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for some. Especially if you weren’t a local.
    Dad made the turn into town with my mom and Gran as passengers. He was going the speed limit. The other driver wasn’t. The street was wet that late October day, and when the other driver slammed on his breaks, he rear-ended Dad’s car.
    I heard the unique sound of crashing metal, almost like experiencing an earthquake; it feels like it goes and goes and goes. The sound of the crash seemed to go on forever. I ran out the door, my cell phone ready to call Chad Healy from the police department. We’d gone to high school together, but as soon as I made it to the street corner, I watched Rocky running toward me. Guava was pacing in front of her shop which was up on the next block. She had a front row seat to the carnage. I kept thinking, “God, please don’t let anybody be hurt.” But Rocky’s face…
    She took my hand and pulled. Her grip on me was so tight, my fingers protested, but I didn’t break her hold on me. I knew, deep down, I knew. Dad picked up Gran, then took her to Eden Hills so she could visit with Mom for a while, and enjoy her previous home while Dad showered and changed. We were going to this place in Calistoga that had an amazing range of desserts. I was thinking about what I would devour for my birthday dinner. I was thinking about the barn-style restaurant. I was thinking about the earrings with little skulls and crossbones I wanted from Guava’s shop. I was thinking about Tony, how I’d broken his heart only a few weeks before.
    And then I stopped.
    Chad Healy was already there, and he didn’t walk to me. He ran.
    “Ambulance will be here in five minutes…hopefully less, Gen. They were close. That’s good.” Rocky released me and he took over, wrapping his big hand around my small one. He pulled me to the right, on the sidewalk, nowhere near the wreck. I saw his shoes first…one of his shoes. Then his jeans. Dad lived in jeans when he wasn’t working. Then the blood.
    I sat at his side, shaking, not sure if I should touch him. But then he turned his head. “My Gen.” He smiled weakly. “My Gen,” he repeated.
    “Daddy,” I whimpered. “Chad said the ambulance will be here any minute.” I heard the sirens as the words left my mouth.
    “Granny and Mom… Honey…we all love you.” He closed his eyes, and I begged God for them to open again. “I have to go, honey. You know how your mom doesn’t like it when I make her wait…” His eyes opened once more. “Love you so much, my Gen,” he said, softer than before. “My Gen,” he whispered.
    “I love you, too, Daddy.”
    It wasn’t until much later, when Chad carried me away, I saw that they’d laid my mother’s body next to my dad. He’d died holding my hand…and hers.
    ****
    I sat in the waiting room of Marin County Hospital. From what they could tell, Adam Finnegan either had a heart attack or a stroke. They couldn’t be sure until the autopsy was carried out. I only half heard what people were telling me, which wasn’t much. I wasn’t family.
    Ahren’s cousin, Clark, arrived a few hours after I did. Rocky, always my Rock, sat across from us while he explained what was happening. He said things like, “Touch and go there for a while…” and “induced coma.” Finally, a man in scrubs came in and led Clark and me down a hall. Ahren wasn’t Ahren. He had tubes and machines all around him. His swollen face and head were bandaged. His arm was in some kind of cast thing. And he was unconscious.
    Rocky tried to get me to talk, just like Ahren would. He’d made a habit of forcing me to express myself since my family’s funeral. It would have been easy to live in our happy bubble, to just be thankful that he was alive and I was, I definitely was. But something, that thing that had been sitting there inside me in wait to wreak havoc on my happiness… shifted.
    They let me stay. I don’t know who called who for permission, but I was allowed to stay for four days. I