He waited for a moment, caught up in his thoughts. His phone
buzzed, it was set on silent. He picked it up expecting a text
message but there was none, only a blank reminder. He didn't
even remember setting it, or why! Tom felt frustrated and threw
the phone on the passenger seat. He put his head in his hands.

The lights changed from amber to green but he didn't notice. He
was now staring down at his phone, laying upside-down. He
couldn't see the picture it displayed. He hadn't looked at it
for months. He always avoided looking at it
but would never even consider changing it.

He looked up wondering how long he'd been sat at a green light
shook his head and then pulled into the pub car park.

Why he felt compelled to go into the pub and have a drink, he
didn't know, but he walked in anyway.

The place was near empty except for a couple sat in the corner
and a lone man at the bar reading the paper.

As Tom approached the barman to order his drink, the man to his
right sat at the bar looked up. Tom didn't acknowledge him and
sat down on a stool.

Reaching for his wallet, Tom noticed the man still looking at
him.

"its you!" the man said.

Tom recognised the voice. Although this time it was lacking
the self-important edge. It was the police officer who had
pulled him over the night of his Father's party.
Tom had completely forgotten about the entire event and hadn't
thought about it once since it had happened.

"its You!" the man repeated.

"Your a lucky guy, I’ll tell you that!" He exclaimed.

The very last thing that Tom felt he was, was lucky, He felt
like smashing this guys head into the bar is how he felt!

"that was a weird night for me, that night I pulled you over
for speeding. Do you remember? Do you remember me?"

"yes, yes" Tom growled." He didn't even want to hear what the
man had to say and was just about to turn and leave.

"Well, that emergency call. The one that I had to respond to
when I let you go... It never happened. They tell me I must
have imagined it!"

"Its been driving me insane thinking about it! I'm sure that it
happened, I remember talking to a woman and getting the details
of a car accident!"

Tom must have looked confused because the man continued.

"you think that’s messed up?"

"you Wait till you hear the really strange part"

"After I took a roasting from my boss who now thinks I'm mad by
the-way, I ran the details through the system, turns out the
accident DID happen.... only it happened three months before
that night!"

"can you believe that? I dunno what to make of it myself... I
just don't know."

Toms mind was now racing, could it be?

"what other details do you know about the accident?"
Tom blurted.

He could barely get the words out as his brain tried to put the
pieces together.

"The records said it was a young woman, late twenties, she died
at the scene.

her name was Helena Patrick"

Tom's World spiralled around him in the moments before he
passed out. Then blackness nothing.

[edit on 25-6-2008 by Chonx]