Chapter 43

My age is advanced enough now that my eyes will occasionally play tricks on me. I’ll see things that aren’t really what they are and not see things for what they are. I have no choice over this, unlike my hearing. My ears are still good, I just suffer from selective hearing and only listen and interpret things that I choose.

This time, my eyes weren’t playing any tricks on me.

“Michael, what is wrong with you?” my mother asked, much louder than her usual decibel level. “We’ll be late for your father’s funeral!”

“Uh, Mister Hunt, we need to be going,” said the funeral director. He was looking at me with concern, figuring I was about to flip out or something.

Even little M.J. was concerned. He started shaking a little but Mom hugged the fit away.

“He strange,” M.J. added.

I didn’t care what they said. We could be late for the funeral. I doubted they would start without us. This was much more important. There was a car that had just pulled up in our driveway. Three people had gotten out and were walking up the sidewalk to the house.

The dang car door wouldn’t open. I fumbled with it for several seconds.

“You gotta unlock it,” M.J. advised. What a wise chap! I knew that, just hadn’t thought of it.

I unlocked the door and presto, I escaped. We were roughly half way down the block. My exercise lately had been raising food from the plate to the mouth with my hand, so I wasn’t in the best shape.

But it didn’t deter me, at first. I took off sprinting toward my mother’s house. There is a slight incline and it slowly started taking its toll, forcing me to slow to a jog and finally to speed walk, cranking my arms and shuffling my feet like the old walkers at the mall. All I needed were hand weights to complete the picture.

They were standing at the porch when I got back to the house. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but knew this was no illusion. Manny had returned home, this time with visitors. I had not seen Molly in some twenty years, but knew exactly who she was.

I had never seen Emanuel, Manny’s daughter, but there was no doubt about her either. Manny looked better than he had in years. He was cleaned up and actually wore nice clothes. My brother was still too skinny and had a rough look to him, but it was no comparison to the last time I saw him.

Molly had put on a little weight over the years and appeared to have gotten a little sophisticated, but the face was the same. Emanuel was tall and skinny, not yet out of the gawky stage. Her hair was as blonde as M.J.’s.

Both women wore black dresses. I found this so hard to believe, that until a couple of days ago, I didn’t even know I had a niece, but here she was standing in front of me. Emanuel looked like there were probably other places she would rather be, but I couldn’t blame her. There were other places I would rather be.

“Manny!” I hollered. I only hollered his name, but all three of them turned. He smiled and waved back. Molly whispered something to her daughter. She nodded. While walking up to the porch, I heard the car coming back for me.

My brother hugged me before I got the chance to grab him. After letting go, I shook Molly’s hand.

“Bubs, this is your niece, Emanuel,” he said. I knew that, but it was nice to hear.

She smiled and looked at the ground. Apparently, Emanuel was a little on the shy side.

“Nice to meet you,” she whispered. I wanted to give her a hug and I’m not the touchy feely type.

Instead, I patted her on the back, much like a person would their favorite dog. She didn’t seem to mind.

“Glad to meet you!” I fired back. This was too cool. I looked back toward the road and saw Mom and M.J. emerging from the car. She looked like a fainting spell was coming on.

“Manny?” she said.

“Yeah, Mom,” he answered and walked out to meet her. M.J. didn’t even try to run away, just stared at my brother. Manny escorted her back to the porch.

“Who are these people?” she asked.

Now this was going to get interesting. Mom would either flip out or be so happy that she could probably jump up and dunk a basketball.

“Mom, you remember Molly don’t you?” she nodded, no smile. “This is my daughter, Emanuel.”

Mom looked at Emanuel, back at Manny, then repeated the process several times.

“You have a daughter?” she asked.

“Right there.”

I thought she was going to start beating him.

“How come you never told me?” Mom was still in between emotions.

“I didn’t know until recently.”

She nodded, but wore a look of uncertainty on her face.

“That…that means I’m a grandmother!”

“Yeah, it does.”

She started smiling. A day that was going to be so sad for her had brightened considerably.

“I can’t wait to tell everybody!”

We cringed. The phone lines in Langford would be fired up this afternoon and evening. Most of her friends would find out after the service, when everybody came over to bum food.

Mom was so excited she even let go of M.J. He stood there for a second, all by himself and didn’t like it. She was walking toward the porch, without him. He was left all alone.

“Hey, excuse me!” M.J. shouted. Mom turned around, wondering what all the excitement was about. She waved him forward and he took off in a hurry. M.J. grabbed her hand and walked up to the porch.

Mom showed no signs of being old at that moment. I had not seen her so alive in years. She hugged Molly, something she wouldn’t have done during the bad times, and squeezed Emanuel so hard I was surprised the girl’s insides didn’t come out.

“I’m so glad to see you!” she said. “My word, I have a granddaughter!”

Emanuel was smiling and looking around, obviously wondering when this old woman was going to release her. She was patting my mother on the back and looked like her eyes were going to pop out.

Mom finally stepped back, but kept her hands on Emanuel’s arms. She looked at her granddaughter from the top of her head to her feet, then back again. Emanuel was glimpsing out of the corner of her eye at her mother.

She got another hug and was finally released. Mom even gave Molly a hug, I guess for giving her a granddaughter.

“I’m so happy!” Mom said. Actually, we had figured that out. The funeral director was a tall man with silver hair and a fake smile. He was walking toward us, looking at his watch every few steps, like the time would change in between.

“We need to be going!” he said.

“Hold your horses!” Mom replied. “Look, I've got a granddaughter!”

The funeral director gave some kind of strange look with his mouth open, like he was trying to act surprised.

“Wow!” he said and took another glance at his watch. The man had probably never been late to a funeral in his life. I looked at my watch and saw that it was time to get to the church.

“We do need to get going,” I said. Mom glared at me, much like a child usually does at their mother after getting told it was time to go to bed.

“Okay,” she relented. “Can you come back after the funeral?”

“Sure,” Manny said, then looked at the two women for approval.

“That would be fine,” Molly said, in her husky voice that sounded like she had drunk too much whiskey in her days.

We hightailed it back to the car. Manny and the women followed us. We hurried off to the church and were let out in front. They escorted us into the church. Everybody rose and stared. I wanted to start waving, but knew that would cause my mother to have a meltdown.

Instead, I acted solemn and nodded. I was actually quite happy! I wanted to be talking to my brother and my niece, not getting stared at by a crowd of people who were at the service to see and be seen, not to honor the dead.

Squiggy and Mule were sitting on the aisle. Mule waved at me and Squiggy elbowed him.

“Ya cain’t do that at a funeral!” he said, loud enough that half the church could hear.

Squiggy had his hair all slicked back and wore his best clothes. He looked rather funny and out of place with all these other people dressed so nice. I decided Squiggy would be better company than most of these people.

The coffin was parked at the front of the church. The old man was in there, his body waiting for its final resting spot. As soon as I saw this, the joy left. I realized that my father’s body was in that box and would soon be placed in a hole and buried.

It upset me badly. I no longer wanted to be here, but knew that leaving was impossible. I sat between Manny and my mother. She was holding a box of tissues in her lap. M.J. was looking around the church in awe, staring at the funny windows with the bright colors.

The preacher came forward and welcomed everybody. Some lady sang a couple of songs, including my old favorite Amazing Grace. This was the signal for all the women and some of the men to start crying. I refused to cry during the song and stared at the Baptismal area.

Mom’s preacher came forward and gave an abridged version of my father’s life, giving the date of his birth and when he departed this life. He made my father out to be a better person than I remembered, but that was okay.

We knew the truth, or at least Manny and I did. Mom chose to look at the positives, but I knew she was aware of all that happened. The service was much longer than necessary, of course, and included the preacher giving a stern message to everybody about how if they die and are not saved, their soul would go to the bad place, instead of the good place where my father was now, waiting for his beloved wife and sons.

I was treading water and okay until they opened the coffin. My father was there, his skin all pasty, wearing his favorite blue suit. His Bible was placed on his chest.

I tried not to stare, but it was hard. Mom was shaking and I put my arm around her. Manny was crying and I saw Molly trying to comfort him. I wished there was somebody to comfort me, but knew I was out of luck.

The preacher finally finished and the funeral staff lined everybody up to view the body. A bunch of people came by and hugged us and told us how sorry they were that my father had died.

I was going through the motions. I would respond, but only wanted this to end. Sandy was one of the last ones to come through. She hugged everybody’s neck. I stood for her, the only person that got that honor, if that is what it was.

Trevor was next to her, holding her hand. She let go of him and hugged my mother’s neck. Sandy was crying harder than most. She grabbed me and leaned her head against my shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she said, but for some reason I thought it wasn’t because of my father’s death. Or it might just be what I hoped it meant.

Trevor shook my hand and didn’t try to squeeze any bones, this time. The crowd finally had left. Now, it was time for us. I followed behind my mother. She took slow steps while approaching the casket, holding M.J.’s little hand.

She stood next to the casket for a while, just looking at him. Finally, Mom put her hand on my father’s chest, almost like she was trying to wake him. This was a man she had been married to for almost half a century and was seeing for the final time. She held her composure in and only lingered for a little while.

Mom moved on and waited for her sons. I was next, but couldn’t bring myself to touch him. It was hard enough just to look at him. He almost looked like one of those wax creations at a wax museum. At least he wasn’t in pain anymore, I tried to convince myself. It didn’t help.

I slowly moved on and waited for Manny. He held his composure a lot better than I did. Of course, he was the one person my father hurt more than me. Manny hugged my father and whispered something to him. He paused for a minute and straightened my father’s coat and put his hand on my father’s shoulder.

The tears were flowing hard now. I watched as Molly and Emanuel walked by. Molly stopped for a minute, also staring at a man who had messed up her life. Emanuel only briefly glanced at a grandfather she didn’t know and never would.

I felt something tugging at my pants. When I turned around, it was M.J.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ll play wif you when we get home.”

I braved a smile and nodded. M.J. was not my son, but it made me wonder what it would have been like to play with my father.

We finally left the church and got back in the car. I saw the pallbearers bring the casket out and load it in the hearse. Our car was second in line as we left. The police blocked the intersections and we drove out to the cemetery on a hill at the end of town.

This time, everything was much quicker. I guess my tears were exhausted. The clouds were thickening and promised a storm. A cool breeze came blowing in from the west as we gathered under the tent.

The preacher said a few more things. Finally, it was over. Most of the people came by to try and comfort my mother. Since I didn’t know many of them, I escaped off to the side where I could be alone. I stared back toward the town I wanted no part of for so long, one that had trapped me once again by the cruel fate that life sometimes delivers.

I didn’t see her come up next to me, but could feel her presence. This time, she was alone.

“Are you going to be okay?” Sandy asked. I continued to stare straight ahead.

I nodded, wanting to talk to her and have her explain why life was this way. She was the only one who could, or that I would listen to.

“Call me if you need somebody to talk to,” she said.

I knew that wasn’t possible. My life was screwed up enough. I wasn’t going to mess up anybody else’s.

Sandy walked away, her head down. I started to get in the car when Nancy came rushing up, out of breath.

“Sorry about your father,” she said. Her disco doo was having trouble with this breeze, flopping all over the place.

I nodded. This wasn’t why she was here.

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered in my ear.

“Why?”

“They found a body at the lake!”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know, but they’re saying it wasn’t from natural causes.”

Chapter 44