Jeffrey Kam

7/7/04

Autobiographical Incident

I was spending the night at my friend Andy’s house. I was eleven years old at the time. It was summer time and I would always go to Andy’s house. I went to sleep late that night after watching movies. Later that morning, Mrs. Nguyen, Andy’s mom, woke me up really early. It was a Saturday and I was planning on sleeping in. Mrs. Nguyen said that my mom had called and said I needed to go home now. I was a little disappointed. I couldn’t figure out why she’d call so early and ask me to go home. Mrs. Nguyen asked me why I had to go. I didn’t fully know but I said it was so she could bring be back to school shopping on the count of that school was starting in a week. My mom had planned to bring me back to school shopping but I didn’t expect it to be right now, nor this early on a Saturday. Well I got dressed and got in the car with Andy as we waited for his mom to come drive me home. While we waited, we turned the volume of radio all the way up so that when Mrs. Nguyen started the car up, the radio would be blasting loud. Mrs. Nguyen got in the car and started the engine. And the radios blurted out loud. We laughed hard enough for it to last the five minute drive home. When I got home, Mrs. Nguyen pulled up to the drive way and I got out of the car.  As I leaned my head through the window to thank her for the ride, I could still hear the radio playing on the station 96.5.  I said goodbye to Andy and walked inside. The first thing I noticed was that my two little brothers were watching Saturday morning cartoons. This boggled me because we weren’t allowed to watch cartoons on Saturday. I walked over to the kitchen to ask my mom why she called me in so early. She was on the phone with watery eyes and a red face. It seemed as if she had been crying for a while now. While I waited for her to finish talking on the phone, I grabbed a granola bar from the pantry and munched down on it. I could hear the sounds from cartoons my brothers were watching on the television. As I chewed down the granola bar, my dad came called me out to the living room. He had a sad and concerned type face as he was trying to tell me something. I asked him what was wrong but he wouldn’t respond. Still chewing on the granola bar, my dad slowly told me something. He slowly told me, word by word, that last night, while my grandma and grandpa were on the way here; they were in a terrible car crash. Tears fell from his eyes and he put his hand over his eyes. I asked if they were okay, and my dad hesitated to reply. At this point, my heart was beating hard, and the half finished granola bar that I was once chewing on was now on the floor. My dad abruptly said to me that grandpa was killed in the crash, and grandma is in the hospital in serious condition. I busted out in tears but I didn’t make a sound. I tried to hold it in. I asked my dad again, not understanding fully what happened. I was still confused. “Are they okay?” I asked. My dad turned away and walked out of the living room. My mom then came in a hugged me as we both cried away.