Tragedy

It was a Monday night and Roc and I had just walked in the door from an impromptu dinner out. As those of us in the Cop Community know; you go to dinner when your cop has off, regardless of the time or day. As we walked in, the phone was ringing. I saw from the Caller ID that it was my Aunt and grabbed it right up.
"Hey!" I started saying how it was cool to hear from her, and then launched right into telling her about our dinner. It was about a minute before she interrupted me.
"Stella." She took a deep breath.
I knew from her tone that something was off.
"What's up?" My antennae was up.
"Sal died." She paused a moment, and then, "He committed suicide."
"WHAT?!" I was shocked to my very core. I must have sat or fell down at that point, because I was on the couch in an instant. Roc was making some sort of gesture towards me, but I couldn't see him.
Sal was my gorgeous, vivacious, fun-loving forty-year-old cousin. He was one of my favorites.
And now he was gone.