Forever Remembered

Exactly one year ago. Exactly one year ago, Benjamin Walker's life dramatically changed. One year ago his hopes and dreams for being with Aimee had failed. Jack (Aimee’s brother and Ben’s best friend) and Mallory were now expecting their first child, a boy to be named James. Ben, however, was alone.

It was a stormy April morning, with thick drops of rain hitting the ground hard and thunder growling every few minutes. Ben Walker was lying on his back in bed. The room was dark and gloomy, as there was no sunlight to brighten the room like it normally did.

“Today's the day,” thought Ben, miserably.

He tried to sit up, but couldn't. A hand much smaller than his was resting on his left arm. He looked over to his left.

“She must have fallen asleep in here in the middle of the night while we were watching television. She looks just like her mother,” he thought, observing his daughter’s reddish brown wavy hair.

He then picked his 14-year-old daughter's hand off his arm and sat up. He leaned over Evelyn and reached to the bedside table. Ben grabbed what he had wanted, a photograph, and got back into his comfortable position.

“Aimee,” he whispered, as a few tears came to his eyes.

The picture showed Aimee holding Evelyn and Ben had his arms around Aimee. That had been just a few weeks before the accident, on his daughter's 13th birthday. He sat the picture down on the bed. Ben turned to Evelyn, and gently shook her.

“Evelyn, wake up, honey. We're going to go see Mum today, remember?”

Evelyn's eyes opened slowly, and yawned. She sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“Mummy?”

“Yes, Mummy. Go on and get dressed. Dress up nice for your Mum,” he said, holding tears back.

Evelyn pushed back the blankets so she could slide out of the bed. She ran to her bedroom to get dressed. Ben hauled himself out of bed a few minutes later. He walked to the doorway and flicked the light switch. He then turned and trudged back to his dresser on the opposite wall.

“Let's see,” he thought, as he opened his dresser and looked through his clothes.

He couldn't just wear jeans and a t-shirt today, no, he had to dress nice. Finally he decided on grey slacks and a white button-up shirt. Just after he had pulled his socks on, Evelyn came back into the room, wearing a recently bought light blue summer dress with a pale yellow sash. He noticed that she hadn’t brushed her hair yet. Ben smiled, it was absolutely remarkable how she looked exactly like Aimee.

“Come on, let’s go downstairs,” he said, and when she came by him, he scooped her up, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her out of the room. Her giggles echoed all through the hallway and Ben ignored the slight pain he felt in his back, feeling elated at the sound of his daughter’s laughter.

As they approached the stairs, he put her down and together they walked down to the living room. Evelyn walked over to the couch and sat down. As Evelyn started looking on the coffee table for a hairclip, Ben went to find his good shoes. They were right next to Evelyn's, which were by the front door.

He flicked the light switch by the door to bathe the room in a warm light and then brought both of their shoes to the couch.. Ben sat down next to his girl and they put their shoes on.

“Evelyn, will you go get your raincoat?”

“Dad, I don't know where it is,” she replied.

Benjamin sighed. She was forever misplacing things, her room was rather messy. She took after him in that way, at least for now. Ben got off the couch and walked through the house to the kitchen, to where most of their coats were stored.

Evelyn busied herself by looking at her mother's picture that was on the coffee table. There were a lot of pictures of Aimee in the house, there had to be about 4 dozen. This one, showed Aimee and Ben's wedding day, some 16 years ago. In the picture, her parents waved and smiled as they got into their stretch limo. Just as Evelyn started to get lost in the picture, Ben came back with her jacket.

“Whatever happened to your raincoat? I couldn't find it,” he muttered to himself.

Evelyn took her jacket from her dad’s hands and put it on.

“Go brush your hair and then we can go see your mother,” Ben said, gesturing to the bathroom as he looked around to see if he was forgetting anything.

Evelyn ran into the bathroom and hurriedly brushed her hair. She set her brush down by the sink and ran back to her father. Ben opened the door for her and they went out into the street. Large drops of rain were pouring down and the wind howled. Ben worked on flagging a cab while Evelyn jumped in some puddles and soaked herself.

“Evelyn, sweetie, don’t jump in the puddles,” reprimanded Ben.

“But Daddy, my socks are already wet…”

Ben sighed and decided it was one battle that he had already lost. He finally was able to flag a cab that had been speeding down the street. He let Evelyn climb into the cab first.

As Ben got inside and shut the backseat door, he leaned up front and said, “Godric's Hollow Cemetery.”

The driver nodded, and they drove off into the storm.

After awhile, the cab slowed to a stop and they found themselves outside of a gated cemetery. The sign near the entrance was old and worn, but the words “Godric’s Hollow Cemetery” were still visible in the carved wood. As Ben and then Evelyn got out of the cab, the rain was starting to let up. Ben took Evelyn's hand and they walked down the path leading into the cemetery. There were a good many trees and the ground was hardly even wet.

They walked a ways out, to an emptier part of the cemetery. There were still many trees here. Evelyn caught sight of Aimee and let go of Ben’s hand. She ran down the path towards her mother. Ben walked faster to get to both of them. Evelyn sat herself on a wooden bench that Jack and Ben had brought out here so they'd be able to visit Aimee longer.

As Ben approached his daughter, he noticed the tears that were streaming down her angelic face. She didn’t cry too often, visits like this were the only times that she ever really cried. Ben almost couldn't bear to see her like this. Ben gazed down at the large piece of marble that had been carved to look like an open book.

“Hey Aim. How're they treating you up there? I hope you're okay, because I'm not. We're not. Evelyn misses you, right Evelyn?”

Ben turned to look at Evelyn, who nodded and said, “I love you, Mummy.”

At this, Ben started sniffling. He turned back to his wife.

“See Aimee, we can't do this. I can't do this. You should be here, not me. I don't know how to raise our daughter. I always feel like I’m going to mess up.”

Ben paused. It was getting harder to hold it all in, but he had to be strong. He had to be strong for Evelyn. If he wasn’t there to lead, who would she follow?

“Have you seen Evelyn lately? She’s like you in so many ways…”

Then he broke. Ben started to sob. He collapsed to his knees and rested his head on slab of marble that was in front of him.

“I miss you, Aimee. I miss the way you told me to clean up after myself, I miss the way you used to cook…we haven’t had a good meal in ages…I miss the way you used to smile and brighten a room with just your personality. There’s nobody else who could ever take your place. I miss how we’d stay up all night just talking about the future and whether or not we could make it. I miss everything about you, Aimee,” sobbed Ben.

Evelyn got off the bench and sat on the grass next to her father, tears still pouring from her eyes.

“Daddy,” she started, “I miss Mummy, too.”

Ben picked his head up from the tombstone. He pulled Evelyn into a hug and they sat there, crying and trying to calm down. For a few minutes, all that could be heard was the quiet grieving of a family who had lost their light.

Ben sniffed.

“I’ve told you about the accident, haven’t I?” he asked.

Evelyn nodded and said, “Yeah, but I forget some parts of it. Will you tell me again?”

“Okay, but if it’s too hard for you to hear, tell me to stop and we’ll save this story for another day,” cautioned Ben as he wiped his eyes.

“No, I want to hear this,” sniffled Evelyn.

Ben looked at his daughter and hoped she’d be able to handle more details this time, he really wanted to tell her everything.

“It was just a year ago, a little while after your birthday. Do you remember staying the night at grandma’s house? You were there to help Grandma Walker with her gardening. Your mum and I went to the bank to run some errands and that’s where everything went wrong.”

Memories of Aimee's last day flooded his head; the cursing, the screaming, the crying, all of it he remembered as if it has happened yesterday.

“We were standing in line, waiting for our turn. Just as the lady in front of us left, two men walked into the bank with guns. They shouted at everyone to get on the floor and that nobody would be hurt if their instructions were followed.”

Evelyn nodded and as she remembered something, she unzipped her pocket. She reached into her left pocket and took out a picture of Aimee, one that showed Aimee at her graduation. She always kept that one in her coat pocket. She held it out and Ben took it from her, continuing the story.

“We all got on the floor, the bank tellers, other customers, everyone was listening to the men. One of the men kept their weapon pointed at us. I was shielding your mother as best as I could. The other man walked up to the counter. He yelled at the teller behind the desk and told him to stand up. The teller got up reluctantly. The man pointed the gun in the teller’s face and ordered him to fill a sack up with half a million dollars. The teller refused to do as he was told.”

Ben could feel the tears trying to escape again. It was his fault the accident happened. He had been the one who had needed to go to the bank.

“The robber insisted that the bank teller should open the safe and put the money in the bag, but the teller resisted. Even after one of the other tellers said that they would do it, the man with the gun said the chance was gone. The other man, the one who had been pointing the gun at me and the other customers in the bank, fired some rounds at us. The first one shot was an older woman. As I was trying to shield your mummy, a bullet grazed by me and got…” Ben realized he was choking up.

“The bullet went right past me and got your mother somewhere in her neck,” finished Ben.

Emotions were swirling inside him. He wanted to finish the story, but wanted to shout, cry, and hurt the man who had taken his wife from him.

“She went down almost instantly. It happened so suddenly that I didn’t realize what had happened until I seen the blood. After the rounds were shot into the crowd of customers, the robbers ran for it. Somebody called an ambulance and your mother was taken to the hospital. The older woman was pronounced deceased at the scene.”

Ben was crying now. He kept trying to stop, but it did no good. Evelyn was still crying, not even bothering to try to stop. She was 14 though, there was no reason for her not to cry.

“We were about two blocks away from the hospital when she looked at me. She mouthed ‘I love you, Ben,’ and she started to go. The medical workers tried to revive her, but they just couldn’t. I pleaded with God and begged him not to take her from me – from you, but God was deaf,” said Ben, trying to contain his sobs.

“My faith left me the moment your mother did, Evelyn.”

He looked down at the marble that was carved like an open book. Words were carved into the right page.

Aimee Jane Walker
September 19, 1974 - April 20, 2007
Forever Remembered

Evelyn looked to her dad.

“Daddy,” she said as her tears started to stop flowing, “don’t forget that Mum loves us.”

Ben smiled through his tears as he replied, “I know, Evelyn, I know.”

Ben reached out with one hand and traced the letters of Aimee's name in the marble. He placed Aimee's picture down on the folio-shaped tombstone. He was again overpowered with emotion. Evelyn climbed onto his lap. He sat there, silently crying some more with Evelyn. They stayed like this for the coming hours.

They did not have a happily ever after.