by David Villa

Created on: November 05, 2008   Last Updated: November 06, 2008

Quinn was faced with a daunting task hanging over his head and literally all over the ground. He was put in charge of raking the leaves that had begun to overwhelm the once meticulously maintained yard. It had been two months since his Uncle Pat died. His death had been an absolute shock to the entire family. He was only forty seven years old. He died in an almost mundane car accident, one that happens every day and people walk away with a few bumps, maybe nothing at all. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt and his head hit the window at an awkward angle. His three kids were in the back seat.

Since Pat's accident, there has been this enormous blanket of doubt, fear and distance from Quinn's cousins. The two middle school aged boys, normally outgoing and aggressive had completely withdrawn into their rooms, barely venturing outside the house with the exception of going to and from school. Their fifth grade sister was even worse. She just seemed to cry all the time. Quinn's Aunt Julie spent most of the time in bed. It was a very difficult place to be. In an effort to make their lives somewhat easier, the extended family decided to help out and try to do some of the chores that were escaping the grieving family. Quinn was the oldest cousin. He went to college a half an hour away, so helping out wasn't that much of a problem. His parents hoped that by seeing Quinn around the house it would draw some semblance of normalcy out of the kids, but so far that was not the case. So Quinn would stop by every other day for an hour or two to do some odd job that Pat normally would have done.

On most visits to the house, Quinn would only get a polite hello from the kids. Prior to the accident Quinn would spend the first half hour of any visit to the house throwing the boys , Sean and Christopher, around and then the next half hour standing in some ridiculous pose while Sarah would draw his portrait. None of that was the norm now. His visits had become all about the task at hand. So, on this particular day, Quinn set about doing the task at hand, raking the gargantuan amount of leaves. He had amassed about three huge piles and decided to take a break before starting on pile number four. Now that he wasn't face first into leaves, he noticed a burning smell. It wasn't a burning wood smell, more like a lunch gone horribly wrong. It was around noon and it appeared that Quinn's aunt managed to get out of bed and attempted to make some grilled cheese sandwiches. Much like everything else

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