In Memory...
So today's Independence Day. I use to love this holiday, next to Halloween, it was my favorite. What's not to love, fireworks, cookouts, waterfights, baseball games, family, friends, all wonderful. I say use to love this holiday, 5 years ago all of that changed. I had just graduated high school and was having the best summer to date. We didn't have a care in the world, my friends and I, and why would the 4th of July be any different? We all piled into cars and headed down to the river to watch the fireworks, the kegs would wait at the after party, no drinking, just the fun of the fireworks at the Saginaw River. It was the last set of fireworks I could stand to watch. They seemed almost majestic. I was there with 30 of my closest friends from high school. We were a tight knit bunch that were still refusing to admit that we were all leaving eachother in a few short weeks. We go to leave and cross the street to go back to Brian's truck, a few faces in the mass of people crossing the road, when out of nowhere a van is barreling down the road. People scattered, but there were too many people and the van was going too fast. Brian pushed Val out of the way and then was hit dead on by the speeding van. He went up into the air and came down with a thud in the middle of the street with the smell of fireworks still in the air. The van turns around and takes off, with a crowd of people paralyzed by what just happened. We rush to Brian, but we all knew. The ambulance came and got him, another came to get Val, the van ran over her ankle. We called Mr. and Mrs. Stephens and then and rushed to the hospital parking lot. I swear we heard Val scream when she found out. We all just knew, Brian was gone. The emotions that followed we unspeakable. They finally caught the woman who killed him. She was legally drunk, twice the legal limit when they found her 2 hours later. She had her two little kids in the back of the car. She claimed she had hit a dog. She didn't hit a dog, she hit our friend. The funeral came and went, we had a makeshift memorial where it happened. I spent many hours there talking to him, trying to make sense of it all. He had been my first boyfriend, my first kiss, a classmate and friend since kindergarten, and just like that he was gone. Now fast forward 5 years, none of have been back to the fireworks since that night. We've all moved on, grown up some, but tonight, in honor of Brian, we're all going back. I know I'll cry, I know we all will. The world lost a good guy that night, #64, Rudy Bingo. I miss you and love Brian, we all do.