The Ravine by Robert Pascuzzi

Carolyn was starting to feel numb.
    At this point, Rosemary could no longer contain herself. She began to sob in great heaves, finally gathering up the strength to say these horrific words: “Danny shot and killed Rachel and one of the boys, and they found his car at the bottom of some quarry down in Akron, so the police think he drove it off the cliff and killed himself.”
    Carolyn did not believe what she was hearing. It didn’t compute. Danny wasn’t violent. He loved Rachel and the boys. He didn’t even own a gun as far as she knew. Why would he drive his car off a cliff and kill himself?
    “Oh, my God, Mom, this can’t be true. Who told you this? There has to be a mistake—this doesn’t make any sense. Danny doesn’t have a gun, and he never even yells at the kids. He and Rachel never fight, and if they were having trouble, Rachel definitely would have told me—”
    “Honey, I’m sorry, but it’s true. I wish it weren’t, but it is!”
    Carolyn’s heart was pounding so hard she thought it was going to leap right out of her chest. She started mechanically shaking her head “no,” and then she began shouting, over and over, “No, no, no, no, no!” She fell to her knees and began to sob uncontrollably. Throwing the phone down as if it were some vile creature, she dropped her head to the floor and screamed into the rug. She began to gasp for air and felt as if she were drowning; then a horrendous pain shot from the small of her back to the top of her head. Carolyn thought she was about to pass out. Suddenly she sat up, leaned back, and forced herself to take a deep breath. Now she felt better; she had it figured out. She crawled to the phone lying on the floor. It wasn’t true. Her mom had gotten it wrong. She probably saw something on TV, about a murder in Akron,and just thought it was about Rachel and Danny. That was it. Just one big mistake.
    She felt relieved now that she was about to get to the bottom of things. She was almost smug when she said, “How do you know, Mom? Who told you?”
    “Dixie Clemons. She lives in Akron, one street over from Rachel and Danny. Remember she was at their cookout last summer? She heard all the police cars and ambulances this morning and went over there. There was a big crowd in front of the house, and when she found out what happened, she called me right away because she didn’t want you to hear about it on the news, or from someone else. One of her neighbors in the crowd told her what happened, and then she spoke with a police officer, and while she was talking to him, a report came in about Danny’s car being in a quarry because he drove it off a cliff. I’m sorry, honey, but it really happened.”
    “Oh, my God, Mom! Rachel . . . Danny . . . dead? And one of the boys? Danny killed them? Which boy, Mom? Christopher or Evan?” Carolyn felt like she was having an out-of-body experience. The question she just asked sounded surreal; she had the sensation that she was standing across the room watching herself speaking on the telephone.
    “I’m not sure of their names—I always get them mixed up—but Dixie said she saw the younger boy sitting in an ambulance, and he looked like he was in shock, but he wasn’t hurt. Then the ambulance drove off with him.”
    “That means that Evan is dead. That can’t be; he’s only ten years old!”
    “I know. It’s so awful. That poor little boy. And dear, dear Rachel. Oh, I wish it were a mistake, but it’s not.”
    “Then that means Christopher saw it all, and he’s all alone,” Carolyn mumbled.
    “Carolyn? . . . Carolyn? Are you still on the phone?” She could hear her breathing, but there was no response.
    “You stay there; don’t go anywhere. I’m going to come over right away.” Rosemary wished she could just jump through the phone and hold her daughter, but forced herself to hang up and run out the door to her car.
    Carolyn continued to hold the phone to her ear and listen to the dial tone as if it were