Under the Rose Bush Ch. 1

Romance, mystery, fantasy, and adventure  
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"Aren't you coming with us to sign the papers?" Roxanne asked as she stepped into Anne's room.

"No, if mom and dad don't mind I'm going to stay here, get these last few things packed and over to the house." Anne replied.

"We could always take them over after we sign the papers." Roxanne pointed out.

"I know, but mom and dad said since Mr. Parker let us move our stuff in before signing the final papers that if we could get everything moved over there before they sign the papers we could get pizza. All I have to do is get this stuff over there then let mom and dad know, then no one will have to worry about cooking dinner and we can get straight to the celebrating." Anne replied.

"That sounds like a great idea, you do all the work and we all get pizza." Ray, the girls fourteen year old brother said popping his head through the door.

Anne picked up a box and walked over to Ray, "Here put this in to the truck before you leave and then if mom and dad aren't ready to leave yet you can load the rest of these boxes." she said dropping the box into his arms.

"Remind me to keep my big mouth shut until after she does all the work next time." Ray said as he left the room.

"There won't be a next time." Roxanne said with a grin, "I can't believe after all these years of renting places that we're finally going to have our own house. I can't wait to get my room painted just the way I want it. Think we can convince mom and dad to let us finally get a kitten?" Roxanne asked.

"I hope so, I've been begging them for a kitten for over sixteen years now and instead of a kitten they got me you." Anne replied.

"But I'm so much more fun, right?" Roxanne asked.

"I don't know, most of the time I guess." Anne replied with a grin.

"So how are you going to decorate your room? Paint or wall paper?" Roxanne asked.

"I don't know, it's fine the way it is and I'll probably only be living at home until I graduate in two years. It doesn't seem right to ask mom and dad to pay to change my room when I won't be there that long." Anne replied.

"Do you really think mom is going to let you move out that easily?" Roxanne asked.

"Of course, why wouldn't she?" Anne asked.

"Because she hates the idea of you living alone, I mean she did bribe you to go to the local collage so you could stay at home." Roxanne pointed out.

"Well she was right, they have a good archaeology course and no rent, bills or worrying about having a regular job does make it easier to focus on school." Anne replied.

"True, but I still think the reason she tried so hard to convince you to stay is because she couldn't bear the thought of you leaving. Do you think she'll totally freak out when she finds out I want to spend a year after I graduate traveling around the country?" Roxanne asked.

"Probably, even I would be worried about you running around alone like that." Anne told her.

"Oh my gosh, I just got the best idea ever!" Roxanne exclaimed, "You'll graduate from collage the same year I graduate from high school, we could both just take a year off and see the country. That way you won't have to worry about me and mom won't worry as much since we'll be together and look out for each other."

"Are you planning on going to Gettysburg?" Anne asked.

"Of course, ghost hunting in Gettysburg can be our first destination, and we'll go to New York,"

"And Williamsburg," Anne added.

"And Hollywood." Roxanne said.

"And Jamestown."

"Anne, Roxanne, it's time to go." Their mother, Mabel called from downstairs.

"We'll finish planning our trip as soon as we get back." Roxanne said as they headed down stairs.

---

"Are you two ready to go finally get those papers signed?" Mabel asked when the girls got down stairs.

"Yep." Roxanne replied.

"I was going to stay here and get the last few things packed up and over to the house." Anne told her.

"Okay, your dad already has the mattresses loaded into the truck, be careful driving though, they didn't all fit in completely so they're only held in by the ropes." Mabel told her.

"No problem, I'll be careful, oh and call me before you guys come home." Anne told her.

"You ready to go?" their father George asked as he came in then swept Mabel into his arms and kissed her, "Twenty one years of saving and we're finally going to own our own home." he said excitedly.

"We could have owned our own home years ago if we'd gotten a loan." Mabel pointed out.

"You know I don't like to be in debt to anyone, if-"

"you don't have the money to pay for it now don't buy it now." Mabel and all three kids finished.

"Do I say that a lot or something?" George asked.

"Only every time we get a credit card offer in the mail." Anne replied.

"Or ask to borrow money from you." Ray added.

"Well at least we'll never have to worry about losing the house because of not being able to make mortgage payments." George replied.

"True, now let's go get those papers signed." Mabel said then gave Anne a hug and kiss, "Love you, be careful driving out to the house."

"I will mom, love you too." Anne replied then said good bye to the rest of her family before they left.

Once they were gone Anne finished packing the last few things out of the refrigerator, loaded them into the truck then headed to the house.

It was a large old farm house and would have looked very plain if not for the bay windows on either side of the front door that went up both stories and a tower on one corner. A large porch wrapped around the house with a porch swing on one side facing towards a nearby forest on the property. The main entrance was actually a side door by the garage while the front door just opened into the yard.
Inside was a good sized kitchen with a laundry room, bathroom and a door that opened to the stairway to the upstairs to the left. Straight through the kitchen was a door that could be closed during the summer to keep the heat of cooking and canning food from spreading into the rest of the house. Through the door to the left was a closet, the room that would be her parent's bedroom and the basement door. Straight ahead was a hallway with a door on the right that lead into another small room, at the end of the hall was the huge living room that stretched from one side of the house to the other, with another stairway to the upstairs coming out along the hallway, this stairway had a beautifully carved banister.
Upstairs was a good sized bathroom, six bedrooms and a door leading to the full attic as well as a door leading out onto the roof of the garage.
To the south and west of the house were a number of old farm buildings, most of them having fallen into  disrepair as the previous owner had gotten too old to care for them on his own. Her family wouldn't start up a fully operating farm, but planned to at least get a few chickens, cows or goats for milk and if Anne, Roxanne and Daniel had their way, a few horses.
The entire property was surrounded by some small fields and then forests around those giving the place a feeling of being cut off from the rest of the world except for a break in the trees where the driveway was.

Anne unloaded the truck and laid the mattresses out in the living room. The entire family would camp out in there for the first night in their new home, playing games until bed time and talking about their plans for the house until they fell asleep. It had been a tradition every time they moved, so they intended to make it memorable since it would be the last time they would be moving. together

Once she had everything arranged in the living room for that evening Anne headed outside and started planting two rose bushes they transplanted from the other house. Mabel had always loved growing flowers, but had never been able to have a very big garden at the houses they had rented, so she had big plans to have flowers growing all the way around the house, starting with the rose bushes on both sides of the front steps.

As Anne started to dig the hole for the second rose bush on the left side of the steps she dug straight into a nest of ants, "Sorry about this, I'll try not to mess up your nest any more than necessary." she said as she placed the rose bush in the hole and covered it back up.

Anne wasn't quite the type of person who wouldn't hurt a fly, but aside from flies and mosquitoes she usually avoided killing anything. Even going so far as to carry spiders that her mother and sister were afraid of, out of the house to let them go and chastising Ray for deliberately stepping on ants when he saw them on the sidewalk, telling him that he should respect all life no matter how small.

Once she was done with the roses Anne spent the next few hours unpacking her mother's sewing supplies and arranging the room that her mother had chosen to set up as a sewing room. She had just placed the sewing machine on a table in front of the window when her mother finally called, "I was starting to worry, did you guys forget how to get here?" Anne asked.

"No, we just went on a little detour." Mabel replied, "So what do you want on your pizza?"

"The usual, sausage and extra cheese." Anne replied.

"Okay, we'll be home within the next hour." Mabel told her.

"Good, I just finished setting up a surprise for you." Anne told her.

"Let me talk to her a minute." Roxanne said in the background then a moment later had the phone, "So guess what we got?"

"A car load of flowers?" Anne guessed.

"No, if we had let mom near plants we would be running a lot later. Listen." Roxanne said.

A moment later Anne heard a mew on the other end of the phone, "You got a cat?" Anne exclaimed excitedly.

"A kitten, this kid was sitting by the road with a free kittens sign, I convinced dad to stop and the kid said he had to get rid of the kittens or his mom was going to take them to the pound, so we got one. That's why we're running late, we had to stop and buy a few things for the kitten." Roxanne told her.

"What does it look like?" Anne asked.

"It's all black with short fur and- just a minute it just jumped into the back end." Roxanne said.

"Roxanne, you shouldn't have your seat belt off." Anne could here Mable saying in the background.

"It's just for a second, I need to get the kitten." Roxanne replied.

"Okay, I'm back." Roxanne said a moment later.

"Good, did you catch the kitten?" Anne asked.

"Yes, and she's going straight into her carrier." Roxanne replied.

"And you're buckled in?" Anne asked.

"You're starting to sound like mom and doing the over protective big sister thing again." Roxanne pointed out.

"It's my job." Anne replied.

"I know and most of the time I appreciate it. I'll be buckled in just a seco-" Roxanne was cut off as there was a loud crash and scrapping of metal, another bang and her family screaming before the phone went dead.

Heart pounding and hands shaking Anne quickly tried to call them back, but got no answer. After trying a few more times she called the police, told them what had happened and asked if any accidents had been report in the last few minutes.

After an agonizingly long few minutes the officer came back on the line and asked, "Were they driving a dark green four door SUV  or a black four door pick up?"

Heart sinking and barely managing to keep the panic out of her voice Anne replied, "Yes, the SUV, are they alright? What happened?"

"I don't have any information yet, all I know right now is that there was a collision, officers should be on the scene in a few minutes. I'll call you back as soon as I hear anything." he told her.

"Okay, thank you." Anne said before hanging up, then started digging through a bag of Roxanne's stuff until she found her cell phone then called her best friend, "Mary?" Anne asked when someone answered the phone.

"Yeah, Anne, what's going on? You don't sound right." Mary asked.

"My family, I was on the phone with Roxanne and it sounded like they were in a really bad accident, the police said it was them, but they couldn't tell me anything else yet." Anne told her, her voice shaking as she struggled to not start crying.

"I'm coming over there, where are you?" Mary asked.

"I'm at the new house, but if the police call back and say they're taking them to the hospital then I'm going to be going there." Anne told her.

"Well call me if they do and I'll just meet you there, either way I'm coming to stay with you until we know what's going on." Mary told her.

"Okay." Anne replied.

Fifteen minutes later Mary got to the house, "Have you heard anything yet?" she asked when Anne answered the door.

"Nothing yet." Anne replied.

"It's going to be alright, I'm sure they're fine." Mary said as she hugged Anne.

Anne broke down and started to cry, "But it sounded so horrible, they were screaming. What if they're hurt badly or- or" Anne couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Don't even think about that, it's going to be alright." Mary told her.

There was a knock at the door and Anne felt her heart sink when she saw a police woman there.

"Are you Anne Revert?" she asked.

"Yes." Anne replied as Mary stepped up next to her and took her hand.

"I'm officer Jane Hansen, I need you to come with me, I'll explain on the way." she told her.

"I'll be right behind you." Mary said as they quickly locked up the house and Anne got into the police car.

As soon as they pulled onto the road Jane turned on the lights and sirens then sped down the road.

"What's going on?" Anne asked although she was terrified of what the answer might be.

"You're family was on an overpass when a drunk driver hit them, the other driver was in a big truck going way over the speed limit. The impact threw your family's car off the overpass, the gas tank came down on a metal sign post and exploded. One person was thrown out of the car as it went off of the over pass, but she's in critical condition and the paramedics weren't sure if she'd make it. I thought it would be faster and safer if I take you to the hospital." Jane explained.

"No, my parent's, my brother, are dead and my sister may not survive? This can't be happening." Anne said in disbelief as tears began to pour down her face.

"I'm sorry, I know it's not much under the circumstances, but your parent's and brother wouldn't have suffered, they died instantly." Jane told her.

-----

When they got to the hospital the doctor was just coming out of the room Roxanne was supposed to be in.

"How is she?" Anne asked.

"You must be Anne." the doctor said a note of sympathy in his voice.

"Yes. How is my sister?" Anne repeated.

"Not well I'm afraid, she was thrown at great speed, from quite high into the pavement, it's a miracle she even regained consciousness after we got her here. Nearly half of her ribs are broken, along with both legs, an arm and her back, as well as cracked skull. There is extensive internal damage and bleeding. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for her, except to make her as comfortable as possible. You should go in, I don't know how long you have." the doctor told her.

Anne turned to the door and walked in without a word, she was too stunned to reply.

Roxanne looked up as Anne stepped into the room, "It's about time you showed up. I was beginning to think you were actually going to skip out on a chance to bug me about not listening to you fast enough." she said jokingly, although her voice was strained with pain.

"You know I'd never miss out on a chance like that." Anne struggled to reply as tears began to run down her face.

"Don't start crying, so I broke every bone in my body and feel miserable, it's not like it's the first time I've broken a bone because of not listening to you. Remember the tree branch that you said was too thin to hold my weight and I thought I was going to prove you wrong?" Roxanne asked.

"but you just ended up proving me right." Anne replied.

"I ended up with a broken leg on the way down and gave you a concussion when you tried to catch me and you fell, hitting your head on the tree trunk. We're tough, as long as we're together we can get through anything." Roxanne said her voice slowly becoming weaker and more strained.

Anne struggled to keep from breaking down, swiping at the tears that refused to stop while holding Roxanne's hand in the other.

Roxanne looked at Anne's face then asked, "Is it really that bad?"

"The doctor said-" Anne choked back a sob, "there's too much internal damage, there's- there's nothing they can do." she finally managed to get out.

"You have to promise me you'll take good care of Blackie for me." Roxanne said, sounding remarkably calm for someone who had just found out they were dieing, although Anne could see the fear in her eyes.

"Who is Blackie?" Anne asked.

"The kitten." a horrified look crossed Roxanne's face, "she didn't get thrown out with me did she?"

"I don't know, I'll ask the police." Anne replied.

"If she's alright tell Ray he's not allowed to put tape on her feet to make her dance, he kept trying to do that after we picked her up. If he doesn't get here before- just tell him it was his dieing sister's last wish that he be as nice as possible to that kitten." Roxanne said, "How are mom and dad and Ray anyways, no one has mentioned them, I know they hit the guardrail, but that shouldn't be worse than a few broken bones, maybe a bad case of whiplash, I thought they would have come to check on me by now."

For a moment Anne debated what to tell her and finally settled on a small lie to hopefully save her sister some worrying, "They were pretty banged up, I'm sure they'll be here to see you as soon as possible." she replied.

"They'd better hurry up, I don't want you to be here alone when- when-" Roxanne finally started to cry, "I'm so scared."

"You'll be alright, you're going to be with our grandparents and aunt Jennie and great grandma and grandpa Revert, I know you barely remember them, but they were so nice, you'll just love them. Before you know it mom, dad, Ray and I will be there with you." Anne told her as she carefully laid down on the side of the bed and held her as well as she could.

The two talked for about fifteen more minutes before Roxanne lost consciousness.

"I love you." Anne whispered gently kissing Roxanne's forehead.

A moment later the machines started buzzing to indicate that her heart had stopped. Anne got off of the bed as nurses and the doctor came rushing in, but they did nothing to resuscitate Roxanne, they just confirmed that she was dead.

Anne backed against the far wall watching, a feeling of overwhelming loneliness seeming to paralyze her as she slid down the wall unable to do anything but cry. Cry for the lost dreams of her parent's that had been so close to coming true, the shattered hopes and dreams of her siblings and for herself, left alone with no family, her mother an only child, her father's only sibling having died a few years earlier, the only living relative she knew of was her great grandmother's sister who lived in Ireland and probably didn't even know she existed. She was truly alone and began to wish she had gone with her family to sign the papers.

Anne was literally shaken from her thoughts as  Mary lightly shook her shoulder and called her name, Anne looked up at her, "What?"

Mary let out a relieved sigh, "Thank goodness, you were kind of out of it for a while there, you had the doctor and I pretty worried."

"I'm sorry I just-" Anne started but started crying again.

"It's alright, let's just get you out of here." Mary said as she helped Anne up.

-------------

By the time they got back to the house Anne had stopped crying and asked, "What am I going to do, how do I go on without them? Everything was so perfect, we were all so happy, mom and dad were finally getting their dream house, how could this happen? Why now?"

"I don't know, but you're strong and I'm here for you, you'll pull through this." Mary told her as she hugged her causing her to start crying again.

A moment later there was a knock at the door, Anne answered it to find officer Hansen standing there with a cat carrier in her hand.

"We found this little girl at the crash site, from the looks of it she got thrown out with your sister, she's pretty badly banged up, she'll be sore and limping for a while, she's been taken to a vet and they said she just has a few scrapes and some bad bruises, but by some miracle the carrier landed in a bush and she has no broken bones." Jane told her.

Tears brimmed Anne's eyes as she looked into the carrier to see the tiny black kitten huddled to the back, "Thank you, at least I can keep one promise that I made my sister." she said as she took the kitten.

"You're welcome. If you need someone to talk to or anything, just give me a call day or night." Jane said as she handed Anne a card with her phone number on it.

"Thank you, I will." Anne replied.

As soon as Anne shut the door Mary opened the cat carrier and handed Anne the kitten, "Here, hold her until I come back." she instructed.

"Okay." Anne replied as she held the kitten close and pet it.

A few minutes later Mary came back, "Okay, my mom is bringing over some stuff for the kitten. Now do you want to come over to my house tonight or are we going to stay here?" she asked.

"I want to stay here, I don't want to leave all of our stuff alone and I feel better out here in the country." Anne replied.

"Okay, I'm going to call my boss and let him know I won't be into work tomorrow and then I'll find us something to eat." Mary said.

"I don't think I can eat and don't skip work for me, I'll be fine." Anne told her, although she knew it wasn't true.

"You've got to eat at least a little something. And I'm not going to just leave you here alone tomorrow after all this." Mary replied.

"Yes you are, we both know your boss doesn't like you taking days off, he'd probably throw a fit if you asked for two days off in the same week and I'm going to need you at the-" Kate choked up for a moment before she finally managed to finish, "at the funeral."

"Alright, if you're sure." Mary replied reluctantly.