Dale Jr.

We were all partying at Eddie Carter's house one night in the summer when I was 21.
It was a typical hot,muggy North Carolina summer night, the temperature was only matched by the humidity. There was no need to blow dry your hair after a shower; you didn't know when the water stopped and the sweat started!
Anyway; on this particular night, there was house full of people(well, a trailer full anyway) and we had Jim Beam and Jack Daniels abound! We were in Budweiser country after all ;-)
Since I was heavy into weightlifting back then,NOT fitness, I made up a smoking game(drinking games are boring) for some of us to play. The game at this time was to take a huge hit off a joint and see how long you could hold it in while doing triceps extensions with eddies weights.
Talk about a head rush! People turned as purple as the bib-overalls I was wearing!
The party on this night was a typical gathering,but it had a special ring to it on this night.
There was a guy with us named Dale Jr.(last name with-held) who was just getting back into life after getting into a drunk driving accident about 18 months before where his best friend died. Dale was driving. He was about 17-18 years old at the time.
Also on this night, we were celebrating an engagement between Eva and Chris.
Eva and Chris were made for each other. Eva came from a family of 4 girls and 1 boy.
ALL of the girls were stunning! Neil, the brother, was just fucking insane. Great friend! We won't go near his bad side.
The house Eddie carter lived in was about 75 yards from his parents house and it was on a country road so far away from civilisation, if you got hurt, there was no need to call 911,you were likely to die before they even found you! But it was beautiful. Total silence at night with the brightest stars ever created. And on certain nights, if you just listened, you could hear the sound of the ocean waves crashing on the beach...MILES away.
Eddie was still at work when the party was going in full swing. He was a roofer and worked 12 hours a day,7 days a week, to make sure his baby girl would have a good life.
He use to wear this t-shirt that was given to him by his daughter on his first fathers day that read: “ anybody can be a father,but it takes someone special to be a daddy”. He cried when he got that shirt.
So did everyone else when they saw him.
You must understand; Eddie was a man's man. To this day; he still holds the record for receiving the worst beating I have ever seen a man take in a bar fight; and he STILL won the fight! He spent a week in the hospital afterwards, so to see him cry because of his little girl making him happy; it was a moment for all of us to remember.
Not long before Eddie was due home that night, we had already achieved most maximum intoxication! But while we were in this state; I was watching Dale Jr. enjoying his first real night out since losing his best friend and Eva and Chris were just having the time of their lives. Shit; we didn't even exist to them on this night, and that was just fine with us.
Eddie had built his own CD rack and had it hanging on the wall in his living room.
Damn good job he did making it too! Considering this was in a time when Cd's were still a novelty.
And since I was pretty much in charge of the music, I got real acquainted with said CD rack,but obviously not as good as I should have.
I stepped away from the entertainment system and went out on the front porch to have a breath of fresh country evening air.
While I was doing this, everyone else was dancing and playing quarters( my game didn't last long...I was the healthiest stoner anyone had ever known :D) and having a great old time.
One of our other friends was assuming my position as DJ and as he was going through the Cd's, he decided to see if there were any missed Cd's on the top of the rack. There was one or two....
But.... he also found a shotgun.
Only Eddies wife remembered it at that point. Eddie had stuck it up there almost 6 months before to get it away from someone else who was drunk. But then, they all forgot about it because everyone was partying and time had passed with no one seeing it. Eddie even had his guns taken out of the house and stored at his parents house when his daughter was born.
When it was found,everyone had a look at it as it was passed around. Although, the girls didn't touch it. It was dusty and had rust starting to form on it,so we knew it had been there for a while. It was a single shot,breach break .410 shotgun. .410 being the smallest shotgun round you can find. It's used mainly for fowl and squirrel hunting. Being proper southern people, we weren't worried because most of us started our education on gun safety and hunting procedures with a .410. So it was no big deal.
Dale Jr., was sitting on the couch (sofa for you EU people!) and the way he was facing was a direct line into the kitchen.
I was standing in the doorway watching; with a bottle of JB in one hand and fat ass hawg-leg in the other! I was still in my purple bib-overalls which I had cut into shorts. I mean; c'mon! I got “300” legs! Of course I'm showing them off!
Anyway; Dale asked to see the shotgun.
It was handed to him and he had a good look at it and wanted to make sure it was unloaded.
Well, the breach catch was rusted a bit,so; for some unknown reason, Dale tried to pull back on the hammer to see if he could get it unstuck that way. The hammer itself was sticky because it had been sitting in high humid conditions combined with salt air for so many months.
I got bored watching these people trying to pry open a rusted shotgun,so I turned back around and was talking to some people in the front yard.
Then is happened.
BANG!!!!!
It was one single shot that no one had any clue that was ever there.
Time stopped. Everything went silent. We couldn't even hear the music for what seemed to be an eternity. You couldn't hear the ocean waves any more. All the whiskey I had in me came pouring out in a cold sweat. We all did. We all became sober in that instant.
Then came the worse sound we could have imagined at that time.....
Eva screaming.
Chris; the love of Eva's life and soul; had taken the full blast in the stomach while standing in the kitchen.
When I turned around, he was on the floor. Still conscious,but making very little sound.
Eva.
Eva was ghost white and in hysterics.
Most people would call 911 right off. Not us. We called Momma Carter first.
Momma Carter was Eddies momma and she lived right next door. This was about 9pm and she was already in bed,but she got straight up,threw on her bathrobe and came straight over. Momma Carter was a nurse and even more so, she was so Christian; we were convinced she was a direct advisor to God!
When she got there, we made a path for her to get Chris and she did what she always did best...
She made you forget the bad things the best she could.
She made sure we called 911 and we said we had. Then she looked at Chris' wound. She took a blanket and put it over Chris' torso and made him lie on his back. She had one hand and Eva held Chris' other hand. She asked Chris if he believed in God and if he had accepted him as his Lord and Saviour and if he truly believed that Jesus had died upon the cross for his sins. Chris answered yes.
Right then; we knew.
She said to Chris: “Repeat after me”...
'Our Father,who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen'
We all followed in with Chris and momma carter and repeated the prayer.
Then the strangest thing happened; Chris just relaxed and opened his eyes and he looked straight at Eva He smiled and said “hey. It's OK. It doesn't hurt and everything is going to be fine”. Then he looked at momma carter and said thank you.
Then he asked for Dale.
Oh God. Dale.
We didn't want to look at him,but we had too.
He was still sitting on the couch. Shotgun in his lap. He was like a statue. His knuckles were pure white wrapped around that shotgun. He didn't even seem to breath at this point. Shit...none of us did.
Momma Carter held out her hand for Dale,but he didn't move. She got up and went to Dale and took the shotgun from him and got him to walk over to Chris Chris took Dale Jr. by the had and said it was all OK. He wasn't angry at Dale. He knew it was an accident and he seemed more worried about Dale than his own situation.
This was twice in less than 2 years Dale had been inadvertently responsible for someones death and both of those were childhood friends. He wasn't even 20 yet.
When the ambulance arrived, some were outside in the front yard,some were inside with Chris and Eva. Chris was even joking at this point about he wanted something to drink, but we didn't want to get beer all over Eddies kitchen floor! So I gave him my joint.
Eva; God bless that beautiful woman, she was laughing and joking with Chris and trying so hard to brave and fight back the tears. Chris actually got mad at her for being scared and crying. He promised everything was going to be OK and he was never going to leave her.
The paramedics did what they needed to do and a whole pile of us helped lift Chris into the ambulance. The paramedics didn't have to touch that stretcher one time until it was locked down in the ambulance.
While this was going on,Eddie came barrelling across the road in that big ass 4-wheel drive truck(hey! We are country boys,ya know!) and he jumped the ditch in his front yard, because when he saw the ambulance,he thought it was for his daddy.
Through it all...Eddie was,and still is to this day, a daddy's boy! He loved his daddy like you wouldn't believe. So,naturally,he thought it was his daddy in trouble.
He had a huge sigh of relief when he found out it wasn't daddy Carter.
Eva gave Dale big hug and a kiss and said it would be OK,then she climbed into the ambulance with Chris. It was where she needed to be. As the ambulance pulled away,we watched Eva.. she never looked up once.
Dale dropped to his knees in the front and asked momma carter why God hated him so much to do this to him....again.
Momma Carter knelt on the ground with Dale and said God would never hate someone as wonderful a person as Dale Jr. was.
We all fell to our knees to be with Dale. We all cried.
Then Eddie got back into his truck and hollered whoever was going to the hospital,get in!
Dale stayed. He couldn't handle it. Momma Carter stayed with Dale. She knew what was going to happen with Chris,so now, Dale was most important.
We caught up with the ambulance and followed it all the way to the hospital emergency room.
When we arrived; Eva was the first person out of the ambulance, then they took Chris out.
Eva walked to us and said Chris didn't make it to the hospital.
We all had a group hug and cry in the parking lot.
We stayed at the hospital until Chris' family arrived and then most of us went back to eddies.
Eva stayed with Chris' parents.
By the time we got back,Dale had left.
Momma Carter called his daddy to come and get him. He went straight to the police.
Everything was silent when we got back.
Momma Carter and eddies wife had cleaned the kitchen floor and we helped clean up the rest of the house. Party over. When we finished; we all sat outside on the front porch, on eddies truck, in the grass, we all had a bottle or can of something ( I had hawg-leg duty;-)) and we sat in silence as we watched the sun come up.
Funny thing was; we decided that was the most beautiful sunrise ever!
Why,you may ask?
2 reasons; 1- we knew that was Chris was never going to see a sunrise again,so we made it the best for him and 2; we said that wasn't a sunrise, that was Chris hitching a lift to heaven!
Even that made Momma Carter smile.
We all went to the police station to see what happened with chris.
His case never really went to court. He found not guilty from day one, so, on the day of his trial, we wnet and he was released.
We said our prayers, gave our hugs and kisses and knew this was going to be a new path for us.
Some things would never be the same.
We never saw Dale Jr. again after that. He joined the navy to get away from Onslow county.
And we didn't blame him. We still love you brother.
And Eva.
God's beautiful gift to this life......
About 2 years later she met another fella who worshipped the very ground she walked on.
She found love once again.
I was there when he was killed too.
He was working on his car when it slipped off the hydraulic lift and crushed him.
At least she didn't have to see that one happen.
Eva; where ever you are; you are still loved.
I can never tell this story without crying.
But the reason I tell it is because of what I saw that night we lost Chris.
I saw proof that God (or a power greater than us,at the very least.) does exist.
You might not know what I mean,but you will..........
some day :-)