Drop the Needle: Death #32

TITLE: April O'Neal (as yet untitled
GENRE: Young Adult

After her father has been in an accident, April sees a news report of her dad performing a rescue while sitting in the hospital waiting room.


A doctor enters the room at that moment. I listen in silence as he tells me my father sustained fatal injuries as the result of a car accident this afternoon. "We did what we could, but he'd lost too much blood. He never regained consciousness." I slide from the couch to the floor. I look up at the doctor, thinking I didn't hear him correctly. I just saw my dad on the news. Saving a boy. Saving a boy. He was fine. Well, except for the whole rushing water thing. But there he was, calmly doing his job as if putting himself in danger for other people is a sane thing to do. His shift wasn't even supposed to be over yet. What was he doing in his car?

"No. NO." I point at the TV. "He was on the news." The doctor looks away, uncomfortable. He has a look on his face a lot like the policeman who brought me here in his cruiser. It makes me wonder. You'd think a doctor would be better at delivering bad news. He probably has to do it a lot. Or maybe that's why he looks like he's holding something sour in his mouth. Maybe you just never get good at telling a girl her father is dead.