Masterpiece

Lucy

I silently sat in my spot looking up at the pastor. His words were drowned out by the whimpers and tears of the few people around me. There were only a few strangers that sat in the seats near by. There were about fifteen people sitting in that small church. Unlike at Clementine's funeral, were the room was filled.

Once again I was sitting on the front bench, staring up at the stained glass above the preachers head. I didn't feel any sadness, no pain. I felt nothing.

Once the preacher finished his prayers, he signaled me up onto the podium, as if I had something to say for a third time. I just stared at the casket my mother rested in. My whole family, my whole life was gone. What I lived for had disappeared, no crumbled, before me.

Sweat dripped down my face as I made my way to the same spot that I stood on three years before. I looked out at the few scattered people in the church. My heart beat painfully slow, but it hurt just as much when it would race.

"Three. Three." I held up three fingers.

"Three people in my life are gone and I'm supposed to come up here and say my words of good-bye to the third? I'm supposed to stand up here and say that I won't be torn, because they will never leave me? Well, I would be lying to myself if I even thought about those words.  I am destroyed. Why Should I come up here and say otherwise. I loved my mother, my father." My words froze as I gasped for air.

"Clementine. They were my world, my life. I said I hated them for leaving me here, I called them idiots, fools, but in reality I am the fool. I am the idiot. I never hated them, I hated the thought of them. The pain it brings me when they enter my mind, knowing I will never see them again." Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see the pruning pastor, gently looking down at me.

"Arlo, you will see them again." I throw his hand off my shoulder and glared at him, tears filling my eyes.

"Don't preach to me old man! You have no idea!" The people around me looked up at the sudden change of atmosphere. I had finally snapped. Every emotion that I refused to feel before, erupted into a mass of chaos.

"You're right, I don't know how you feel, but I do know God has taken them to a place of peace. Someday you will be with them." I blankly stared at the old mans face. I couldn't find any words to throw back to him. The only thing I could manage to speak was,

"Why? Why me?" I look out at the black shadows sitting in the seats.

"God has chosen you to do great things. "

"If I was chosen to to great things, why does he have to take the only great things in my life?" The preacher just stood there . He didn't respond to my question, mostly because he didn't know how to answer. The small audience fell silent. No crying or weeping. They once again looked at me with pity. I hated them. All of them, except for one. Her name was Lucy. She was the prettiest girl around, with her blonde curly hair and her green eyes that seemed to look into your soul. I saw her for the first time that day. Little did I know, she would be the one I would marry. With her, I had forgotten my past. She stayed with me, by my side and made it clear she wasn't going to leave. She helped me find myself and took me away from my regret and sorrow. Little by little my past slowly faded away. I was happy and I would be for the next sixty years.