*Author's note: This picks up about 2 weeks after part 20 left off. Kate will be telling it all and she is now back home pagina in the house in town, not at the trailer house in the mountains anymore. Also keep in mind Kate has no idea that Buddy played a role in my death!*
The press eventually settled down and the media left Kate and Paul alone finally. After Jon's sudden death in the ravine a thing called an autopsy was performed on him. Jon's dad Paul explained it all to her.
Jon had suffered a fracture of his pelvis, hence the reason he had cried out in agony after the log struck him and he was swept away from the ledge door the water. It was likely the reason he could not climb out of the ravine, lost his footing up at the top, boven and fell.
When he fell the rock that he landed on snapped his spine and had he lived would never be able to stand up straight again. Jon had broken 7 ribs too somewhere along the way, he had massive internal injuries too. It was determined that his right lung collapsed and stopped working all together. The left lung had been punctured and was filling up with blood from inside his body somehow.
It was determined that he had died in a freak accident while trying to save his pet. Obviously nobody knew that Kate was meer to Jon than a pet.
The front page of the newspaper had read: "Young Man, 19 Dies Tragically When bever, beaver Dam Breaks". Followed door a beschrijving of how he died and what were the causes that Paul had explained to Kate.
There was an obituary written on Jon too in the Obituary Section of the paper. Below the obituary that was written door someone Kate did not know, was another thing that caught her eye. Paul had read this to her also.
In big bold letters the line read: "MY BEST FRIEND JON REMEMBERED" door Zach Sidewiner. volgende to the letters was a picture of Jon from his senior year. Jon's brilliant blue eyes shone bright even on paper, and of course he had a big smile. It was a long text but this is what part of it said...
When I first became vrienden with Jon we were nearing the end of our Sophomore jaar in high school. Actually I had known him a little before but we were never actually vrienden until that time. We were both about the same, not the populair kids door any means, of the kids that hung around all the high school girls. We were just there to be there. Jon was going through a rough stage at that time too. His house caught brand late in December of 2008, him and his dad both got out safely thank goodness!
For the longest time there seemed to be something wrong with him, he would be happy one minuut and become raging mad the volgende over something I never understood.
So one dag we were driving down the road in his old Jeep CJ5, it was dark, and snowing and blowing across the road real bad. The Jeep's heater was working overtime to try and keep the windows defogged but could not quite do it fast enough, Jon was getting frustrated with it. I will tell u what he zei but it will be censored for good reasons.
"This (bleeping) Jeep has the worst (bleeping) heater that I have ever seen in my whole (bleeping) life!"
I just sat in the passenger zitplaats, stoel quietly, listening to him, not knowing what to say to him. The snow kept falling and the flakes were getting bigger too, covering the roadway fast. The corner that we had to take was coming up. Jon shifted the Jeep from 4th gear down into 3rd gear and the big inline six motor that he used to brag about to me constantly, pulled down to a deep rev and slowed the Jeep without Jon having to touch the brakes. A big advantage on icy roads having a manual transmission!
It was then a thought occurred to me out of nowhere and I asked Jon without thinking.
"Hey Jon do u believe in God?"
Jon stopped muttering about the Jeep and looked at me, it was dark out and I could see the change in his eyes.
"Yes, but now I am not so sure," Jon told me.
"Why not?" I asked him.
"Well my parents divorced, my dad broke his back and became an alcoholic, and then my house burns to the ground almost..." Jon replied to me.
"You should put your Faith back into God and it will help u tremendously!" I told him.
"Okay, I will do that." Jon said, now turning back to driving.
The volgende maand came and went and Jon started to come to church with me and my family! I had never seen such a change in one person ever, he was happy all the time now and it took a lot of pressuring to get him to rage like he used to. That alone made our friendship even bigger, my family is very religious and I always thought that Jon and my dad would come to disagreements on certain things and that would eventually end our friendship. It never did though!
After that Jon and I began to hang out all the time. He would take me for rides in his Jeep up to the mountains when summer came and he took the top, boven off of it! Jon had his two Labrador Retriever dogs with him too, Buddy and Stormy. Jon packed a small koeler, koelwagen with snacks and an backup 5 gallon gas jug to take with us just in case, along with tools in case something broke on the trail. We would spend all dag exploring the old forgotten logging trails that he knew about so well. I would ask him things like this.
"Where does this go to?" Jon would reply to me with something like this.
"Oh it winds up a canyon, crosses a few creeks and then ends at a motorcycle trail and we have to turn around."
He meant it too, we drove a trail just like that and it was scary! It not only went behind a canyon but the trail was a narrow switchback with a shear drop-off on my side that climbed to the top, boven of the canyon before dropping back down the other side to kruis a few creeks to get to the motorcycle trail! Jon was a natural at four-wheeling too, could do things in that Jeep that I had never seen anyone do before. It was a 4 speed manual and on a 45 degree angle heuvel he could stop it and take off without stalling it of rolling backward! Something I could do with hours of practice, Jon just seemed naturally good at it though. He always told me it was a connection that is rarely shared between man and machine, and that he could tell just how far the clutch could be let out before the engine stalled. So he knew when to let the clutch out and give it gas so it wouldn't stall.
Later on that jaar though the Jeep began to give him a lot of mechanical trouble and instead of fixing it right away he drove his old yellow Bronco. Jon zei it was something to do with the engine, he told me it overheated once and that one of the rings on the pistons were blown probably. I did not really understand it though and left it to him to figure out, I am not a mechanic and do not claim to be.
Junior jaar came and went door quick like a bullet train, I mean it flew by! Before I knew it we were in our senior jaar and graduation was only a few months off! One night I called him up and we talked for a bit and he out of nowhere asked me a random question.
"Hey man have u heard of this new movie called Alpha and Omega?" Jon asked me.
I did not even know what he was talking about and was like, "no I have never heard of it."
That is pretty much all that needs to be zei on the matter! Jon became obsessed with the movie and talked about it all the time to me! When January came that jaar he bought the movie after it was released on DVD, we watched it over and over again, almost every night since it was too cold to do anything else. One time he watched it 3 times in one whole day...
That was as far as Kate needed to go, the rest she already knew what it said. The part where Zach finds out that his best friend was killed suddenly was too much for her and she did not want to go to that stage again!
Kate had been laying on Jon's bed in his empty room that afternoon, basking in the sun coming in the window and warming her body. The house was still and quiet, as if it even knew that a great part of it had been lost 2 weeks geleden also.
Stormy came and went as she pleased, Kate did not understand what she was up to. Maybe Stormy was looking for antwoorden about what happened to her master. Kate had confronted Stormy about it once and asked her if she wanted to know what happened to Jon. Stormy politely as always replied with a stiff shake of her head and a soft "no thanks Kate," and she left the room they had been in.
Paul came into the bedroom; snapping Kate out of her thoughts, he sat on the bed and looked around Jon's room. Paul's eyes glowed with interest.
"My son was an interesting young man wasn't he?"
Kate looked around Jon's room and noticed all the neat things he had everywhere.
Posters on the wall, calendars. A stack of films volgende to the TV on the shelf directly across from the bed. Little cars with numbers and red flames on them sat on the windowsill that the sun was coming through. boeken and magazines with tricked out 4x4s and some motorcycle magazines were stacked below the TV. A few dusty trophies, one with a guy riding a motorcycle and 3 others that Kate did not know of. A golden statue was standing on top, boven holding a round ball-looking thing and appeared to be running vooruit, voorwaarts to throw the ball.
"Yes," Kate finally said, "he was a great person."
Paul nodded, Kate saw his eyes were red but he was not crying.
"You know Kate, should u ever need to have to talk to someone about Jon..." Paul began.
Kate was shaking her head and got up and jumped off her sunny spot on the bed and was prepared to leave.
"You should know this Kate about my son Jonathan; u meant a great deal to him. That's all I got to say." Paul zei standing up and looking at her, Kate saw his eyes start to glimmer a bit, she nodded.
"I know," Kate zei softly, she then left and went out into the yard.
Kate wandered around through the yard; past the ancient, majestic cottonwood trees, their leaves rustling in the breeze. The sun was setting and it cast their shadows long across the lawn. The two appel, apple trees were in bloom and smelled great.
Kate remembered a time not long geleden when she and Jon were standing under one of the appel, apple trees and she had met Buddy for the first time.
Across the yard she kept moving and the further away she got from the sun, the koeler, koelwagen the gras felt on her paws. Kate was close to the creek now and could hear the water. It was then she noticed a familiar black shape sitting down there on the bank; facing the setting sun, it was Stormy! Kate strolled up to her.
"Hey Stormy," Kate said.
"Oh hallo Kate, sit and watch the sun set with me!" Stormy exclaimed, for the first time in 2 weeks Kate heard faint happiness in her voice.
Kate sat volgende to the black dog and faced the sun. Kate was taken back too! The setting sun blazed dark oranje and red in the background and the massive cottonwoods and house were silhouetted door it. Kate could only gape in shock, Stormy did too.
"I never realized just how beautiful this place was!" Kate zei to Stormy.
"Yeah it is amazing isn't it!" Stormy answered.
"It is...! Oh no!" Kate caught sight of a large brown object padding down the heuvel toward them, it was Buddy.
Stormy and Kate watched as the big, muscular male dog strolled right up to them, right up to Kate to be exact.
"Well, well, well! I couldn't have come out back here at a better time for my evening dip in the creek!" Buddy zei coolly, but at the same time softly. Kate could smell the scent of something nasty in his breath, something dead he had probably gotten into earlier.
"I don't want to deal with u right now okay Buddy?" Kate warned, standing up and moving around him.
"Is that so?" Buddy laughed. "You know what Kate? I am the top, boven dog now, I am the alpha! I have to establish who is the boss and I am going to toon u that I am the boss right now!" Buddy took a step closer to her with a forceful look in his eyes. Something clicked in Kate's head and Kate whirled around on him and bared her fangs. Buddy's eyes widened in surprise.
Kate's voice was raspy and she spat the following words menacingly at Buddy, "you listen here u sick minded fuck! u just try and mount me for dominance and I will rip your throat out! Jon may be dead but my hart-, hart still belongs to him and he is far superior to you! Got it?"
Buddy did not reply but stood there, right paw held up, his tail held high, ears cocked forward, and eyes watching her with a expression Kate had never seen before.
Kate still continued to glare with a look of ferocity at him, she eventually let go of the snarl and let the muscles in her lips relax, her lips curled back down to hide her teeth.
Stormy moved volgende to Kate and they began to walk away from Buddy. Halfway up the little hill, Kate heard Buddy splash into the creek. Kate did not care what he did, but he would never humiliate her of Jon like that again! Once they got to the house Paul was sitting on the porch and let them in.
"I got something here Kate, they just came door and dropped him off here," Paul said.
Kate stopped and looked at him. Paul reached behind the chair and pulled out a silver canister, it was good sized too.
"It was his wish that his remains be scattered at his most favoriete place in the whole wide world. The confluence of Lost Fork."
Kate knew that Jon wanted to be cremated if he died, Kate did not however know what he wanted done with his remains.
"Where is that at?" Kate questioned.
"It is a ways in the Little riem Mountains where we went camping last summer remember? It is hard to get to but we will take my Bronco to get there, we will leave tomorrow morning. Get some sleep Kate."
"Okay, goodnight Paul!"
"Night Kate, sleep tight!"
Kate went into the house and Stormy followed her. Kate jumped into Jon's bed and Stormy settled on the floor near the nightstand.
"You can come up here if u want Stormy," Kate told her.
"No Kate I am fine down here."
"Alright then!"
Kate rolled over on her side, facing the wall. Kate normally slept the other way facing Jon and had never slept facing the uithangbord before.
Kate closed her eyes and fell into a light sleep, she had a dream though. It was not frightening however. Kate was trotting down a dirt road and the skies got dark. It was starting to pour sheets of rain, thunder and lightning flashed. Kate kept trotting along though down the road that was turning to mud now, as the storm raged, and rain continued to fall harder and drench her beautiful coat.
The press eventually settled down and the media left Kate and Paul alone finally. After Jon's sudden death in the ravine a thing called an autopsy was performed on him. Jon's dad Paul explained it all to her.
Jon had suffered a fracture of his pelvis, hence the reason he had cried out in agony after the log struck him and he was swept away from the ledge door the water. It was likely the reason he could not climb out of the ravine, lost his footing up at the top, boven and fell.
When he fell the rock that he landed on snapped his spine and had he lived would never be able to stand up straight again. Jon had broken 7 ribs too somewhere along the way, he had massive internal injuries too. It was determined that his right lung collapsed and stopped working all together. The left lung had been punctured and was filling up with blood from inside his body somehow.
It was determined that he had died in a freak accident while trying to save his pet. Obviously nobody knew that Kate was meer to Jon than a pet.
The front page of the newspaper had read: "Young Man, 19 Dies Tragically When bever, beaver Dam Breaks". Followed door a beschrijving of how he died and what were the causes that Paul had explained to Kate.
There was an obituary written on Jon too in the Obituary Section of the paper. Below the obituary that was written door someone Kate did not know, was another thing that caught her eye. Paul had read this to her also.
In big bold letters the line read: "MY BEST FRIEND JON REMEMBERED" door Zach Sidewiner. volgende to the letters was a picture of Jon from his senior year. Jon's brilliant blue eyes shone bright even on paper, and of course he had a big smile. It was a long text but this is what part of it said...
When I first became vrienden with Jon we were nearing the end of our Sophomore jaar in high school. Actually I had known him a little before but we were never actually vrienden until that time. We were both about the same, not the populair kids door any means, of the kids that hung around all the high school girls. We were just there to be there. Jon was going through a rough stage at that time too. His house caught brand late in December of 2008, him and his dad both got out safely thank goodness!
For the longest time there seemed to be something wrong with him, he would be happy one minuut and become raging mad the volgende over something I never understood.
So one dag we were driving down the road in his old Jeep CJ5, it was dark, and snowing and blowing across the road real bad. The Jeep's heater was working overtime to try and keep the windows defogged but could not quite do it fast enough, Jon was getting frustrated with it. I will tell u what he zei but it will be censored for good reasons.
"This (bleeping) Jeep has the worst (bleeping) heater that I have ever seen in my whole (bleeping) life!"
I just sat in the passenger zitplaats, stoel quietly, listening to him, not knowing what to say to him. The snow kept falling and the flakes were getting bigger too, covering the roadway fast. The corner that we had to take was coming up. Jon shifted the Jeep from 4th gear down into 3rd gear and the big inline six motor that he used to brag about to me constantly, pulled down to a deep rev and slowed the Jeep without Jon having to touch the brakes. A big advantage on icy roads having a manual transmission!
It was then a thought occurred to me out of nowhere and I asked Jon without thinking.
"Hey Jon do u believe in God?"
Jon stopped muttering about the Jeep and looked at me, it was dark out and I could see the change in his eyes.
"Yes, but now I am not so sure," Jon told me.
"Why not?" I asked him.
"Well my parents divorced, my dad broke his back and became an alcoholic, and then my house burns to the ground almost..." Jon replied to me.
"You should put your Faith back into God and it will help u tremendously!" I told him.
"Okay, I will do that." Jon said, now turning back to driving.
The volgende maand came and went and Jon started to come to church with me and my family! I had never seen such a change in one person ever, he was happy all the time now and it took a lot of pressuring to get him to rage like he used to. That alone made our friendship even bigger, my family is very religious and I always thought that Jon and my dad would come to disagreements on certain things and that would eventually end our friendship. It never did though!
After that Jon and I began to hang out all the time. He would take me for rides in his Jeep up to the mountains when summer came and he took the top, boven off of it! Jon had his two Labrador Retriever dogs with him too, Buddy and Stormy. Jon packed a small koeler, koelwagen with snacks and an backup 5 gallon gas jug to take with us just in case, along with tools in case something broke on the trail. We would spend all dag exploring the old forgotten logging trails that he knew about so well. I would ask him things like this.
"Where does this go to?" Jon would reply to me with something like this.
"Oh it winds up a canyon, crosses a few creeks and then ends at a motorcycle trail and we have to turn around."
He meant it too, we drove a trail just like that and it was scary! It not only went behind a canyon but the trail was a narrow switchback with a shear drop-off on my side that climbed to the top, boven of the canyon before dropping back down the other side to kruis a few creeks to get to the motorcycle trail! Jon was a natural at four-wheeling too, could do things in that Jeep that I had never seen anyone do before. It was a 4 speed manual and on a 45 degree angle heuvel he could stop it and take off without stalling it of rolling backward! Something I could do with hours of practice, Jon just seemed naturally good at it though. He always told me it was a connection that is rarely shared between man and machine, and that he could tell just how far the clutch could be let out before the engine stalled. So he knew when to let the clutch out and give it gas so it wouldn't stall.
Later on that jaar though the Jeep began to give him a lot of mechanical trouble and instead of fixing it right away he drove his old yellow Bronco. Jon zei it was something to do with the engine, he told me it overheated once and that one of the rings on the pistons were blown probably. I did not really understand it though and left it to him to figure out, I am not a mechanic and do not claim to be.
Junior jaar came and went door quick like a bullet train, I mean it flew by! Before I knew it we were in our senior jaar and graduation was only a few months off! One night I called him up and we talked for a bit and he out of nowhere asked me a random question.
"Hey man have u heard of this new movie called Alpha and Omega?" Jon asked me.
I did not even know what he was talking about and was like, "no I have never heard of it."
That is pretty much all that needs to be zei on the matter! Jon became obsessed with the movie and talked about it all the time to me! When January came that jaar he bought the movie after it was released on DVD, we watched it over and over again, almost every night since it was too cold to do anything else. One time he watched it 3 times in one whole day...
That was as far as Kate needed to go, the rest she already knew what it said. The part where Zach finds out that his best friend was killed suddenly was too much for her and she did not want to go to that stage again!
Kate had been laying on Jon's bed in his empty room that afternoon, basking in the sun coming in the window and warming her body. The house was still and quiet, as if it even knew that a great part of it had been lost 2 weeks geleden also.
Stormy came and went as she pleased, Kate did not understand what she was up to. Maybe Stormy was looking for antwoorden about what happened to her master. Kate had confronted Stormy about it once and asked her if she wanted to know what happened to Jon. Stormy politely as always replied with a stiff shake of her head and a soft "no thanks Kate," and she left the room they had been in.
Paul came into the bedroom; snapping Kate out of her thoughts, he sat on the bed and looked around Jon's room. Paul's eyes glowed with interest.
"My son was an interesting young man wasn't he?"
Kate looked around Jon's room and noticed all the neat things he had everywhere.
Posters on the wall, calendars. A stack of films volgende to the TV on the shelf directly across from the bed. Little cars with numbers and red flames on them sat on the windowsill that the sun was coming through. boeken and magazines with tricked out 4x4s and some motorcycle magazines were stacked below the TV. A few dusty trophies, one with a guy riding a motorcycle and 3 others that Kate did not know of. A golden statue was standing on top, boven holding a round ball-looking thing and appeared to be running vooruit, voorwaarts to throw the ball.
"Yes," Kate finally said, "he was a great person."
Paul nodded, Kate saw his eyes were red but he was not crying.
"You know Kate, should u ever need to have to talk to someone about Jon..." Paul began.
Kate was shaking her head and got up and jumped off her sunny spot on the bed and was prepared to leave.
"You should know this Kate about my son Jonathan; u meant a great deal to him. That's all I got to say." Paul zei standing up and looking at her, Kate saw his eyes start to glimmer a bit, she nodded.
"I know," Kate zei softly, she then left and went out into the yard.
Kate wandered around through the yard; past the ancient, majestic cottonwood trees, their leaves rustling in the breeze. The sun was setting and it cast their shadows long across the lawn. The two appel, apple trees were in bloom and smelled great.
Kate remembered a time not long geleden when she and Jon were standing under one of the appel, apple trees and she had met Buddy for the first time.
Across the yard she kept moving and the further away she got from the sun, the koeler, koelwagen the gras felt on her paws. Kate was close to the creek now and could hear the water. It was then she noticed a familiar black shape sitting down there on the bank; facing the setting sun, it was Stormy! Kate strolled up to her.
"Hey Stormy," Kate said.
"Oh hallo Kate, sit and watch the sun set with me!" Stormy exclaimed, for the first time in 2 weeks Kate heard faint happiness in her voice.
Kate sat volgende to the black dog and faced the sun. Kate was taken back too! The setting sun blazed dark oranje and red in the background and the massive cottonwoods and house were silhouetted door it. Kate could only gape in shock, Stormy did too.
"I never realized just how beautiful this place was!" Kate zei to Stormy.
"Yeah it is amazing isn't it!" Stormy answered.
"It is...! Oh no!" Kate caught sight of a large brown object padding down the heuvel toward them, it was Buddy.
Stormy and Kate watched as the big, muscular male dog strolled right up to them, right up to Kate to be exact.
"Well, well, well! I couldn't have come out back here at a better time for my evening dip in the creek!" Buddy zei coolly, but at the same time softly. Kate could smell the scent of something nasty in his breath, something dead he had probably gotten into earlier.
"I don't want to deal with u right now okay Buddy?" Kate warned, standing up and moving around him.
"Is that so?" Buddy laughed. "You know what Kate? I am the top, boven dog now, I am the alpha! I have to establish who is the boss and I am going to toon u that I am the boss right now!" Buddy took a step closer to her with a forceful look in his eyes. Something clicked in Kate's head and Kate whirled around on him and bared her fangs. Buddy's eyes widened in surprise.
Kate's voice was raspy and she spat the following words menacingly at Buddy, "you listen here u sick minded fuck! u just try and mount me for dominance and I will rip your throat out! Jon may be dead but my hart-, hart still belongs to him and he is far superior to you! Got it?"
Buddy did not reply but stood there, right paw held up, his tail held high, ears cocked forward, and eyes watching her with a expression Kate had never seen before.
Kate still continued to glare with a look of ferocity at him, she eventually let go of the snarl and let the muscles in her lips relax, her lips curled back down to hide her teeth.
Stormy moved volgende to Kate and they began to walk away from Buddy. Halfway up the little hill, Kate heard Buddy splash into the creek. Kate did not care what he did, but he would never humiliate her of Jon like that again! Once they got to the house Paul was sitting on the porch and let them in.
"I got something here Kate, they just came door and dropped him off here," Paul said.
Kate stopped and looked at him. Paul reached behind the chair and pulled out a silver canister, it was good sized too.
"It was his wish that his remains be scattered at his most favoriete place in the whole wide world. The confluence of Lost Fork."
Kate knew that Jon wanted to be cremated if he died, Kate did not however know what he wanted done with his remains.
"Where is that at?" Kate questioned.
"It is a ways in the Little riem Mountains where we went camping last summer remember? It is hard to get to but we will take my Bronco to get there, we will leave tomorrow morning. Get some sleep Kate."
"Okay, goodnight Paul!"
"Night Kate, sleep tight!"
Kate went into the house and Stormy followed her. Kate jumped into Jon's bed and Stormy settled on the floor near the nightstand.
"You can come up here if u want Stormy," Kate told her.
"No Kate I am fine down here."
"Alright then!"
Kate rolled over on her side, facing the wall. Kate normally slept the other way facing Jon and had never slept facing the uithangbord before.
Kate closed her eyes and fell into a light sleep, she had a dream though. It was not frightening however. Kate was trotting down a dirt road and the skies got dark. It was starting to pour sheets of rain, thunder and lightning flashed. Kate kept trotting along though down the road that was turning to mud now, as the storm raged, and rain continued to fall harder and drench her beautiful coat.
