Tandem

The Crash

"Come on kids, pop your bags in."

Brian lifted the door to the boot of the car and waited for Raechel and Charlie to place their bags inside. He looked down at his young son wrestle an extremely full backpack into the car. He was never one to ask for help when he was struggling with something. He was fiercely independent, exactly like his mother had been. It had been both a blessing and a curse throughout her life. "Somebody's packed the whole house," he said. "What on earth is in there?"

"Rocks."

"Rocks?"

"Yeah, rocks for Mummy."

Brian forced back the tears that sprang to his eyes. It had been two years to the day that his beautiful wife had lost her battle with cancer. It had just been the three of them for two whole years. Whilst it had felt like such a long time since she'd been with them, it could also have only been yesterday that they'd said goodbye and their lives had changed forever.

"Ok, my boy. You bring the rocks for Mummy." Brian wiped away a stray tear from his cheek.

"Can I sit in the front this time?" Charlie asked, failing to notice his father's sadness. Brian was relieved by that. Death never seemed quite so final when you were that age. Losing his mother so young had upset him at first but Charlie had adapted far quicker than his older sister at accepting their life without her. Raechel had not been the same child since her mother's passing. She very rarely smiled now and would often take herself to her bedroom to cry. She used to be so smiley and always seemed to be laughing but now it was as though she were a completely different child. She'd grown up fast, perhaps too fast and there was not a day that Brian didn't feel guilty about that. There were times she'd had to comfort her brother whilst Brian broke down. He'd take himself off into the woodland at the bottom of their garden and return an hour or so later, his eyes red and swollen. Other times, she'd made dinner for the three of them because he couldn't bear the sight of food. The thought of sitting at the table with one empty chair was often too much. It had taken him a long time to return to some sort of normality. He was a parent and his children needed him, now more than ever. Theresa wouldn't want him to waste away, not simply for himself but for the sake of their children.

"Dad?" His son's voice brought him back to the present.

"Sorry buddy. What did you say?"

"I asked if I could sit in the front of the car."

"You'll have to ask your sister. She usually rides shotgun." "Please? "

"Raechel? What do you say?"

Raechel frowned at her brother and crossed her arms. "You know the eldest gets first dibs."

Charlie looked down at the floor and began kicking the dust. "Not fair." He mumbled.

"Well, I dibs the back seat."

Charlie's head snapped up. He beamed at his father and wrapped his arms around his big sister.

"Thank you!" He squealed before jumping into the car.

Brian smiled at his daughter. She had a heart of gold just like her mother. There was rarely a day when he didn't look at her and see

some flicker of Theresa. It was in the way she smiled and the way her eyes sparkled when she got excited about something .

"You got the doggo?"

Raechel picked up Tripp in her arms. She nuzzled her face against the Jack Russell's soft fur. Theresa had saved this little puppy from an uncertain future. She'd been driving home after work one evening, when she noticed a tiny, little white blur run underneath the moving traffic. She immediately pulled over and signaled for the cars to stop, whilst she ran towards the little bundle. As she got closer, she noticed that the little white blob, was in fact, a puppy. Once he was safely in her arms, she could see just how young he was. She reckoned he was barely more than six weeks old and far too young to be away from his mother. She'd brought him home and immediately Raechel had taken a liking to him. He became their little project. Theresa and Raechel both devoted their time to nursing him back to health despite the frequent reminders that he was fragile and no matter how hard they would try, he might not make it. The little guy had gone from strength to strength though, beating the odds. He grew stronger and more mischievous by the day, until one day he was n't the frail puppy they'd rescued from the road. He became fiercely loyal to Raechel, never far from her side.

"Yep," she said. "Are you ready for an adventure Trippy?" Tripp licked Raechel's forehead.

"I think that's a yes." Brian said. He closed the boot and opened the car door for his daughter. Raechel placed Tripp down onto the seat before hopping in herself. Brian looked back at the house as he got into the car. For a second he thought he caught a glimpse of Theresa in her night dress at the window, waving at him as she had done so many times before as he left for work. He almost even blew her a kiss too but as he focused his eyes on the exact spot in the window, her nightdress slowly morphed back into the curtain that framed the window. He wondered when he would get used to her being gone, maybe he never would. He'd decided shortly after her death that he would dedicate his life to keeping her memory alive. He'd tell his children stories about their mother from long before they were born. Stories about how the two of them had gone on adventures, discovered beautiful places and vowed that they'd bring their future children to these special spots. Little did they know their children would be scattering their mother's ashes from one of those places one

day. He promised to Theresa and himself that he'd talk about her every day. He wouldn't let her name fade into silence and most importantly, he'd make sure that Raechel and Charlie knew how much she'd loved them both.

"Ok kids," he sighed as he started the engine. "Let's be on our way."