Chapter 1

Jeffery Martin was your everyday normal teenage boy. He enjoyed doing what most boys enjoy doing at his age. Schooling and sports along with watching a little television occupied his time. Thoughts of the opposite sex were starting to take up some of his time which was to be expected. For some reason the girls were starting to look prettier to him than they did before and he didn’t know why that was. Jeff was an only child and had never thought to ask his parents why he didn’t have a brother or sister.

He had the normal concerns a teenage boy would have like wanting to get good marks in school, being good in sports and now maybe wanting to have a pretty girlfriend. Things you could say were going good for him and you could say that till that one day in October when it all went to hell and it became the worst day of his life.

That was a day he would always remember. He was a junior in high school and was in his chemistry class when John Korsi, a student counselor came into the classroom. He asked Jeff to come with him. He didn’t say what was going on other than they needed to go to the Principal’s office.

Once in the office Jeff saw there was the Principal Richard Adams along with a State Police Officer.

The Police Officer said, “Jeff, there is no easy way to say this but this morning there was an accident on the interstate. The fog there was intensified by some smoke because of a company burning off some brush which created slow driving conditions. A tractor trailer slowed down because of this limited visibility and your parent’s car slowed down behind this truck. Another truck behind your parent’s car didn’t slow down and pushed your parents car into this slowed down truck. Your parent’s car was crushed and both of your parents I am sorry to tell you were killed.”

Jeff in hearing the news was shocked and felt weak in the knees. He didn’t cry and just thought this couldn’t be happening. It was just a dream, a very bad dream. He sat down in chair that was there and still didn’t say anything. He didn’t cry but was in shock at hearing this dreaded news. No one in the room said anything for a while.

Finally the Principal said, “Do you have any relatives that we should contact and tell them what happened?”

“Just my aunt, my mother’s sister Dana Kendall. She is at work now I guess, but I have both her home and work phone numbers on my cell. She can let the people know who should know what happen.”

Jeff gave the phone numbers to the Principal who stepped out of his office to use his secretary’s phone to make the call.

About thirty five minutes later Dana was at the school. He could see the tears in her eyes as she gave Jeff a bear hug. No words were spoken for a while and after she composed herself she left the school with Jeff.

Jeff had always liked Aunt Dana because she treated him nicely. She was fairly attractive with a nice figure and had been divorced for about eight years now. His mother had told him Dana was dating but she hadn’t found anyone yet that she was serious about. He could see she was thinking about the many things that were now needed to be done.

“Jeff, with your parents now gone you are going to need to come to live with me. There are many things that need to be done besides you moving in with me like making the funeral arrangements, selling your parent’s house and seeing who is responsible for this accident. The attorneys that I work with can do some of that.”

Jeff knew Dana was a secretary but he didn’t know that she was a legal secretary.

The funeral was attended by a large number of people. Jeff knew some of them and some he didn’t know. Standing by the closed caskets accepting their condolences was a blur in his memory of who said what. It was the saddest time in his young life.

Living with Dana was nice but at times it was a little awkward. He sensed he was affecting her life and later realized that he might be hindering Dana’s love life. She never said anything or complained about him living with her but it was just a feeling he had that he was doing that.

Her attorney friends at work must have known what they were doing because they effected settlements with the truck’s insurance company and the company who started the brush fire causing his parent’s deaths. The also settled the claim with his parent’s insurance company on the value of the car. Dana who was appointed “Guardian ad Litem” said she was setting this large amount of money aside and it will pay for Jeff’s education, his living expenses as well as giving him a monthly allowance.