My aunt passed away.
I'am 21, with my best friend Sally weeping by my side. I could feel tears rolling down my face but my cousin was he one who grieved the most. He was kneeling down at Aunt Heather's grave, his age now 23. His wife Bella stood by him, chagrined. Everyone who knew Aunt Heather was around the grave, looking grim or their faces red.
"Even if she didn't let me in the house for more than twenty seconds, she baked delightful cookies!" Sally told me, still choking back a sob. Her eyes were red from crying, and I managed a weak smile towards her.
But the most important thing now. My Aunt Heather's died. The one who I spent fourteen years with, in the same household. I didn't know how she died. I just went to check on her yesterday and I saw her lying in her bed.
I could see it clear as glass.
It was past breakfast time, and it was suppose to be the time Aunt Heather came down and made herself a sandwich. But she didn't. I purposely texted Sally I would be late, so I could see what was bothering Aunt Heather. Finally after ten minutes, I got impatient and stomped up the stairs. But the minute I opened the door, I started crying.
Just seeing Aunt Heather in her bed made me upset. I knew she wasn't sleeping. My stomping would have woken her up. But what I really was thinking then was, First my father, then my mother, and then you Aunt Heather?
And that was how I ended up here, standing next to my best friend, unable to laugh at her joke which was uncommon. I felt myself sniffling, and hands came to comfort me. But I didn't want to get comforted. Not by these strangers.
I never met them in my life, but Aunt Heather knew them. I took over he house after the funeral, knowing I was 21, and able to take care of myself. I have never seen Aunt Heather's will, but after the preacher read it, I started sobbing in front of everyone again.
"Give my niece Emily the best, she had always been a favorite child of mines. I know her escapes and her friends. The reason why I never let them in? They reminded me too much about me and my old life."
I'am now in the kitchen where Aunt Heather use to cook alone, as I escaped from the window in my room. If she knew about them, why didn't she stop me?
The funeral made me want to cry tears forever until it became an ocean, but I stopped. Sad tears shouldn't be shed more often than happy tears. That was the tears I cried when my cousin graduated. I had expected our meeting again to be happy, not ending up like this, with my cousin's mother dead.
He is now in front of the grave, and I felt sorrow for him. Maybe the reason why he was so cruel and teasing to me was that Aunt Heather had liked me best, and he was just her child. I felt guilty for taking his role as favorite child, and knew that what he did was jut because he felt angry.
Maybe I'll tell him I'm sorry when we meet again. But I can't do it now.
There's too many people. Too many tears. Too many deaths in one day. Sally was now quiet and she hugged me briefly before I left in my car. I drove back to Aunt Heather's house, now mines, my eyes always on the mirror, seeing the other cars going other ways. I see my cousin get in his car with Bella, and I could see their car going in the opposite direction of me. They're leaving. And who knows when I will meet them again?
Today is the day we grieved for my Aunt Heather.
What splash of color did she make in my life? Red, like passion, pride, and someone whom I learned to love.
