“I am so sorry, Erik,” said a distant relative that Erik preferred to keep at a distance. Erik grinned, shook his old, frail, hand then left. Ty’s flag-covered casket sat quietly, closed and ignored. Mourners stood near the small pair of windows in the parlour. They talked quietly about football Sunday and what they had planned for next week.
A funeral is not a perfect event, Erik told himself. He dreamed of a relaxing night with a beer and his sorrow. A funeral just wasn’t how he wanted to mourn the loss of Ty.
Erik found a seat outside the parlour. He ignored most of the morbid patrons. The day had moved ahead while he sat quietly.
Toward night fall, Sara appeared outside the glass doors of the funeral home. She has been working mid-shifts at Mercy Hospital. A divorcee in the morning, a nurse during the day, then a mourning mother at night. It is too much for her…, Erik thought as he stared at her.
He was still in love with her but she had good reasons for leaving him. He was damn lucky she wasn’t as bitter as he would of been if it was him. Erik stood for the first time in a while, his knees and back ached. He stepped forward toward the front doors, intent on meeting her at the door, when a younger man shoved her from the door. He began screaming but Erik could not make out the words. Erik ran toward the door, threw it open, and stood outside.
The noise from above was riotous. The sound was like a hundred birds fighting with drums. Sara stood against the crimson brick outside the funeral home. She was unharmed and the young man lay face-first in the grass. Sara pointed toward the sky. Looking up, Erik swore.
Categories:Kingsboro Journal
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