One Is Empty
By Dane Colson
The date is May 19, 1997. Kevin sits in his high school
auditorium silently surrounded by ninety-eight chairs. Kevin Franklin and
ninty-six of his fellow classmates graduated earlier this morning. He is
all alone. And while all his friends are out partying trying to forget,
Kevin cannot. He will never be able to forget the terrible tragedy that
happened just a few short days ago. So he sits. And as tears drip down
from his face and collect on the floor below, he remembers everything. As
he closes his eyes tightly and grits his teeth, his mind begins to take
him back.
It is May 11. Kevin wakes up and looks at his clock. It is noon
already! He jumps out of bed, throws on some dirty old clothes and goes
down the hall to his brothers room.
"Billy!!." There was no answer, "Yo, Billy, what the heck are you
doing! You were supposed to get us up at nine!"
"Shut up!," screamed Billy.
"Shut up?!," Kevin paused, "Did I hear you correctly?! Do you
want some of this!?" Kevin exclaimed as he stood in the doorway with his
arms held out to the side.
"You and I both know that I could kick the crap out of your wussy
butt." Billy said, "Anyway, I didnt feel like getting up."
"So now what, genius." Kevin said sarcastically.
"What do you mean?"
"The booze, you idiot, what are we going to do about booze for
tonight."
Billy sat up in his bed and started to put some clothes on.
"Don't worry about it, Bro." He said calmly. "I've got some hard stuff
under my bed." He pulled out a huge bottle that read BLACK VELVET. He
could barely hold it up, it was so heavy. "This oughta get the job done."
He laughed.
"Oh, Okay." Kevin said. They both started to laugh. Kevin looked
over on Billys dresser and saw all his football metals. "I cant believe a
big football stud like yourself would throw away days of hard training to
go get wasted." Kevin said sarcastically.
"Oh yeah," Billy said as he got up out of bed and came to his
feet. "Well, at least I'm not some wussy little All-Star baseball player."
Each of the brothers had a college athletic scholarship. Billy
had made All-State honors two years in a row in football and was very
highly recruited. Kevin was All-State in baseball three years in a row
and was also heavily recruited. They decided that they wanted to go to
the same school so that they could room together.
"So, like, are you going to call Jeff and Trent or do I have to?"
Kevin asked.
"I already did" Billy said as he rummaged through his gym bag.
"Why am I always the last to know everything around here?" Kevin
asked as he watched gym clothes fly out of Billys bag and across his room.
"Because.......do you really want to know?" Billy asked as he
kept looking for something in his bag.
"Yeah, tell me. Im curious." Kevin sounded irritated.
"Well, its very simple really." Billy, with a mischievous smirk
on his face, paused and looked up at Kevin. "Because you suck, of
course." Kevin knew that was coming. Billy continued to look in his bag.
"Yes, there they are!" Billy said as he held up the keys to his
car. "Were taking this baby out tonight, he said pretending to be proud."
"That old hunk of crap." whined Kevin.
"Yeah, that way we can tear around."
That old hunk of crap was a tiny little Toyota. It was so old
and rusted out that you could hardly tell that it used to be blue.
So the rest of the day they sat and talked while watching T.V. and
playing video game until about 10:00pm. They had already loaded up their
car before their parents got home from wherever they had been and were now
getting ready to leave and pick up Jeff and Trent.
"Where are you two going?" asked Nancy, their mom.
"Were going to go get Jeff and Trent and hang out or something."
Billy said.
"You boys better not be too late. Church is in the morning and
you will be there." said Terry, their dad.
"Dont worry." Kevin said.
Nancy spoke up again as they began to walk out the door. "Just
don't be too late, boys." They said okay and walked out the door.
As they drove across town to pick up Jeff and Trent, Billy said,
"Kev, you better drive tonight. You always drive better drunk than I do.
We both know that we dont need a ticket tonight."
"Yeah, last time you drove you about got us killed." They both
laughed and Billy drove on.
They picked Jeff and Trent up at Jeffs house and drove out to the
country. They drank as much as they could in a half hour and then started
back into town. Kevin was driving now and Billy was sitting to his right
in the passenger seat. Jeff sat behind Billy and was so drunk that he
could hardly speak. When they finally got back into town Jeff began to
throw up. Trent smashed himself against the door to get as far away from
Jeff as possible. He was having trouble not throwing up himself. When
Billy heard Jeff puking he turned around and started yelling at him to
stop. Billy just kept yelling louder and louder. Then Kevin turned
around and started yelling at both of them. Shut the hell up!!! Im tryin
to frickin drive here! The yelling made Kevin very woozy and Billy just
kept getting louder. Kevin turned in his seat once more. His strength
was fading. All of a sudden, WHAM!!!!!! They smashed into the back of a
parked car!!!! The sudden impact threw Billy and Kevin through the
windshield. Jeff and Trent were thrown into the front seat. None of them
had their seat belts on.
Probably five or ten minutes passed before Kevin woke up. When he
opened his eyes he was staring straight into the asphalt. In the
background he could here Trent yelling and crying. He could here Jeff
still trying to puke, but nothing was coming out. He could also hear
others that he couldnt recognize. But he didnt hear Billy. He got
himself to his feet and began to walk slowly and painfully to where all
the people were gathered. Trent looked at him. His eyes were full with
tears. He walked closer to the group of people. He heard one of them
say. Its over. Hes gone. He saw Billy laying on the ground in a huge
puddle of blood. Kevin fell to his knees and wept. Billy was dead.
May 19, 1997-
Kevin stands on the stage. Hundreds of people are sitting quietly
waiting to here the Valedictorians speech. Tears seam to flood the room.
Kevin begins to speak. "My name is Kevin. I am a member of the Class of
1997. There are ninty-seven students here to graduate today and there are
ninty-eight chairs to be filled. One is empty." Billy, Kevin pauses as
the guiltfull tears overwhelm him. "We're gonna miss ya pal. Im sorry."
He breaks into tears. He cannot go on. As he sits down he knows that he
will never ever forget that fateful night no matter how hard he might try.
He buries his head in his hands and closes his eyes. He realizes that his
brothers death will haunt him for the rest of his life. He wishes that he
could live that night over again. He will miss him.
Comments for Dane Colson? Email him:dcolson@esu16.esu16.k12.ne.us