ZULU 119 ER

          It was a hot day in June. Marc Codley was sitting on the metal chair in the open high-school football field with the sun beating down on him. The tassel from his black mortar board hat kept getting in his eyes and he kept pushing it away and wiping away the little beads of sweat forming on his forehead as he tried to concentrate on what the speakers were saying. He looked into the bleachers, almost expecting his parents to be smiling and looking back at him!  He soon realized there was no one looking at him. His mind wandered and his thoughts drifted back in time to almost two years ago. It was a month after he turned sixteen. Like a lot of youngsters, the biggest thing on his mind was obtaining his drivers license. He constantly bugged his parents to get his license, until they were tired of hearing him. But they were planning a big surprise for him. They had purchased a Ford two door sedan that his father found in one of the used car lots dotting Main Street. They wanted to keep the purchase a secret. It was difficult! They listened to him talk about his license and ignored him, almost to the point of tormenting him. He never knew what they were planning until after it happened.

       Marc was home alone that morning. He was finishing the rest of his homework which he had not completed before going off to bed. A Police Detective Sergeant came to his family’s apartment on Maple Street, walked up the front steps and knocked on the door. He was waiting for his parents to return from a dinner party they had gone to the evening before. He did not understand why his mother was not in the kitchen making him his school lunch, as she usually was. She was not there!

         He heard footsteps. He thought it was them coming in. They had only stayed out all night a few times in the past. Marc heard a knock on the door.

        ‘It was unusual to hear a knock this time of night. They must have forgotten their key,’ he thought.

        But after he heard the knock, he knew it was not them. He opened the door. There was a man in plain clothes standing at the door.

        Police Detective George Morey introduced himself as he held out the gold police shield and identity card, with his photo on it, that was encased in the leather wallet.

       “Are you Marc Codley?” the Detective asked.

        Marc answered “Yes I am. Why do you ask? What is the problem?”

        The Detective had a serious expression on his face. “May I come in Marc?”

        He asked Marc again. “Are your parents Edward and Sally Codley?”

        The boy opened the door and replied “Yes”.

        The Detective stepped through the door into the apartment. “I have some bad news, Marc. May I sit down?”

        Marc began to worry now.

        Detective Morey continued. “I don’t know an easier way to tell you this Marc. Your parents were killed in an automobile accident early this morning. It appears as if a drunken driver crossed the highway divider and hit them head on. I don’t believe they ever knew what happened.”