You should see Taylor, he blames himself, if he could have reached out just a little more, he could have pull Gage back and he’d still be alive. The casket remained closed, after what had happened, there was no way anyone could even make Gage look presentable. His gorgeous 3 year old face wasn’t even a face anymore.
Taylor stood beside me the whole funeral and we went back to my place. The house was crowded. We knew alot of people in this town and all of them were in our house and out in the backyard. I ran into Gage’s kindy teacher, Mrs DeWhite.
"Oh honey, I’m so sorry. Especially having to witness it, you poor dear." She said. I just smiled weakly and looked at Taylor. The poor guy had hardly left my side for the whole 3 days. He felt so bad and I couldn’t blame him. He loved Gage like his own brother.
"You know, I’m glad that he went quickly. It would have been 100 times worse if it was slow and painful." Mrs DeWhite babbled. I guess this was her way of coping with it all. She saw my sister and began hounding her.
"Tay, I want to go upstairs and lie down for a while ." I said quietly, all these people were giving me a migraine.
"Okay, I’ll come with you." He said. I knew I couldn’t shake him. He’d been like that for 3 days. We climbed the stairs in silence. We hardly even exchanged words since Gage got hit, but I think it was because we were mourning in our own way. We reached my room and I put on War Of Nerves, my favourite song. I lay down on my bed and moved over to make room for Taylor. He lay down beside me.
"Bay, please forgive me." He whispered. I touched his hand,
"I’m not blaming you Tay. No-one is." Then I draped my arm over his stomach and went to sleep.
"At least he died quickly." Mrs DeWhite crooned.
"Yeah, one minute he was there on the road, the next he was lying on it. But he was way down in Mrs Cradnall’s yard, 7 houses down. It hit him, killed him and dragged him all the way down the street. Tay and I ran after him, we ran so fast, 40 yards down was one sneaker, all bloody and we ran so more. Hell, I was sprinting towards him, yelling his name. We saw his jumper inside out and that was a bloody mess. Then there was him, oh god, he was lying there all mangled and I grabbed him, yelling his name while Taylor hugged me with tears streaming down his face. People were looking now. Coming out of all the houses. Mr & Mrs Hanson came to us & Diana called for help and Walker went and found the truck driver." I said in one breath.
Everyone was listening to me, crying. But I wasn’t crying, Gage was alive. He got hit, but he was alive. I made the story up, we were just pulling a trick.
"Bailey." Gage said. I jumped and turned around. Gage was there, he was covered in blood and his face was mangled, but I didn’t care, I scooped him up into my arms and hugged hug tightly. My baby brother was there and that’s all that counts.