Thirteen-year-old Johnny White never expected an average sunny, bright, and calm spring day would end despondently until five words changed his life forever. After a long day of school and three hours of baseball practice, Johny returns to his suburban home and his mom greets him at the door while making room for him to shuffle in his thirty pound backpack and a baseball bag twice the size of him. His mother has just finished making dinner and asked him to go get his sister. 

While proceeding down the stairwell Johnnys sister Sarah immediately questioned, “Where's Dad?”

 Her mother responded, “He's probably stuck in traffic on his way home from work, he should be home any minute.”

“He better not make us late for boy scouts tonight” Johnny said as he was scarfing down two bowls of pasta.

Mrs. White laughed then proceeded to ask him and Sarah about their days when the family dog Buster, started barking like a maniac.

 “Dad is finally home!” Mrs. White said.

While expecting a well awaited arrival of their father, the doorbell suddenly rings. 

Mrs. White with confusion written all over her face says, “That's weird, he should have a key”. 

The adrenaline rises as she approaches the door anticipating to see the face of her beloved husband of fifteen years. Her smile was cut short when she opened the door and did not see the face of her husband, instead she saw the face of two police officers and oberserdly bright red and blue flashing lights coming from their ford explorers.

 “Are you Mrs. White, wife of Mr. John White?” asked one of the officers. “Y….Yes?” Mrs. White stuttered with the confusion written on her face all over again. 

After hearing an unfamiliar voice Johnny and Sarah both run to the front door and stood on both sides of their mother curious as to what is going on. 

One of the officers said in a quiet but stern voice, “There has been an accident”.

 Johnny has had his fair share of crime shows and recalls those are the words officers have the burden to tell the spouse that their partner has died. Johnny knew what it meant. His dad was gone. Johnny's heart turned stone cold as he stared into the officers eyes with disbelief, it felt surreal and he wanted to run to his room and hide under his bed and never come out.

  “What? What do you mean?” Mrs. White said while choking up. 

The officer replied “Your husband. Were going to need you to come with us.”

 Mrs White tried to keep it together for her kids while her heart was breaking into a million pieces. Sarah was yanking on her moms pink knit sweater asking her what is going on. 

Mrs.White turned and faced Sarah and kneeled down, “You are going to stay with the Robertsons across the street for a few hours okay.” she said with streams accumulating along her eyelids.

 “No” Johny said confidently.

 “What?” Mrs. White questioned.

 “I am going with” 

“Johnny thats not a good -”

 Johnny cut her off, “I can handle it, I'm not a baby anymore and he's my dad!” Johnny exclaimed. 

“What happened to Dad?” Sarah said in a confused manner still not understanding what is going on. 

Mrs. White lost her composure and cried hysterically. Johnny wrapped his arms around his moms petite figure and tried to comfort her and calm her down. He grabbed the keys to the minivan and gave them to his mother, 

“Lets go” he said.

 Sarah insisted on coming with. It was a long and painful drive to the hospital but they arrived and were sent to see their father that was in critical condition. They were escorted into room 304 and on the bed was an unrecognizable figure, the burns and bruises were too severe that they did not believe it was their father. Johnny wouldn't believe it.

  “That is not my dad” he cried to the nurse.

 The nurse looked at Mrs. White with despair,

 “Yes it is. You can go talk to him, he can hear you but he will not answer.” the nurse said comfortingly.

 Johnny slowly walked into the room and got the courage to grab his dad's hand and at that moment he saw the Boy Scouts bracelet on his dads wrist and his heart skipped a beat. Johnny looked down at his own wrist and stared at his Boy Scouts bracelet, the one they got at the campout last fall.

 “It is him” Johnny said to himself.

 He squeezed his dad's hand and didn't let go for fifteen minutes while Sarah and his mom were holding the other. The room was quiet and all that was heard was the sniffles coming from Mrs. White and Sarah. The silence was suddenly broken by the abrupt beeping of the machine hooked up to Mr. White. Nurses swarmed in and pushed them out of the way. After a few minutes or so, a long beep struck the room, his heart had stopped. One of the nurses turned off the sound of the machine. She gave a long speech about what had happened, why it was so severe, and why he did not survive. All Johnny heard was “Too severe brain damage, broken limbs, and internal bleeding” until tuned out and the nurses voice became muffled. He did not listen to a word she was saying and stared at his dad, holding his hand. He tuned back in as the nurse said,

“I will give you guys time”

None of them said a word, they all sat around the bed, Johnny was holding his dad's hand as well as Sarah’s, Sarah held her moms and her mom held her husbands. The room was silent, the breaths were heavy, and the hearts were broken. Johnny started to think about how life will be without his dad. The thought of him not being there for graduation, his wedding, or the birth of his first child caused the very first tear drop to run down his cheek. He didn’t want to think about that, he wanted to be brave so he wiped the tear off with his shoulder and continued to hold his dad's hand. He wanted to make sure his dad knew that he spent the last few moments of his life surrounded by people he loved.