Surprise, Surprise

CHAPTER 1

Julie Smythe's fingers impatiently drummed on the steering wheel. "COME ON! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG?" Julie pounded on the car horn three times. She had been waiting for forty minutes now, and traffic was at a standstill. It was a scorching day, temperatures in the 90's, typical for Florida in July. The air conditioning in Julie's old Mercedes was broken, making the heat unbearable.

It had been a horrible day at work; Julie was an efficient secretary at a prestigious law firm. Her boss, the devil himself, nearly fired her when she misplaced some important papers.

Julie glanced at her watch. It was almost 6:00; dinner time. Julie thought about the casserole in the oven, most likely burnt to a crisp by now. She thought of the mountain of dirty laundry waiting to be washed, the plethora of bills to pay, and she thought of the children. Julie's three kids would be home right now, "Probably tearing the place to shreds." she thought to herself. "Well, they are old enough to be home alone for a while." Michael was seventeen years old now, certainly capable of taking care of Brittany and Sarah, six year old twins.

Julie turned on the radio, hoping to find out what was causing the traffic jam. "One man dead. Rollover collision." a husky voice on the radio reported.

"So a guy's dead. What's the hold up?" Julie muttered. "Let's go already!"

"About a forty-five minute delay." the reporter continued.

Julie sighed and turned the radio off. She considered calling home to see if everything was alright, but then cars slowly started moving.

"Finally! Thank you, God." Julie said. She didn't believe in God but that was beside the point. As she neared the accident, Julie peered out her window to try and glimpse the unfortunate victim and totaled car. What she saw stopped her immediately. She slammed on the brakes, and the car screeched in protest.

Julie raced out of the car toward the stretcher the EMS was loading into an ambulance. The body was covered, but Julie had recognised the car. Michael's car. His beloved red pickup truck that he had worked so hard for was crushed, totaled, destroyed. It looked like an elephant had used the car as a trampoline.

Police held Julie back while she sobbed hysterically. "That's my son! Michael!" Julie kicked and sweared at the officers. "Let me see my son!"

"Sorry, m'am." a young, burly officer said gently, "There's not much to see. We'll take you to the hospital."

Julie didn't know what to say, what to think, what to do. Her son was dead. The EMS took Michael's lifeless body away.

"Oh my god... Oh my god... Oh my god" Julie said over and over and over and over.