For the last seven years Kim had been seeing her high school sweetheart Patrick who was a volunteer firefighter and they were going to get married soon. Kim was a simple girl, not different than any one else her age. She went to work, home, and out with her friends. Last week, Patrick left their home during the middle of the night when he received an emergency call from the fire station. There was a forest fire on the east side of town. Kim was used to these unexpected phone calls, because he received them often.
So she didn’t worry much and went to sleep, but in the morning when she woke up there was no sign of Patrick. She called Patrick on his cell phone, but there was no answer. After calling Patrick over and over she decided to call the fire chief to ask him if he had heard of Patrick, but when the chief answered the phone and Kim asked him about Patrick there was a long silence from the other side of the line. It took a long time until the chief managed to tell Kim that Patrick and his team were missing, and no one was able to communicate with them.
Kim could not believe what she was hearing, she felt like her whole world was coming apart. She dropped the phone and blankly stared at her favorite picture of Patrick and started crying. As the days were going by, there was no sign of Patrick and his team. The only sure thing was that they could not be dead because they found the firefighting truck a few miles off the gradient off the fire and no bodies were found by there. Kim was devastated and didn’t know what to do. She didn’t feel like doing anything and even when her friends tried to comfort her she didn’t listen to them.
The days were going by faster and faster and there was no sign of Patrick and his team for over a week now. It was New Years Eve, and her friends didn’t want her to be home by herself so they asked her to come to a dinner party with them. She didn’t want to go, but they kept insisting and told her that Patrick would have wanted her to go. So she finally gave in. Her friends picked her up, and she felt like she was floating amongst srangers that they really didn’t know the pain she felt.
Kim felt that once the clock ticked twelve all hope for Patrick was gone. In her mind she felt that there was no way that she would see him again. The time was 11:59 and it was almost midnight. Everyone was getting ready to welcome the New Year. The lights were now turned off, and everyone was really quiet except for the big slam of the door that surprised everyone. As the clock turned twelve Kim felt someone tap on her shoulder. She turned around, and there was Patrick whispering “Happy New Year” in her ear.
