Page 19 of Before We Ever Spoke

19

Cooper Madison did not sleep the night of August 28, 2005. He couldn't. He had not been able to get ahold of his father, Jeffrey, since Sunday afternoon, and the weather reports looked awful for where his dad was planning on riding out the storm.

Coop, like most of the world with family down south, was glued to the television in his upscale four bedroom Chicago condo on the morning on August 29th. Cell phone in one hand, home phone in the other. Waiting. Praying.

As much as he kept trying to convince himself that his father would call any moment, he could not shake the feeling that he was in grave danger.

The video feeds coming into all of the major news networks showed massive waves and flooding from Louisiana to Alabama.

For the first time ever, tiny Pass Christian, Mississippi was the focus of national news outlets all over the world. Reports flowing in ranged in everything from horrible to unimaginable.

To make matters worse, people kept calling Cooper to see if his father was okay. While he appreciated their concern, he also was worried he'd miss a call from his dad.

Around lunchtime, Skip Parsons, manager of the Cubs, stopped over with food. Coop thanked him for coming over, and the two picked at a world-famous Giordano's pizza while watching the news and waiting for updates.

As luck would have it, Monday was an off-day for the Cubs, and the manager tried to take his star player's mind off of whatever dark places it might have been headed towards throughout the course of the afternoon. There were so many scenarios in which his father could be okay and just unable to make a phone call. After all, phones and electricity had been down for almost 24 hours.

Coop kept bringing up the fact that early reports said that Pass Christian High School, while flooded, was still standing.

"Thank God he was at the high school and not the middle school, Coop," Skip said when an aerial shot of the middle school was shown on the television. At least what was left of the middle school, that is, which appeared to be completely washed away.

"Let's hope he got out of there altogether," Cooper replied.

Minutes passed by as if they were hours, and as nighttime fell, Coop wasn't sure if he should be feeling relieved that he hadn't received a call, or terrified.

Skip stayed until 6 o'clock but had to leave to watch one of his sons play in a flag football game. It was rare that he was ever able to attend any of his kids’ activities during the season, and Coop encouraged him to go.

As he had done about a hundred times throughout the course of the day, Coop dialed his father's cell phone number. Just like the hundred times before, it went straight to voicemail.

He also tried calling his dad's friend Clinton James, who was the Sheriff of Pass Christian. Jeffrey and Clinton became close when they played softball together shortly after Jeffrey moved south. Clinton was just a deputy at that point but had worked his way up over the years to Sheriff.

Unfortunately, it was the same result: straight to voicemail.

At around 10:45 that evening, Cooper's cell phone lit up. The caller ID read "Clinton James".

"Finally!" Coop said as he took a breath and answered, "Hello?"

"Cuppah, it's Clinton. I'm sorry I haven't called you sooner, but we are just getting cell service back up around here," the Sheriff spoke.

"Yessir, I understand, Sheriff," Cooper replied, "Have you heard from my daddy?"

The Sheriff could be heard taking a deep breath on the other end, and when he did Cooper's heart sank.

"Cuppah… we found your daddy… and Butkus… I'm sorry, Cuppah… they're both gone…" Sheriff James spoke, his voice cracking.

Cooper heard the words, but couldn't manage a response.

"It seems that your daddy went to the middle school with Butkus at some point during the storm. A lot of us thought the worst was over when it hit. I've never seen anything like this…" Sheriff James continued, hoping to fill the void, "Cuppah? You still there?"

Cooper again heard the words, but instead of responding he clicked "end" on his phone.

He then dropped to his knees.

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