Ken & Andie Story 3/9

I kept the same shift at the diner after graduation, and continued to work so I could save money.

August 23rd I had a dream that was so graphic and strange. I woke up very disturbed and went to work. It would not leave my mind, so I wrote it down hoping it would leave me.

In the dream, a hearse came to our house, but it was black and white checkered like a taxi. As it neared, I saw the roof had collapsed and was level to the lower window frame. It was a long dream with lots of detail. At the time it made no sense.

September 23rd the neighbors pulled up the front of our house, they said the boys have been in an accident. I knew. I knew at that exact moment. We got into the car and drove to the hospital. The nuns tried to take me to a room but I wouldn’t let them. I did not want the black and white robed women pulling at me. I felt like I was in an under water chamber, echoing and clear. I could feel a high frequency buzzing and the air was crystal like after a thunderstorm. He was on a cot in a

Cubicle, a cold room. I knew he was gone. I know his head and neck was broken long before the doctors told us. Even before all the pitiful looks directed at us.

Their car had been weaving in and out of traffic and the driver lost control. My brother was in the passenger seat, his friend and the drivers brother sat in the back.

Driver: scratches and bruises.

His brother scratches and bruises.

My bothers friend, severe facial injuries, he eventually became an oral surgeon. The car was crushed when it flipped into the concrete support on the expressway.

Roof collapsing on the passenger side.

He died. We were so close and now he was gone.

We had to make arrangements. My mother said we should go to a place just south of the bank she worked at and closer to the first apartment we had in this country. The funeral home at Lawrence and Austin.

We walked into the lobby. There was a round table with a large chandelier in the middle of the squarish room. An office immediately to the right, and a row of big fish tanks lining the wall leading to double doors to the driveway.

There was a man at the desk with a collie dog next to him. He gets up, and I see it’s the annoying kid from “Mr B’s” years ago. He’s startled to see us, and goes to get his father who handled the business we had brought him.

Ken 22 Andi 18