Pulling into Battlefield High School at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night, someone could have easily wondered if all the cars in the parking lot were all there for something going on inside the school.

The stadium lights were off; interior lights from nearby houses shined.

Walking along the pavement at the Haymarket school, the "thump" of a car door closing echoed in the thin, winter air.

No one dotted the stadium stands.

Yet, a look at the south end of the football field from the sidewalk showed something special.

Hundreds of white paper bags reflected pale shades of yellow all along the perimeter of the grass and the entry way, each containing a tiny candle burning at the bottom.

Friends of the late Battlefield graduate Gerald Khosa lit them as part of a December 19 memorial to honor the 2009 alumnus.

He died in a car wreck on Dec. 7 in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Friends who saw pictures of the crash described his car as devastated by a dump truck shortly after the 20-year-old dropped off a friend at an airport.

The eastern hemisphere tragedy produced tears from cries half a world away as the news leaked out over the Internet.

Back home on Dec. 19, that sorrow turned into a celebration of life.

Silence from outside the stadium was really just the sound of inaudible concentration. Well over 100 teenagers and young adults clustered themselves together around scores of flames, preparing for an epic memorial.

Giggles and laughter substituted for grief and dismay as those gathered tried to figure out exactly how to launch candle-lit sky lanterns that would drift across the sky.

"Got to get some lift!" one person barked.

At 7:36, the first floating home-made hot air balloon escaped to "wooo!" cheers and applause emanating below.

Like an Armada of fading stars, scores of candle-lit vessels sailed upward and north toward the Loudoun County line, with the last launch at 7:42.

Instead of perfect lines, the green, purple, red and white tissue paper cylinders made a series of constellations during their flights.

Eventually, the fuel in each balloon ran out.

Who knows where the debris landed; it's all bound to turn up scatter-shot across somewhere.

Some of those standing on the field clenched foot-long candles as they stared into the cloudy black sky.
"Shout out to G Khosa!" said Gary Martin, breaking the whispers and laughs as he faced the candle-lit lunch bag ribbon pattern near midfield.

The friends of Khosa focused on the former cross country star's lead.

Carter Sandter then interjected with a quick story about the former varsity running back, screaming about how Khosa led BHS on "the day we beat Stonewall Jackson in 2008!"

The Bobcat faithful roared.

"G-Black!" exclaimed Martin three times.

"G--Black!" replied the crowd three times back.

"I told you I'd make the 50!" yelled Sandter to laughs as he stood in the middle of the football field.

During a series of interviews with Khosa's friends, the same themes came up over and over.

That bright whites of his teeth from an ever-permanent grin.

That random if not infectious, deep belly laugh.

The football star, ladies' man and all-around beloved youth.

"His smile could brighten anybody's day up," said Martin.

Josh Langhorne recalled how he met Khosa at Bull Run Middle School when his new classmate approached him.

Khosa spotted him wearing a bit of camouflage and asked him, "So, (do) all you country boys ride dirt bikes around here?"

Sure enough, the two would do just that two weeks later.

Khosa was the type of friend who would write pages into someone's year book. His sense of humor came out in his nickname alone -- the African American embraced the "G-Black" moniker and, in turn, called his classmate Graydon Claflin "G-Claf" right back.

He had his own greeting style with Langhorne too.

"Left-dap. Right-dap. Smack-smack. Crossover. Hug it out."

The special handshake the two shared sometimes gave way to a big hug past an outstretched palm toward others.

Adrian Ingram played with Khosa on the BHS football team yet shared stories of what the fastest running back on the team did off the field instead.

"I never, ever heard anyone say, 'I don't like Gerald Khosa,'" recalled Ingram. "He didn't have a crowd; he had a variety of friends."

That sentiment came up repeatedly in conversations.

While a devout jock who certainly had his sports friends -- former teammates Corey Thacker and Austin Tuell could be seen standing by Ingram at one point on Monday -- he also spent time with just about every other niche in school.

Ingram relayed a story about how the two of them drove a stick-shift car down to Myrtle Beach once when neither had ever driven anything other than an automatic.

Khosa figured it out well and did fine while cruising... and then preceded to stall out "probably 50 times in 10 minutes" after hitting traffic, said Ingram with a laugh.

Jordan Campbell mentioned how Khosa would "poke" her every day on Facebook, which is a button pressed on the social networking site designed to let the recipient know that he or she is being thought about.

Campbell mentioned how the outgoing Khosa approached her one day in middle school and said, "You're really pretty, why don't you ever talk to anybody?"

They ended up dating and stayed friends through high school and beyond.

"His smile was the biggest, whitest smile I'd ever seen," she said.

"He just laughed, that's all he did," added Langhorne.

Phil Vazquez called Khosa an "adventurous guy." Langhorne mentioned how they would randomly just climb a tree at night or visit a haunted prison for the heck of it.

"He was able to (make) any event into a fun event," he said.