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“Is anyone missing someone from their party?”

A stranger yelled into the hotel restaurant crowd on the night before my cousin’s wedding. 

I had just started a job fresh out of college so wasn’t able to attend, but many of the dozens of members from my mom’s side of the family were enjoying the rare chance to be in the same room. I didn’t have to be there to know the look of joy that would be hard to wipe off my mom’s face.  

“There’s a man face down outside the hotel entrance,” the stranger called out again.

The chatter stopped, and one of my aunts turned to my mom and said, “Wait a minute… didn’t Dave go to the car?”

The joy turned to fear.