the phone call

Joe and I were watching a show right where I'm sitting today typing this post. Mama Ruth called in the middle and we had a split hesitation as to whether or not we should answer. My world changed in that instant Joe said hello. I was sitting on the bed but I could hear bits and pieces of their conversation over the phone. Alyn was dead. He and his partner had been shot during their lunch break at a local pizza parlor. 

This had to be a bad joke. Alyn had been in close calls before, but he always posted later that he was okay and would laugh about the incident later. He was too strong, too smart, too fast for this to have happened. 

We opened the local Las Vegas news and watched or read anything we could on the unfolding incident. They still hadn't released the names of the officers and I was holding on to my denial that it was someone else. Not Alyn. Sunday seemed to speed by but last forever. Family kept us in the loop as  they were updated from others. 

My heart was broken. I ached for Nicole and her kids. I ached for my in laws. I ached for my husband. 

Corban and Jovi didn't know what was going on. All they knew was that their mom and dad spent the day crying in their bedroom. I finally went out and talked with Corban; he wanted to know why we were crying. I told him that Uncle Alyn, papa's brother, had been killed. 

"But why are you crying? You'll see him again in Heaven."