Hold on for the Ride

Part Four

On Sunday morning I woke up at about seven and drove to church with my family. My mom and dad were going on and on about how nice Ryan was.

"Rose, he's just the sweetest boy," my mother said with a grin.

"Yeah, he's a great boy. He seems like your type or whatever you say these days," my dad replied awkwardly.

I nodded and continued to listen to my favorite song play on the radio. When we pulled up in the parking lot and walked into the building, my favorite elderly couple greeted us,

"Hello Nelson's! Welcome. How are you doing this morning Rose?" The kind woman said as she shook my hand.

"I'm doing great Betty, how have you been?"

"Oh just fine, thank you sweetheart."

I walked into the vestibule and looked around for Ryan and his family, they must have been running late. The speaker walked up to the pulpit and they still weren't there yet, this was super uncommon. His dad was one of the elders, his mom in charge of the nursery helpers, and Ryan was super active in our youth group. Where were they? I slipped my phone under the cover of my Bible and managed to type out, "hey ry, you ok?" There was no answer...

As soon as the service ended, I ran out to the car and dialed in his number. I tried to open the door of my parent's car, but it was locked.

"Hello?"

"Ryan! Hi I was just-"

"Hey, yeah this is my voicemail-"

I hung up immediately, how could I have not realized that it was his stupid voicemail? I waited for my parents to come out of the building, they were taking forever. I just wanted to get home and drive straight over to Ryan's.

I ended up waiting about ten minutes for them to come out, it wasn't as bad as usual. They probably realized I wasn't there after talking for a while. When we hopped in the car my dad offered to take us out to eat, but I said I would rather just have something from home, nothing was stopping me until I knew what was wrong.

"Rose are you okay? You seem so jittery today?"

"Yeah, I'm fine mom. Do you mind if I visit Ryan, he wasn't at church."

"Oh sure honey, I hope he's okay hun," she said a lot less concerned than how I felt.

I grabbed my keys before eating the BLTs my dad was making, I hadn't eaten since lunch on Saturday, Ryan was worrying me to the point that I couldn't eat. As I was speeding over to his house I got a call from my mom and was about to ignore it thinking she was going to call me back to the house to eat, but I decided at the last minute to answer instead.

"Honey, we um, we just checked the phone and there was a voicemail from Ryan's mother. She asked us to look after their dogs for the day...she said they were at the hospital."

I dropped my phone into the cup holder and made a completely illegal u-turn while my eyes were fogged up with water. I couldn't let myself cry, maybe Eve was just having another allergic reaction. I drove down to the hospital as my hands shook in terror, but I kept trying to calm myself down.

"Okay Rose, calm down. Just calm down. If you don't stop crying, you won't be able to drive."

Yes, I was talking to myself.

"Dear God, please just calm my nerves at this moment. I pray that you would be with Ryan and his family, and whatever is going on. Please help them, please."

I couldn't stop crying as I pulled into the parking lot and ran to the doors.

"Excuse me miss, who are you?" A rude nurse snapped at me.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was wondering if anyone under the last name of Terry checked in here?"

"Um yes, but are you eighteen?"

"No, not yet. I will be in a mo-"

"You can't see anyone then. But you are welcome to wait in the waiting room, okay?"

I nodded and headed over to the uncomfortable chairs, plopping down near an older man who was clutching a picture to his chest. We made eye contact and then both awkwardly looked the other way. I wanted to see the picture in his hand and tried to look out through the corner of my eye, but instead I saw Eve running towards me. It wasn't her they were here for.