Rock and Roll Ruined My Life
Parting
Rock And Roll Ruined My Life- Chapter 13- Parting
**Juliet’s POV**
As soon as I sat down in the car, my stomach began to churn. ‘I just have to gather my thoughts. Let’s start with what I know: For starters, I don’t know if I can do this. It’s been a month. I’m mostly healed. I had no birthday party, but I got loads of cards. On top of that I didn’t get my permit. And no one from my family really cares about me and Sarah. No one except for the guys and Lindsey. I don’t get it. I thought everyone would be rushing over to help us; turns out we were just abandoned. I know there will be a lot of people at the funeral. Lots of holy people and lots of old family friends etcetera, etcetera. But no one besides the guys and Lindsey are trying to help us…’
“Juliet.” A voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked around to see who was in the car with me. I was with Gerard, Lindsey, and Mikey. The strange thing was none of them were trying to talk to me.
“Juliet,” the voice repeated. I looked around and still did not find the source of the voice. Suddenly there were two voices calling out to me.
“Juliet. Juliet. Juliet! Juliet! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET” I felt myself starting to tremble. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I realized what I was hearing over and over again.
I was hearing my parents’ last words.
“No! No! No! No!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I tried covering my ears but nothing worked.
“Whoa! Pull over right now,” I heard Gerard say to the driver.
“Juliet?” Gerard tried talking to me. This only made it worse. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and I shrugged away from it.
“Make it stop! Please stop! I can’t take this anymore! Make them stop screaming please! It’s killing me! Please! Please, please, please,” I sobbed covering my ears once more. I put my head in my hands and pressed down hard on my temples trying to stop the pounding headache I now had. All of the screaming, the crunch of metal. It was all coming back.
“Julie, it’s all in your head,” I heard Gerard say. As I processed this thought the voices got softer. I was able to think for a minute.
“Why are they in my head?” I asked. My voice was barely above a whisper.
“That’s something you have to ask yourself,” Mikey replied. As I processed this thought the voices got softer still.
“Are they going away?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes,” I replied not moving from my position. As I continued to tell myself that there was no reason for these terrible, psychotic thoughts to be in my head, they slowly faded into nothingness. I felt like all of this bad energy inside of me was escaping. As soon as they were gone I looked up and saw the driver staring at me with a horrified expression.
“I am, SO sorry,” I apologized suddenly feeling much better. He put the car back into drive.
“It’s ok. Sometimes, you have to get all of the bad thoughts out of your head so that you can focus on the good things,” Lindsey said.
“What did you see?” Gerard asked.
“I didn’t see anything; I heard.”
“Do you want to tell us about it?”
“It’s probably better if I do, right?”
“That’s up to you,” Mikey replied. I took a deep breath and began telling them about what I heard and how I was now officially scared of my own mind and how I felt so much better.
We pulled up to my sister’s friend’s house. I sighed, “I really don’t know how you guys aren’t totally freaked out by what just happened.”
“I don’t know why either,” Mikey replied in a thoughtful voice. I chuckled a little bit. He was being so philosophical today and it was totally unlike him, but in a good way I guess.
The car door opened and my sister’s head appeared.
“Hi, Julie.”
“Hi, Sarah. You want to come in this car? We’ve got room for one more,” I said patting the seat. She looked at me strangely when she saw my eyes and tear stained face.
“You honestly don’t want to know what just happened,” I told her. She nodded and climbed in next to me. Next stop was the funeral parlor.
“Hello, welcome to the Martin Family funeral home,” A lady dressed in all black said as we walked in the front doors.
“Hi. We’re here for the Spinnet wake,” Gerard said stepping forward to shake the lady’s hand.
“Yes, you are. Right this way.” She began walking down the ornately furnished hallway. I looked over my shoulder and exchanged looks with Lindsey and Frank who looked as genuinely scared of the lady as I did. How did she know we were here to see my parents? There must be at least 50 more dead bodies in this building somewhere…
She stopped in front of the last room on the left and gestured to the door. “I’ll give you all some time before we let the rest of the mourners in,” she said closing the door behind her.
And there they were. The two coffins right in front of us. This would be the last time in my entire life that I would see them up close and in the flesh. I felt a hand close around mine. I looked down to see Sarah gazing at the open coffins warily. I squoze her hand tightly before I walked forward. The first coffin held my mom. Immediately I felt all of the sadness come back.
“Hi, Mommy,” I said letting go of Sarah’s warm hand and reaching out to take my mothers cold, powdered one. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” I said as a tear fell down my cheeks. “I just want you to know that I’ve always loved you. No matter how much I complained I always loved you. Always. Please know that. I also wanted you to know that,” I took a deep breath and sniffed, “that I’m so happy we became close before you died and that I know you will always be there for us.” I continued to stare at her face with silent tears falling down my cheeks. “My poor mom. My poor mommy,” I repeated as I knelt down to say a prayer for her. I got up and let Sarah kneel next to her and say her own words.
I walked over to the next coffin. And I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Not one bit.
“Daddy! Oh my God," I whispered to myself, the tears falling more quickly. "My Daddy!” I sobbed as the tears flowed down my cheeks. “Daddy no. No, no, no.” Suddenly I felt many pairs of arms around me. “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” I sobbed into someone’s arms. “Daddy. I miss you so much. I can’t- I can’t believe- Daddy.” I couldn’t stop crying. I just could not stop. I couldn’t believe that my daddy was gone forever.
He was the one who I did everything with. He was my best friend through everything. He taught me almost everything I knew. All the times he went bike riding together. All the times he tried to help me with track. All the times he tried to help me learn to swim. All of the long car rides. All the times he helped me learn to play guitar. All the times he took me to work with him. All the times I was sick. All of those times were gone. Everything that kept me sane was gone. I broke forth from all of the arms and knelt and grabbed his hand. It felt so weak and cold, and not the warm, strong, securing hand I was used to.
“Come back Daddy, please come back! I need you!” I cried out. I was shaking uncontrollably. That was my daddy. My daddy was gone. I would never hear my daddy’s voice again. I would never get to do anything with him ever again. My daddy. Gone.
When I could cry no more, and could only wretch and breathe in deep shaky breaths, I stood up and turned around. I saw Gerard, Mikey, Ray, Frank, Bob, Lindsey, Sarah, and four other ladies standing there waiting for me with tears in their eyes. I walked over and each of them gave me a hug except for the four new ladies who had joined the group. I looked at them trying to remember if I had seen them before somewhere but nothing was coming to me. I wiped my eyes trying to see them more clearly. I still didn’t recognize them.
“Hi, Juliet. I don’t think you’ve met any of us before. We’re Mikey, Ray, Frank, and Bob’s wives,” The first girl said. She was so short. She was shorter than Frank. “Nice to meet you,” I said as I sniffed again. “I know this isn’t the proper setting, but I’m Jamia Frank’s wife,” the girl extended her arms and brought me into a hug. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
The next girl stepped forward. She was much taller than Jamia and looked only a head shorter than Ray. And sure enough she said,
“I’m Ray’s wife Krista. I’m sorry about your mom and dad.” She too reached out to give me a hug.
The next girl I couldn’t place. She was average height and there were only two people left: Bob and Mikey, and Mikey looked like he could date someone like her but Bob also looked like he could date someone like her. “Hi, I’m Kaitlin, Bob’s wife. I’m very sorry about your parents.”
“Thank you,” I replied as she hugged me.
“I always seem to be the last one,” The last girl smiled soberly. As I took in her appearance, I realized she had to be with Mikey. She had the same solemn, calm and attitude. “I’m Alicia, and I’m obviously Mikey’s wife,” her smile faded as she said, “I know how it feels to loose someone you love dearly. My father passed away a couple of years ago. I miss him too.” This time I reached out and gave her a hug.
“Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it a lot.”
“No problem. We’ve heard only good things about you from the guys and we wanted to come and meet you sooner but we were all in California,” Krista said. I smiled and attempted to make small talk with all of them.
After all of the chit chatting died down, we all just stood in complete silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but a reverent silence. Out of no where Gerard screamed and made us all jump. We all turned to see what happened. It was just the creepy lady.
“Sorry to frighten you. I was just wondering if we could let in the other mourners.” Gerard looked at me for my answer. I nodded and he said,
“Yeah we’re ready.”
“Very well, very well. I’ll send them in.” With that she walked out of the room but left the doors open this time.
“Who would be here so early?” Alicia asked.
“Maybe the priest or something,” Mikey replied. I sat down in a chair and put my head in my hands. I was so tired.
I heard people walk in.
“Hi, thank you for coming,” I heard Gerard greet them. The people walked over to Sarah who said, “She’s right over there.” I knew what was coming next. It would be one of my parents’ friends saying how sorry they were for my loss or something like that. But I didn’t hear a lot of people walking towards me. I only heard one pair of feet.
I opened my eyes but I did not raise my head. The footsteps got closer and closer until I could see two feet standing there. I gasped as I stared at the floor. Only one person I knew owned a pair of black and blood red dress shoes with a ballet shoe stitched onto the front of each one. “No. It can’t be,” I whispered.
I raised my head and as soon as I saw her face, I sprung out of my chair and gave her the biggest hug ever. Tears streamed down my face as I held onto her. It was my best friend in the whole entire world: Audrey. There would never be a better person in the whole entire world.
“I’m so sorry Juliet,” she said wiping a tear away from her own face.
“Don’t you start crying,” I warned her jokingly and wiped my face off.
“When I head about the accident I wanted to come over and see you in the hospital, but my parents wouldn’t let me.”
“I don’t expect you to just be able to fly over from… Where do you live now?” I asked.
“Oregon,” she said rolling her eyes and sniffing.
“Yeah, I don’t expect you to be able to fly over for a couple of days just to visit me in New York from there.”
“Well, we’re here now,” she said gesturing toward her two parents who seemed to be in a daze. I guess they couldn’t believe my mom and dad died either. They had been good friends, Audrey’s parents and mine.
“I’m gunna’ go and say hi to your mom and dad.”
“Ok,” she replied walking towards the two coffins.
“Julie,” Frank came over to me.
“Yeah?”
“You know that girl?”
“She’s my best friend,” I replied giving him an are-you-kidding-me look.
“We just wanted to make sure because we don’t want any unnecessary people here.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll let you know if there are,” I reassured him.
“Thanks.”
After I greeted Audrey’s parents, everyone I knew on the face of the Earth came. Everyone my parents ever knew came. As the day continued more and more people showed up until there was no room to breathe. I couldn’t believe the turn out. All of these people were here for my parents, sister and I. For once I didn’t feel like I was unsupported and grieving on my own. I felt tears well up in my eyes. And, when they fell, they were tears of gratitude for everyone who showed up. Ray saw me crying and walked over.
“Are you okay? Do you need to sit down or something? I’ll get Lindsey-“
“No, no, no, Ray, these are good tears.”
“What?” he said.
“I just can’t believe how many people are here just to say good-bye to my parents… Maybe people really do care.” I mumbled the last part to myself.
It was towards the end of the wake when I noticed that I had not seen Timmy or his family anywhere. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t seen any of them in at least two weeks. It was almost time to go to the cemetery. I walked over to a sofa by the main entrance of the room and sat down. Every time someone would walk in I would sit up straight hoping that it would be him or his little brother, but every time it wasn’t. I closed my eyes and I felt someone sit down next to me. I knew who it was immediately.
“Audrey. I’m worried.”
“I know you are, what’s up?” I opened my eyes and sighed.
“Well, my boyfriend… he’s not here. I haven’t seen him in a really long time. I haven’t seen anyone from his family in a long time. Why aren’t they here?” I felt like I was forgotten, and it hurt.
“Julie, I don’t know; that’s terrible. But, why don’t you go and ask him that yourself?” she pointed to the doorway where my beautiful boyfriend was standing.
I got up and hugged him even tighter than when I hugged Audrey.
“I missed you,” I said still holding on to him.
“I missed you too.” He pulled back from the hug and said, “There are a lot of people here.”
“I know. I’m glad… I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t show up.”
He looked down at me and shook his head.
“How could we not come? Our parents have been good friends since before we were born. My dad’s car was in the shop getting fixed up, and you know how the city is; there was lots of traffic.”
“Oh, okay,” I nodded.
Some one tapped my shoulder. It was Mikey. I blushed and pulled out of our half hug and waited for him to say something.
“They want to start packing up to head out to the cemetery. And, if you don’t mind me asking, who is this?” He smirked while gesturing to Tim.
“All of these times that you were in the hospital, you two never met each other?” I asked unbelievingly.
“No.”
“Oh. Well, Mikey, this is my boyfriend, Tim. Tim, this is my friend, Mikey.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tim extended his hand and Mikey shook it.
“Same here. We’ll have time to introduce everyone later, we have to go.”
“Okay,” I replied, shakily. I went over and got Audrey who was still sitting on the couch. I linked one arm with her arm and one arm to Tim’s arm. They would be my support system for the next hour or so.
***************************************************************************************************
(At The Cemetery)
I turned my head into Tim’s shoulder as I watched the coffins go down into the ground next to each other. When I heard the sound of shovels picking up dirt, I knew they were out of sight. I looked around to see everyone crying.
“Why does parting have to be so painful? Why do all of the memories have to fade?” I whispered.
I continued to repeat these thoughts to myself as I watched the workers pile dirt over my parents. I didn’t even notice everyone leaving. Eventually, I sat down on the floor and watched. As the summer sun set, the workers finally finished. And, when they drove off, I finally felt at peace. I finally felt like my parents were safe. I finally felt that now I could move on with my life.
Suddenly, I felt like I was not alone. I looked up at the pink, orange, yellow, and purple sky and saw a circle of clouds that seemed to be right above my parents’ grave.
“Juliet?” I heard my mother’s voice. I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. I continued to listen to the voice that came from beyond the clouds.
“Juliet, we know you’re there, and we want you to know that we love you. We always have. We also now know why none of your family members aren’t stepping up to the plate to take care of you and Sarah. There are two reasons. The first being that the people that do care cannot afford to keep you for long. The second being that this is all part of the plan, the one that God has, so just stick with it. We’re sure that you’ll like the turn of events and branch out to become a lovely young lady. We’ll keep you in our prayers, love.” And with that, the ring of clouds disappeared and my mother’s voice along with it.
I stood up and brushed myself off and walked to the line of cars where the guys, girls, Sarah, Audrey, Tim, and their family’s were. As I wiped away the tears, I felt a wave of tiredness come over me. ‘Tomorrow is another day,’ I thought to myself. ‘Tomorrow will be much better.’
**Juliet’s POV**
As soon as I sat down in the car, my stomach began to churn. ‘I just have to gather my thoughts. Let’s start with what I know: For starters, I don’t know if I can do this. It’s been a month. I’m mostly healed. I had no birthday party, but I got loads of cards. On top of that I didn’t get my permit. And no one from my family really cares about me and Sarah. No one except for the guys and Lindsey. I don’t get it. I thought everyone would be rushing over to help us; turns out we were just abandoned. I know there will be a lot of people at the funeral. Lots of holy people and lots of old family friends etcetera, etcetera. But no one besides the guys and Lindsey are trying to help us…’
“Juliet.” A voice interrupted my thoughts. I looked around to see who was in the car with me. I was with Gerard, Lindsey, and Mikey. The strange thing was none of them were trying to talk to me.
“Juliet,” the voice repeated. I looked around and still did not find the source of the voice. Suddenly there were two voices calling out to me.
“Juliet. Juliet. Juliet! Juliet! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET! JULIET” I felt myself starting to tremble. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I realized what I was hearing over and over again.
I was hearing my parents’ last words.
“No! No! No! No!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. I tried covering my ears but nothing worked.
“Whoa! Pull over right now,” I heard Gerard say to the driver.
“Juliet?” Gerard tried talking to me. This only made it worse. I felt a hand touch my shoulder and I shrugged away from it.
“Make it stop! Please stop! I can’t take this anymore! Make them stop screaming please! It’s killing me! Please! Please, please, please,” I sobbed covering my ears once more. I put my head in my hands and pressed down hard on my temples trying to stop the pounding headache I now had. All of the screaming, the crunch of metal. It was all coming back.
“Julie, it’s all in your head,” I heard Gerard say. As I processed this thought the voices got softer. I was able to think for a minute.
“Why are they in my head?” I asked. My voice was barely above a whisper.
“That’s something you have to ask yourself,” Mikey replied. As I processed this thought the voices got softer still.
“Are they going away?” Lindsey asked.
“Yes,” I replied not moving from my position. As I continued to tell myself that there was no reason for these terrible, psychotic thoughts to be in my head, they slowly faded into nothingness. I felt like all of this bad energy inside of me was escaping. As soon as they were gone I looked up and saw the driver staring at me with a horrified expression.
“I am, SO sorry,” I apologized suddenly feeling much better. He put the car back into drive.
“It’s ok. Sometimes, you have to get all of the bad thoughts out of your head so that you can focus on the good things,” Lindsey said.
“What did you see?” Gerard asked.
“I didn’t see anything; I heard.”
“Do you want to tell us about it?”
“It’s probably better if I do, right?”
“That’s up to you,” Mikey replied. I took a deep breath and began telling them about what I heard and how I was now officially scared of my own mind and how I felt so much better.
We pulled up to my sister’s friend’s house. I sighed, “I really don’t know how you guys aren’t totally freaked out by what just happened.”
“I don’t know why either,” Mikey replied in a thoughtful voice. I chuckled a little bit. He was being so philosophical today and it was totally unlike him, but in a good way I guess.
The car door opened and my sister’s head appeared.
“Hi, Julie.”
“Hi, Sarah. You want to come in this car? We’ve got room for one more,” I said patting the seat. She looked at me strangely when she saw my eyes and tear stained face.
“You honestly don’t want to know what just happened,” I told her. She nodded and climbed in next to me. Next stop was the funeral parlor.
“Hello, welcome to the Martin Family funeral home,” A lady dressed in all black said as we walked in the front doors.
“Hi. We’re here for the Spinnet wake,” Gerard said stepping forward to shake the lady’s hand.
“Yes, you are. Right this way.” She began walking down the ornately furnished hallway. I looked over my shoulder and exchanged looks with Lindsey and Frank who looked as genuinely scared of the lady as I did. How did she know we were here to see my parents? There must be at least 50 more dead bodies in this building somewhere…
She stopped in front of the last room on the left and gestured to the door. “I’ll give you all some time before we let the rest of the mourners in,” she said closing the door behind her.
And there they were. The two coffins right in front of us. This would be the last time in my entire life that I would see them up close and in the flesh. I felt a hand close around mine. I looked down to see Sarah gazing at the open coffins warily. I squoze her hand tightly before I walked forward. The first coffin held my mom. Immediately I felt all of the sadness come back.
“Hi, Mommy,” I said letting go of Sarah’s warm hand and reaching out to take my mothers cold, powdered one. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you,” I said as a tear fell down my cheeks. “I just want you to know that I’ve always loved you. No matter how much I complained I always loved you. Always. Please know that. I also wanted you to know that,” I took a deep breath and sniffed, “that I’m so happy we became close before you died and that I know you will always be there for us.” I continued to stare at her face with silent tears falling down my cheeks. “My poor mom. My poor mommy,” I repeated as I knelt down to say a prayer for her. I got up and let Sarah kneel next to her and say her own words.
I walked over to the next coffin. And I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. Not one bit.
“Daddy! Oh my God," I whispered to myself, the tears falling more quickly. "My Daddy!” I sobbed as the tears flowed down my cheeks. “Daddy no. No, no, no.” Suddenly I felt many pairs of arms around me. “Daddy, daddy, daddy,” I sobbed into someone’s arms. “Daddy. I miss you so much. I can’t- I can’t believe- Daddy.” I couldn’t stop crying. I just could not stop. I couldn’t believe that my daddy was gone forever.
He was the one who I did everything with. He was my best friend through everything. He taught me almost everything I knew. All the times he went bike riding together. All the times he tried to help me with track. All the times he tried to help me learn to swim. All of the long car rides. All the times he helped me learn to play guitar. All the times he took me to work with him. All the times I was sick. All of those times were gone. Everything that kept me sane was gone. I broke forth from all of the arms and knelt and grabbed his hand. It felt so weak and cold, and not the warm, strong, securing hand I was used to.
“Come back Daddy, please come back! I need you!” I cried out. I was shaking uncontrollably. That was my daddy. My daddy was gone. I would never hear my daddy’s voice again. I would never get to do anything with him ever again. My daddy. Gone.
When I could cry no more, and could only wretch and breathe in deep shaky breaths, I stood up and turned around. I saw Gerard, Mikey, Ray, Frank, Bob, Lindsey, Sarah, and four other ladies standing there waiting for me with tears in their eyes. I walked over and each of them gave me a hug except for the four new ladies who had joined the group. I looked at them trying to remember if I had seen them before somewhere but nothing was coming to me. I wiped my eyes trying to see them more clearly. I still didn’t recognize them.
“Hi, Juliet. I don’t think you’ve met any of us before. We’re Mikey, Ray, Frank, and Bob’s wives,” The first girl said. She was so short. She was shorter than Frank. “Nice to meet you,” I said as I sniffed again. “I know this isn’t the proper setting, but I’m Jamia Frank’s wife,” the girl extended her arms and brought me into a hug. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
The next girl stepped forward. She was much taller than Jamia and looked only a head shorter than Ray. And sure enough she said,
“I’m Ray’s wife Krista. I’m sorry about your mom and dad.” She too reached out to give me a hug.
The next girl I couldn’t place. She was average height and there were only two people left: Bob and Mikey, and Mikey looked like he could date someone like her but Bob also looked like he could date someone like her. “Hi, I’m Kaitlin, Bob’s wife. I’m very sorry about your parents.”
“Thank you,” I replied as she hugged me.
“I always seem to be the last one,” The last girl smiled soberly. As I took in her appearance, I realized she had to be with Mikey. She had the same solemn, calm and attitude. “I’m Alicia, and I’m obviously Mikey’s wife,” her smile faded as she said, “I know how it feels to loose someone you love dearly. My father passed away a couple of years ago. I miss him too.” This time I reached out and gave her a hug.
“Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it a lot.”
“No problem. We’ve heard only good things about you from the guys and we wanted to come and meet you sooner but we were all in California,” Krista said. I smiled and attempted to make small talk with all of them.
After all of the chit chatting died down, we all just stood in complete silence. It wasn’t an awkward silence, but a reverent silence. Out of no where Gerard screamed and made us all jump. We all turned to see what happened. It was just the creepy lady.
“Sorry to frighten you. I was just wondering if we could let in the other mourners.” Gerard looked at me for my answer. I nodded and he said,
“Yeah we’re ready.”
“Very well, very well. I’ll send them in.” With that she walked out of the room but left the doors open this time.
“Who would be here so early?” Alicia asked.
“Maybe the priest or something,” Mikey replied. I sat down in a chair and put my head in my hands. I was so tired.
I heard people walk in.
“Hi, thank you for coming,” I heard Gerard greet them. The people walked over to Sarah who said, “She’s right over there.” I knew what was coming next. It would be one of my parents’ friends saying how sorry they were for my loss or something like that. But I didn’t hear a lot of people walking towards me. I only heard one pair of feet.
I opened my eyes but I did not raise my head. The footsteps got closer and closer until I could see two feet standing there. I gasped as I stared at the floor. Only one person I knew owned a pair of black and blood red dress shoes with a ballet shoe stitched onto the front of each one. “No. It can’t be,” I whispered.
I raised my head and as soon as I saw her face, I sprung out of my chair and gave her the biggest hug ever. Tears streamed down my face as I held onto her. It was my best friend in the whole entire world: Audrey. There would never be a better person in the whole entire world.
“I’m so sorry Juliet,” she said wiping a tear away from her own face.
“Don’t you start crying,” I warned her jokingly and wiped my face off.
“When I head about the accident I wanted to come over and see you in the hospital, but my parents wouldn’t let me.”
“I don’t expect you to just be able to fly over from… Where do you live now?” I asked.
“Oregon,” she said rolling her eyes and sniffing.
“Yeah, I don’t expect you to be able to fly over for a couple of days just to visit me in New York from there.”
“Well, we’re here now,” she said gesturing toward her two parents who seemed to be in a daze. I guess they couldn’t believe my mom and dad died either. They had been good friends, Audrey’s parents and mine.
“I’m gunna’ go and say hi to your mom and dad.”
“Ok,” she replied walking towards the two coffins.
“Julie,” Frank came over to me.
“Yeah?”
“You know that girl?”
“She’s my best friend,” I replied giving him an are-you-kidding-me look.
“We just wanted to make sure because we don’t want any unnecessary people here.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll let you know if there are,” I reassured him.
“Thanks.”
After I greeted Audrey’s parents, everyone I knew on the face of the Earth came. Everyone my parents ever knew came. As the day continued more and more people showed up until there was no room to breathe. I couldn’t believe the turn out. All of these people were here for my parents, sister and I. For once I didn’t feel like I was unsupported and grieving on my own. I felt tears well up in my eyes. And, when they fell, they were tears of gratitude for everyone who showed up. Ray saw me crying and walked over.
“Are you okay? Do you need to sit down or something? I’ll get Lindsey-“
“No, no, no, Ray, these are good tears.”
“What?” he said.
“I just can’t believe how many people are here just to say good-bye to my parents… Maybe people really do care.” I mumbled the last part to myself.
It was towards the end of the wake when I noticed that I had not seen Timmy or his family anywhere. As a matter of fact, I hadn’t seen any of them in at least two weeks. It was almost time to go to the cemetery. I walked over to a sofa by the main entrance of the room and sat down. Every time someone would walk in I would sit up straight hoping that it would be him or his little brother, but every time it wasn’t. I closed my eyes and I felt someone sit down next to me. I knew who it was immediately.
“Audrey. I’m worried.”
“I know you are, what’s up?” I opened my eyes and sighed.
“Well, my boyfriend… he’s not here. I haven’t seen him in a really long time. I haven’t seen anyone from his family in a long time. Why aren’t they here?” I felt like I was forgotten, and it hurt.
“Julie, I don’t know; that’s terrible. But, why don’t you go and ask him that yourself?” she pointed to the doorway where my beautiful boyfriend was standing.
I got up and hugged him even tighter than when I hugged Audrey.
“I missed you,” I said still holding on to him.
“I missed you too.” He pulled back from the hug and said, “There are a lot of people here.”
“I know. I’m glad… I was beginning to think that you wouldn’t show up.”
He looked down at me and shook his head.
“How could we not come? Our parents have been good friends since before we were born. My dad’s car was in the shop getting fixed up, and you know how the city is; there was lots of traffic.”
“Oh, okay,” I nodded.
Some one tapped my shoulder. It was Mikey. I blushed and pulled out of our half hug and waited for him to say something.
“They want to start packing up to head out to the cemetery. And, if you don’t mind me asking, who is this?” He smirked while gesturing to Tim.
“All of these times that you were in the hospital, you two never met each other?” I asked unbelievingly.
“No.”
“Oh. Well, Mikey, this is my boyfriend, Tim. Tim, this is my friend, Mikey.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tim extended his hand and Mikey shook it.
“Same here. We’ll have time to introduce everyone later, we have to go.”
“Okay,” I replied, shakily. I went over and got Audrey who was still sitting on the couch. I linked one arm with her arm and one arm to Tim’s arm. They would be my support system for the next hour or so.
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(At The Cemetery)
I turned my head into Tim’s shoulder as I watched the coffins go down into the ground next to each other. When I heard the sound of shovels picking up dirt, I knew they were out of sight. I looked around to see everyone crying.
“Why does parting have to be so painful? Why do all of the memories have to fade?” I whispered.
I continued to repeat these thoughts to myself as I watched the workers pile dirt over my parents. I didn’t even notice everyone leaving. Eventually, I sat down on the floor and watched. As the summer sun set, the workers finally finished. And, when they drove off, I finally felt at peace. I finally felt like my parents were safe. I finally felt that now I could move on with my life.
Suddenly, I felt like I was not alone. I looked up at the pink, orange, yellow, and purple sky and saw a circle of clouds that seemed to be right above my parents’ grave.
“Juliet?” I heard my mother’s voice. I felt tears start to well up in my eyes. I continued to listen to the voice that came from beyond the clouds.
“Juliet, we know you’re there, and we want you to know that we love you. We always have. We also now know why none of your family members aren’t stepping up to the plate to take care of you and Sarah. There are two reasons. The first being that the people that do care cannot afford to keep you for long. The second being that this is all part of the plan, the one that God has, so just stick with it. We’re sure that you’ll like the turn of events and branch out to become a lovely young lady. We’ll keep you in our prayers, love.” And with that, the ring of clouds disappeared and my mother’s voice along with it.
I stood up and brushed myself off and walked to the line of cars where the guys, girls, Sarah, Audrey, Tim, and their family’s were. As I wiped away the tears, I felt a wave of tiredness come over me. ‘Tomorrow is another day,’ I thought to myself. ‘Tomorrow will be much better.’
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2/7/15