Suddenly the memories came flooding back into my mind. The day that was my least favourite day of all days.  If I could have one day back, that would be the day.

Ring-ring-ring, I heard the telephone ringing and went to go pick it up. “Got it!” I yelled at Mom and Dad so they wouldn’t stop what they were doing to answer the phone. “Hello?”

“Is this Emma Brown?” An urgent voice asked.

“No, this is Candace Brown, their daughter.”

“This is the emergency response unit.” When I heard that I panicked. “I am calling, because your brother Luke has gotten into an accident. He is on his way to the Vancouver Hospital right now. I was wondering if you and your parents would be able to come.”

“What happened?” I demanded. Luke, my little brother was in trouble, and I needed to go as soon as possible.

“He had an accident. The doctor will explain everything when you arrive at the hospital.” I slammed the phone down.

“MOM, DAD GET INTO THE CAR NOW!” I yelled upstairs to my parents. “QUICKLY, LUKE’S IN THE HOSPITAL!” My eyes filled with tears. My little, and favourite, brother was in the hospital and if the emergency worker wouldn’t tell me what happened, I knew it was serious.

“What is it honey? What’s wrong?” Dad asked me. He looked scared to see me crying, since I rarely cried.

“Just get in the car and go to the Hospital. Please hurry!” I ran to the front door and Dad didn’t even say anything about me running, he just followed me. I put on a pair of shoes and ran out the door and jumped into the car. Mom and Dad ran in and before I even had my seat belt on we were out the door.

When we were out the driveway and on our way, I explained the situation. “The Emergency Response Unit called me and they said Luke was in the hospital. They wouldn’t tell me why, but it’s not good.” Tears filled my eyes again. My brother wasn’t doing well; my best friend wasn’t doing well. Luke and I had always been really close. Luke was so close with everyone in the family. Brent was his twin, he was so nice to me and we got along really well, and then he was very close with Mom and Dad.

Within a few, long minutes we reached the hospital. Mom, Dad, and I ran up to the registration desk. “Luke Brown, please, I’m his mother, Emma Brown.

“ID please.” The nurse said. Mom handed the nurse her license and the nurse led us to a room. Before she let us in she stopped us to talk to us, “I am very sorry. It will come at a shock to see him the way he is right now, but you have to be strong. We’re doing everything we can. It was a terrible accident and Luke’s friend will explain the situation to you, and then the doctor will tell you his medical state.” The nurse let us in a room and I gasped as I saw my brother lying on the hospital bed, unmoving.

“Luke!” I cried out, even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. I looked around the room and I saw a familiar boy from around school, and I knew it was Luke’s best friend. I was about to say something to the boy when Brent came running in.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier! I had to fill out some papers as a witness case.” Brent tried to sound upbeat, but his face said it all. He looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks, and I could tell he’d been crying. His eyes were puffy and red, and his body was sagging, like there was no energy left in him. It must’ve been hard for him since he was Luke’s twin.

The boy got up from the chair. “Hi I’m Andrew Dolap, I’m Luke’s friend. I’m really sorry that you had to see him like this. I came, because I saw it happen and I wanted to help you guys understand.” Andrew was pretty formal, but he was straightforward too. He had been crying as well, and I recognized him from the football team at school.

“So what happened?” I asked impatiently. I felt bad that I’d never even talked to Luke’s best friend. I hadn’t even known his name. I glanced at Brent and saw him shaking. He limped over to a chair and sat down. I looked down at Brent’s foot to see what was wrong and I gasped. His ankle was very swollen and I could see it was purple.

“What happened to your foot?” I wanted to know what happened to Luke, but I didn’t want Brent to be hurt too.

“That doesn’t matter right now, Luke is what matters. Andrew is better at telling the story then I am so go ahead, Andrew!”

Andrew took a deep breath and then launched into the story. “So we were at football practice and we were doing our normal things. We did warm ups, stretches, and then we played a scrimmage. Luke had just caught a ball and was running towards the end zone. Unfortunately for him, he had the biggest and best guy who plays defense on him. His name is Doug, and he may be big, but he can sure run. So Doug was holding Luke and then he grabbed him by the face mask and dragged him down that way. Luke was slow to get up, but when he did and the coach hadn’t called a foul on Doug, he went over to the coach and got mad at him for not calling a fowl. He tried to turn his head to face his teammates, but he flinched and I could tell Doug had hurt his neck when he had pulled him down. How the coach missed such a big fowl, I just don’t know. The coach finally gave in when we all insisted that it had been an illegal tackle, but then Doug was getting mad. We got a first down and I could tell something was going to happen, Doug wanted revenge. See, the problem with Doug is that he doesn’t like to get called out and he doesn’t like to do something wrong. He likes to think he’s perfect, so getting called for a fowl didn’t sit well with him. So Luke received the ball the play after that again, and I had never seen Doug run so fast. He tackled Luke and then landed on top of him, but he wouldn’t get off of Luke. Luke tried to shove him off, but like I said, Doug’s a really big guy. Doug was sitting on Luke’s back and somehow Luke managed to squirm out from under Doug. He got up and ran over to the coach. He knew Doug was mad, and he knew how bad Doug’s temper was.”

“Then Doug took off and he made up a lot of ground on Luke, since Luke wasn’t really trying to run he was just jogging. I tried to warn Luke, but it was too late Doug tackled Luke again. He flipped Luke over so Luke was facing him, pulled off Luke’s helmet, and he punched him in the nose. Luke’s nose started to bleed. The coach tried to pull Doug off, but Doug was too strong and just shoved the coach back. He punched Luke again right in the stomach and I could tell the wind was knocked out of Luke. Doug punched him a few more times, and then Brent was on top of him. He grabbed Doug in a headlock and took Doug off of Luke, and Luke scrambled back as fast as he could. Doug swung his leg back and kicked Brent in the ankle which made Brent let go. Doug ran over to Luke and grabbed him by the neck and then,” Andrew paused and his eyes filled up with tears. “Then I heard a snap and Luke’s body went limp. Doug….he snapped Luke’s neck. We tried everything we could until the police arrived, but there was nothing I could do, nothing anyone could do, and you don’t know how hard it was to see one of my only friends, my best friend, lying on the ground, unable to move and he wasn’t breathing.”

I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Luke was dead. He had been murdered by someone with a temper problem on the football team. He didn’t deserve to be dead. He should’ve been alive. He was that guy that was friends with anyone, who was never, mean to a single person. He had such a kind heart, and then he had been murdered. His life had been stolen from him, and he had had such a promising football. An amazing wide receiver that had already been looked at even though he was only in grade 10. I sat down on Luke’s bed and cried over his dead body.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Candace,” I heard Andrew’s voice, “The machines are keeping him alive, but he can’t be on the machines forever. I’m so sorry.” I continued to cry over Luke’s body and couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my brother was gone. I’d never been able to say goodbye, and I would never see him again.

“I’m so sorry.”  I heard another familiar voice said. I heard someone breathing really hard and recognized Nat’s voice. “I came as fast as I could. Cheerleading practice had just finished and I ran into Jay. He told me what happened and I came here as fast as I could.” Jay was a member of the football team.

Nat must’ve seen my on the bed, because she came over to me and put her arm around me. “Candace we’re going to be okay, we’re going to get through this.” Nat always knew how to make me feel even a little better. I lifted myself off of Luke’s body and gave Nat a hug. I cried into her shoulder and we just sat there. I heard her sniffle and then the tears came out. I remembered Brent, Mom, and Dad coming to us and then my flashback changed to the day of the funeral.

“He was a great young man,” My Uncle Jack was saying. “He was great at football, academics, and he was the kindest person I’ve ever met. He never turned away someone in trouble or someone in need. He was a gifted young man and had a promising future. I don’t know why he had to die, I don’t know why him of all people. He deserved to live more than anyone else in this room, but we will never know that answer. That power is not in our hands, but we must remember him for the good things he did and not the bad. We must remember the happy memories of him and not the sad. He wouldn’t want to be mourned at his funeral; he would want to be celebrated. He would want us to celebrate his life, that may have been short, but that was well lived. Thank you.” He walked off the stage and everyone clapped. I got ready to go up. My speech was next and I was getting nervous, I hoped I wouldn’t start crying in the middle of my speech.

I walked on the stage and looked at the crowd, but then started. “For those who are here and don’t know, my name is Candace Brown and Luke was my brother. He was a year younger than me and he was my other brother Brent’s twin. As my Uncle Jack said, Luke was very gifted in academics. He was only supposed to be in grade nine, but he and Brent both skipped a grade. They joined me and Natalie Genstine, who lives with us, in grade ten. He was one of the best football wide receivers. He had such a promising future as a football player, but he could’ve chosen any path. He was well gifted in all areas of life.”

“I agree with Uncle Jack. We should be celebrating my brother’s successes and not his failures. We shouldn’t be sitting here mourning him, when he would want to be celebrated. He was such a nice person. He could talk to anyone for hours upon hours, and he never turned a friend away. He never turned me away no matter how much I bugged him. I know if Luke had planned his funeral, he would’ve wanted everyone to wear bright colours and not black. He had that view on life that a glass of water was always half full, never half empty. No matter how hard life got, he always loved life. He cherished every day. He never took a minute for granted. I was always jealous of him for that, I always wished I had that positive outlook on life, and I never took one minute for granted. I think we can all learn something from him, and we could make this world a better place, but I know my brother would be glad that he was given so long. I wish it could’ve been longer, but he would’ve been thankful that he could have that many years full of blessings, and he could experience the world for that long. For me, it’s hard to imagine celebrating him when we are mourning. To celebrate a life cut short? To celebrate someone who didn’t deserve to die? If that was what he wanted though, that is what I want to do, because I never got to say goodbye to him, but I want to honor his memory and I hope you all do the same. Thank you.” I walked off the stage with tears in my eyes. I looked around the room at the crowd and I saw a lot of people had tears down their face, but they had smiles on their faces and I smiled too. I hoped I had done justice to Luke’s memory.

Nat stood up and started yelling my name. “CANDACE, CANDACE, ARE YOU IN THERE?” I was confused because I didn’t remember that happening, but then I snapped back into the present.