Life, Death, and the Unexpected.

Evanna Boyce has just lost her husband, and no one, not even her grandmother, can do anything to help her. Then Alex Marsh shows up, and her life is changed forever.

(Read before you read: This is only a sample of something I really want to develop. I'm not too sure if I think it's good enough though, if it would be interesting enough if I did. There's so much information in this little sample that needs answered, so many things I missed out [purposely] ... I just need to get other people's opinions ... and if enough like it, I'm going to work on it. There's not really any point in doing that if it doesn't get good reviews, right? Well, any sort of comment will be helpful. Anything that you like/don't like etc. Thanks.)

CHAPTER 1

When Jamie's favourite song (With Or Without You by U2) started playing everyone rose from where they were seated, some crying, some staring at the ground, others with no expression at all, not being able to feel anything, like everything in the moment was surreal somehow, and wished for it all to end and for them to wake up. But it wasn't going to end, no one was going to wake up ... this was all very real. Not one person had expected Jamie's death to come this soon. His wife, Evanna, had least expected it as the doctors had told her not just but three weeks ago that he would see his twenty-fifth birthday, possibly even his twenty-sixth. Yet here she was, in a church crowded with over fifty people - some people were outside, there was no more space for them to stand indoors - watching the coffin that held her late husband inside being carried down the aisle to be cremated.
Everyone poured outside after the funeral was over, faces wet, sun beaming down from above, and most rushed over to see how Evanna was coping. All she wanted to do was escape this attention and get home, away from her friends and family; she wanted to be alone in her own company for a little while, grieve in her own way. She didn't think she could do that now, not with over twenty faces looking at her, wanting to know how she was, wanting to know if there was anything they could do. Truth was, no one could do anything. If any of them could bring Jamie back to her ... well that just wasn't possible.
'How are you Evanna, dear?' A familiar-sounding voice sounded through the crowd of people waiting to see her. It was her Grandmother, Marge. Ever since she had been little, her grandmother was always there for her, she would help her and support her with everything, anything she needed. When she and Jamie first met in high school only nine years ago they sparked up an amazing friendship. By the time they were seventeen, and in senior year, they were in love. And they stayed in love until he passed away. On their first date Marge noticed how nervous Evanna looked and she sat her down on the couch, held her hands, and told her the story of how she and her grandfather had met. Evanna had heard this countless times; she never complained, she thought it was the most romantic, wonderful story she had ever heard. When her grandmother was only seventeen years old she was sitting in the local park reading a C.S. Lewis book. She noticed a boy staring at her now and again from the bench opposite, but never once faltered. The reason for this, her grandmother always said, is because she thought the boy was the most handsome boy she had ever seen. She had saw him many times before, but neither one spoke to each other on any occasion. One afternoon on a weekend she was walking home when she saw the boy, she stopped and stared, he stared back, and then he smiled at her from across the street, and she to him, and then he crossed to where she was and for the very first time in either of their lives, they spoke to one another. Her Grandmother always did say the conversation was a little awkward at first, but forty years later you can never get either one to shut up.
'Hello, gran.’ Evanna said. The crowd of people already surrounding Evanna moved to let Marge through to her. The community where they lived knew Marge very well, they respected her. They crossed over to the church steps and sat down side by side, Evanna helping her grandmother down carefully. 'Evanna,' said Marge, not looking at her granddaughter, but instead at the emptying crowd of people in front of them. 'I want you to be OK, dear. If you need me for anything, if you want to get away from that house for a while, you -'
'I'm fine.' Evanna said, cutting off anything else her grandmother had wanted to say. 'I'll be fine. I just want to get back home, to be in my own company for a while. I just want people to understand that. I want people to understand that my husband has just died, and I’ll be fine.'
Noticing her grandmother looking shocked and slightly hurt by the abrupt way she cut her off, she quickly added, 'but thanks gran, I really appreciate it.' Marge gave a slight smile, but said no more.
For a while longer they sat there not speaking and eventually Marge got up, told Evanna it was time they should leave, and they did. By the time they reached Evanna's , and until recently Jamie's, home it was after six O'Clock. Opening the car door, Evanna turned to her grandmother and they embraced for a short time, and then she eventually climbed out of the car and walked to the front door. She turned around in time to see Marge driving off and she went inside, placed her jacket in the closet in the hall, and lay on the couch. She felt weird not hearing Jamie's voice or feeling his presence somewhere in their home, not being able to touch him. He was gone. She closed her eyes and lay still until she finally drifted into sleep. Her dreams filled with memories of her past, of Jamie, of them, and for a while, they would be together again.