Somewhere Under Heaven

The Christmas Eve Wake

Music for this chapter: Silent Night by Lifehouse 

*******

Dad could only get the wake scheduled for Christmas Eve. Instead of the classic evening wake, we opted for a morning service followed by lunch. My cousin Eric was in town so he and my dad went to the funeral home that morning to meet up with Shane. 

I went to the funeral home with Rob who kept asking me if I was okay to drive. "I'm fine," I tell him. He insisted on being with me because he was worried about my sanity. We get to the funeral home where everything is casual. Dad didn't even want a receiving line for the event. He said, "Let everyone mingle. Those receiving lines are bullshit!" 

We would walk around and talk to people and Dad got the priest at a parish he and  Mom started going to last year to say the blessing and prayers. I found out Mom converted to Catholicism after Cheyanne died because she saw the writing on the wall regarding how her family and people from her old church treated me and she did not like it one bit.

 I would then get a surprise when Rob would get up, guitar in hand and sing "O Danny Boy." It was a beautiful moment of course.

My uncle Colin who is my dad's brother always sang "O Danny Boy" at funerals and wakes but he  and my grandmother, Talulah were out of the country on account of a funeral for one of Colin's friends in Belfast and they decided to spend Christmas with Colin's daughter who lives in Ireland. Dad found out a few months back that Rob has some musical talent and asked him to do the song in Colin's place. 

And of course he agreed because he always thought the world of my mom. I still remember after she died, he and I were having lunch one day and he said that he always felt like my mom was a second mother to him. When I asked him what his mom would think, he laughed and said, "I'm sure my mum would have loved Deana." 

We go to have the lunch at a little restaurant that was owned by a friend of my dad's. That was when I saw Katie. "I don't know whether to say I'm sorry or Merry Christmas," she tells me.

"Say what you want."

"I'm sorry for your loss. Also, Merry Christmas." 

In the parking lot, Katie tells me how she's getting a job working for Burlington Coat Factory's online division and I congratulate her. "I got fired from the Dior gig the day you signed the contract."

"Why did you bail?"

"My dad was dying," she tells me. "I had to see him."

"It was rather unprofessional. Why didn't you flat out tell them you couldn't do it and then offer me the gig that way? Do you know why you got fired? It was because you bailed."

"How do you know?"

"Natalie Watkins told me."

"Well, that bitch should realize that I put my family first. Also, why did she let Rob make the choice on who got that contract?"

"Something you should know," I tell her. "It was going to be Rob's choice and if you didn't bail, you still had a chance. He saw your work compared to mine and said that he loved what I did. He was going to see if Natalie could get you to work on another Dior campaign but Natalie hated the fact that you bailed on the shoot." 

"Whatever."

 "Also, you act like I don't care about my family." 

"You weren't there for your mom or your sister.  At least I was there for my dad."

She had to go there.

"You leave them the fuck out of this, Katherine! I tried to get there before they died!"

We then see Rob walking by and it gives me the best opportunity to really tell Katie that she was a shitty ass best friend. "Also you want to know something? You may have been this so-called good daughter for being with your dad on his death bed but you suck as a friend! You know who gave a shit about me?" I then motion towards Rob who is talking to Eric. "That guy over there talking to my cousin Eric!"

"Rob?"

"Yes," I tell her. "When I found out my sister was sick and I was in Toronto, it was Rob who insisted that I fly back home and he even paid for my airfare which was way more than that lousy train ticket to NYC and the bad lunch you got me the day I helped you with the Dior shoot! He also canceled his flight home to London after finding out Cheyanne died and stayed with me for a couple of weeks!"

"So and your point?"

"My point is he was there when you were MIA! Also when my mom had the heart attack and I found out, he was at my house and drove me to the hospital! He stayed with me when I had a bad breakdown after Shane told me and he didn't leave my side that whole night! You couldn't even bother answering my texts! So I ask you this...WHO IS THE BETTER FRIEND!?"

"Casey..." she starts to say.

"You know what? I should have known you'd do this! You would always use my hard work to make yourself better all the time! I thought when you were handing me the camera to do Rob's photoshoot that day, you were going to be there giving me guidance and/or encouragement just as I did with you that morning but what did you do? You stayed glued to your phone!"

"Casey, I was checking texts!"

"That's not the point, Katie! You bailed on that and you bailed on our friendship the minute that Dior said they wanted me, not you! I saw it at the Imagine Dragons concert when you subtly complained about Rob hanging with us after he gave us the VIP passes from Natalie. I also saw it when he said about going back to Xfinity Live! to celebrate my birthday. You hated that and you hated that he was getting close with me! Well, you know what, Katie? Maybe I should bail on you!"

I then make my way to the car where I lean against the hood and cry. Rob notices me and asks, "Everything okay, Casey?"

"Just found out who my real friends are," I tell him. I then hand him the keys and say, "I know you're going to insist on driving."

On the drive back to the house, we see people walking into a church. "Must be the Christmas Eve Mass," I say. We decided to go inside and find a seat in one of the pews in the back. After the service, we make our way over to the Nativity where I pick up a piece of straw. "There's an old Irish tradition my grandma taught me where you take a piece of straw from the Nativity. It's supposed to give you good luck in the next year," I tell him.

I then decide to let him in on an old tradition my mom and I had which was hoagies from Wawa after church. We end up back at my house where we're watching Christmas Vacation and having an unconventional Christmas Eve dinner.

"Might not be the way you wanted it but this is a pretty great Christmas," he says to me.

"It is. Oh wait, I have something for you." I then make my way over to the tree and pick up a box.

"Now there's more to this but you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the rest," I say as I hand him the box.

Inside there was a framed photo of us from the day we first met next to another one which was from my birthday party. The message on the frame says, "Friendship sometimes develops in the strangest ways."

"Merry Christmas, Casey," he says before leaning over to kiss my cheek.

Maybe it's not the most merriest but it's still going to be a Christmas to remember.