Part 3: The Wake

The funeral had begun; the pastor was now ranting about how wonderful this Mary-Ellen person had been. The guests had already used up the inevitable odd look in Aderyn’s direction when she shouted “Oh yeah!” the first time he’d gotten to the woman’s name.

“What? I couldn’t remember it until he said it!” she’d whispered to Sarah and Chris. They were both simply trying not to laugh.

“...She was a kind woman, devoting her time to the community and its members...”

Aderyn had to fight not to snicker. ‘Devoting her time to the community my ass,’ she thought. ‘I have not seen her ONCE outside of her house.’ But everyone lied at funerals. It’s not like you could get up and say, ‘We’re not going to miss her much....She did have a lovely house, though. That happens to be all we saw of her, that house....Never left it once.”

‘Oh, but I did...’ echoed a faint whisper.

“Huh?” Aderyn asked, looking in the direction of the noise (which was basically Sarah’s seat).

“What do you mean, ‘huh?’” Sarah whispered back, trying not to interrupt the eulogy.

“What did you say? I couldn’t quite hear you over that pastor guy. He’s rather annoying isn’t he?”

Sarah just stared. “I didn’t say anything, you twit. Now be quiet and listen to how wonderful and giving your ex-neighbor supposedly was.”

Aderyn turned back to the front of the church, deciding to ignore whatever she’d heard. Probably just her imagination.

The minister droned on. “...She was fortunate enough to have three wonderful children. Though they were unable to visit frequently, they loved her all the same. She was an extremely loving mother...”

Aderyn gasped and, yet again, the scene around her changed.

A saddened minister occupied the front of the church, speaking solemnly of the woman in the picture that stood near the altar.

“....She was an extremely loving mother. Both of her daughters will miss her dearly....”

It was hard to stop crying. It was her mommy in the picture. They kept talking about how she was gone and never coming back. Said she was off visiting a happy place. But they didn’t have to tell her. She already knew.

“Aderyn!” Chris whispered loudly, poking her.

Groggily, she replied, “Yes?”

“You sort of passed out again. You didn’t fall or anything this time, but you seemed really out of it.” His brow was furrowed in what was clearly worry. It was so cute that he worried.

“I’m fine. Just went to sleep for a second. I don’t think that this minster has more than two tones in his voice.” Aderyn kept her face blank, trying not to let it show that the boring minister was not the sole cause of her checking out.

His eyes skeptically gave her face a once-over. He knew she was hiding something. But being the surprisingly accepting boyfriend that he was, he didn’t push it.

She grinned at him. It was so much fun to torture him so. To make up for it, she placed her fingers on her lips and gave them a kiss, placing them on his hand soon after. As Chris made a move to repeat her action, a slight gagging sound could be heard coming from Sarah’s general direction. They both quickly turned their heads in the direction of the pastor in reaction to the noise. It wouldn’t hurt them to pretend that they were listening.

~~~~~

“Okay, what the hell happened in the middle of that eulogy when you blacked out?” Chris demanded to know the second it had ended and they were exiting the church. Clearly, she was right about him not believing she’d just fallen asleep.

“Nothing. I already told you what happened.”

“People who have ‘fallen asleep’ do not look as though they are about to cry,” he said, one eyebrow raised.

“Well, maybe the minister was just THAT boring.”

Sarah stifled a laugh as Chris sighed in frustration.

“Could you three perhaps look sad for just a moment or two? This IS a funeral,” Devi scolded, but not really meaning it. She hadn’t really known the woman either.

They all took on the looks of someone who had done something bad, but had pasted on a fake innocent face.

“Fine. Close enough. Now get in the car; we’ve got to go to the wake.”

“But–“ Aderyn protested, but Devi cut her off.

“It’s still a part of the funeral. And it’s at her house, so it’s just down the street from us. We can be decent and show up for a few minutes.”

Aderyn scowled and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She’d had enough of the funeral vibe for the day. But Devi just grabbed one of her arms and led her to the car.

“It’s okay,” Sarah whispered. “We’ll come with you.”

“We will?” Chris asked Sarah on the side. She just elbowed him. “Yes, that’s right, of course we will,” he added, loud enough for Aderyn to hear.

“Yay,” she said, giving Chris a peck on the lips. Sarah glared.

They all got back into the green chevy, Aderyn more reluctant than the others, and slowly exited the parking lot. They didn’t want to get there first and have to wait for all the other guests, who happened to be from out of town, just because they knew the way.

~~~~~

The lady’s house was very dark; all the windows were closed as though any crack of sunlight was taboo. It didn’t help that the walls were painted a faded sickly greenish color, adding the feel of death in the place. The various shelves were filled with tons of old knick-knacks, the culmination of 80-some years of collecting random objects. It was actually rather spooky. The lack of light caused odd shadows to fall from all the items. One gave Aderyn the shivers; it was a pendant in the shape of a heart that had a small chip in the ‘v’ part. The way it hung off the shelf caused a rather large and disturbing image of a heart with a crack down the middle on the opposite wall.

She was broken from her thoughts by a rather pleasant woman welcoming them. If she remembered properly from the service, it was the old woman’s daughter.

“Thank you all for coming. It’s open casket, but for those of you squeamish people, it’s set up in a separate room. Second one on the left of that hallway over there.” She pointed. “You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

They all nodded, and the woman walked off to the latest guest who’d entered so she could give them the same information.

Aderyn made her way over to the food, which happened to be on the opposite side of the room than the hallway. It was all getting just a little too familiar. Chris sensed it, and put his arm around her waist. Sarah followed the two and picked up a plate for them to share, filling it with the various tiny pastries that were set out on the counter. Devi had left them to talk to one of their neighbors, one of the only people actually from the area.

After several minutes of nibbling on the food and some small talk with Sarah and Chris, Aderyn felt a sudden need to go look at the body. She couldn’t have possibly explained why. Without saying anything to Sarah or Chris, who she knew would question her about her choice, she walked towards the hallway the woman had indicated. They didn’t follow, having turned around for a moment to find some drinks.

As she stepped towards the entrance of the room, she could hear a voice or two talking. Just general comments about how it was ‘so sad’ and ‘what a tragedy’ it was.

Once inside, she could see the casket placed in the far corner. The lid was fully open, displaying its contents for anyone who stood by it to see. Aderyn slowly walked to it, as if in a trance. Something about the casket pulled her.

As she reached it and looked down, her eyes rolled into her head.

So much blood.

She’d just gotten home from school, and all she saw was red.

The little girl’s eyes bugged out. It was scary. She couldn’t see anyone; just the blood. It seemed to be leading to her mommy and daddy’s bedroom. She slowly followed it, afraid of what she might find but curious all the same.

She couldn’t help but let out a sob when she realized where the blood was coming from. It was her mommy. Shaking, the little girl forced her eyes to look away from the cold stare that her mother’s body held. She walked over to the phone and called 911, just like they told her to do if something was wrong.

“911, how may I direct your call?” a cheery voice sounded on the other end.

“When I got home, I found a lot of blood, and it’s coming from my mommy,” the little girl told the operator, tears running down her face.

“Okay. I’m going to have to ask you a few questions. Please don’t hang up the phone until I say you can. Where do you live?”

“21 Fourth Avenue, apartment 40,” she recited. They’d made her memorize it long ago.

“The paramedics will be there shortly. For now, all you can do to help your mother it wait for them to arrive and make sure that they can get in.”

The girl nodded. Then, remembering that that wouldn’t work over the telephone, she said, “Okay.”

“Now that the paramedics have been dispatched, I’m going to need to ask a few things about your mother’s condition to send to them. Then they can be better prepared to help her when they arrive.”

“Okay.”

“Do you know if your mother is still breathing?”

“I dunno. I didn’t check. Just a second.” The girl put down the phone and went back over to her mommy.

With wide eyes, she reported back. “No, she not.” The little girl was finding it difficult to breathe herself.

“Okay, just calm down. Do you know CPR?”

“What’s CPR?”

“Okay, perhaps not. Nevermind then. Do you know where your mother is bleeding from?”

“Um...I think it was her tummy. But it was all over. I’m not sure.”

“Alright. What’s your name, so they know when they arrive?”

“Aderyn.”

“Oh, and Aderyn, how old are you?”

“Seven.”

“Okay. I’ll let them know. You can hang up the phone now.”

She nodded, completely forgetting this time that the operator couldn’t hear her. But she didn’t hang up the phone. She just let it drop from her hands.

Turning around to look at her mommy again, she slid her back down the wall near the phone table and gathered her knees in her arms. She stayed that way until the ambulance arrived.

“ADERYN! Wake up, dammit!”

Her eyes fluttered open. She was still shaking from what she’d seen.

Chris, Sarah and Devi were all hovering over like they’d done at the church, this time looking significantly more worried. When it registered to them that she was awake, they all looked more relieved. But now by much.

Chris looked the worst. The second she sat up, he was on the floor next to her leaning her into his arms.

“What the hell happened? You scared us half to death.”

“I dunno.”

Chris just stared at her for a moment. Coming to a conclusion, he said, “Yes, you do know. Now tell us.”

“I don’t want you to freak out.”

“Too late. Tell. Now.”

“Fine. When I saw her body, it reminded me of Mom’s funeral and I just sort of passed out.”

“Well that’s normal,” he said with relief. “You had us thinking that you were violently ill or something with all the times you’ve been passing out. It IS okay to be not okay with what happened to your mom yet, though. You haven’t been forced to deal with it like this since it happened. Nine years is a long time for trauma to build up. It’s perfectly understandable.”

Aderyn just nodded and sank into him. She decided not to elaborate on the extent that she’d been reliving what happened with her mother, or the reasons that she’d gone to look into the casket in the first place. That was the part that would freak them out. And the psychoanalyzing from Chris would get even worse. Just because he’d taken one class on the human brain, he thought he knew exactly how it worked....

She hadn’t realized how much she’d forgotten. She knew she’d been the one to find the body, but that was about all she remembered. The memory she had was nowhere near as graphic as the one she’d just experienced. But she still felt that there was something from that night she still couldn’t quite grasp. It was just out of her mental reach.