Bruno looked nervously at his watch, it was Saturday morning. Chad should be up, but maybe not? He lived next door, so he peered out his window to see if there was any activity next door. He saw Chad's mother in the kitchen window filling a coffee pot with water. He figured he should give them an half hour at least for breakfast - maybe an hour. He texted Chad again. Still no response.
It was two minutes until 8 am when Bruno finally stood on Chad's doorstep and rang the doorbell.
The door opened. It was Chad's mother. Her eyes were red from crying.
"Yes? Bruno, what is it?"
"Hey, ma'am, Chad hasn't returned my texts, and I need to talk to him."
"Bruno!" she shrieked. "Weren't you at the funeral? How couldn't you know?"
"Amber, what's the matter?" said Chad' father rushing to the doorway.
"Bruno wants to talk to Chad," sobbed Chad's mother.
"Uh, how couldn't he know? Maybe he was out of town or sick? Bruno, our son Chad passed away two weeks ago, right after winning the championship. Concussion. We assumed you knew."
"No, that's not possible, I saw Chad just yesterday at lunch." Bruno blurted out.
"How dare you!" shouted Chad's father as his wife clutched herself to her chest and sobbed.
"Well, if it wasn't Chad, he has a twin. Look here's my cell phone. I've been chatting with Chad all week trying to get him to join the swim team. See, here are his replies!" Bruno held up the phone.
Chad's mother sobbed harder.
"Let me see that, Bruno!" said Chad's father grabbing the phone. He screwed up his face in confusion, and looked at the phone. Then he frowned. "I'm sorry, Bruno, but someone must've gotten a hold of Chad's phone or maybe they cloned it, and have been catfishing you. Chad has been dead for over two weeks." He sighed, "I can see how you were fooled in to believing he was alive and at school, but he was cremated over a week ago."
"Let me see his room!" Bruno demanded.
"Amber, sit down. I'll take Bruno up to Chad's room, maybe when he sees it's empty, he will accept Chad's death."
"I'm going too," Amber said.
"Bruno, you're obviously in denial. It's part of the grief process. We didn't want to believe it at first, but Dr. Ghali helped us. I'll give you his phone number, after I show you Chad's room."
"Dr. Golly?" Bruno asked.
"Yes, Sven Ghali, he's the psychiatrist that the school recommended."
"No, dear, it was Mr. Rogers who recommended Dr. Ghali. He's half Swedish and half Indian - not American Indian, but the other kind - from India," blathered Chad's mother, as they walked upstairs, "I don't think I could have coped without him."
All three went upstairs, and Chad's Dad threw the door open, and shoved Bruno through the doorway.
"See the room's empty. Chad's not here. Well, he's here, but in the urn on his desk," Chad's father said.
Bruno gasped.