Rose and the Beast

Part 2: Chapters 4-6

Chapter 4: When Butterflies Fly

The funeral never seemed to end. Or at least that's what Rose thought as she stood next to her mother's body looking asleep in the mahogany casket.

Her mom never wanted to have a casket anyway. She always told Rose and her father she'd rather be cremated and sprinkled among the Rose bushes to become a part of new life. But, her Aunt Clara and MawMaw Dodie insisted.

"We just want all the family to be able to say 'goodbye' one last time." was their argument. Never-mind the fact that they were going against the wishes of the one deceased. But isn't that what funerals are for anyway? For us? The living? The ones left behind? A safe space to mourn, cry, daydream...That's what Rose was doing. Daydreaming. The whole time Aunt Clara weepingly gave the farewell speech she had prepared for her sister. Rose had her own way of mourning and this was not it.

At least there was no rain. Rose did get to pick where the service was held. Outdoors near a lake that her mother loved to come to. The property belonged to the community, but they gladly let her family hold her mother's service there when they realized who it was for. The garden's and trees that surrounded the park and lake were her mother's doing. Rose began studying the garden, naming each bud, each bush, species by species in her mind.

That's what her mother would have wanted; for Rose to be able to get lost in the beauty of nature around her. A planned escape from the never ending stream of black dresses and tuxes, of the "I'm so sorry's" and "You mother was an amazing person." And to escape the sorrowful looks from the priest to a church Rose never attended once. Her mother was spiritual and believed in God, but told Rose she felt closest to Him in her garden, singing and humming with the bluebirds. Rose felt this too. Or, at least, she wanted to.

Now, her Aunt almost to the end of her sad, blubbery speech (for she was in an off-off broadway production in the eighties once and never let anyone forget it via her overly-dramatic personality ) and was about to step down from the small wooden step and podium, when she said, "Oh, I almost forgot, a few words from her only child, Rose."

Rose was snapped out of watching the lake nearby at the sound of her name.

"Yes." was all Rose whispered to her Aunt not hearing the rest of what she had said.

"A few words dear?" She repeated motioning to the microphone that was of such low quality, it had made her aunt almost sound like a man, to which Rose's young cousins in the very back row of fold-out chairs found most entertaining. The adults in the row in front of the children threw hands and arms behind them without even looking and would manage to smack their individual offspring perfectly every time they snickered and mimicked the manly mic voice.

"Oh, I..." Stuttered Rose. But her aunt had already gotten down off of the podium and was plowing Rose to the stand.

"Go on dear." Whispered MawMaw Dodie from the first row.

"I, uh..." Rose stuttered again, looking for someone's face in the audience, though she didn't know who's at the time. Finally her eyes landed on a butterfly that was making its way down the center isle of chairs, fluttering gracefully, until it landed perfectly on her mother's now closed casket. She felt a sudden peace and calmness come over her.

She smiled looking at the butterfly whose wings matched the color of the flowers atop the wooden casket. The crowd waited in anticipation.

"My mom..." Rose started trying to think of something to say. "Would have hated this." She said finally.

The crowd of close family and friends was taken aback.

"She really would have." Rose continued. "I mean, honestly, the sobbing, the sadness, the "oh, she went too young's," which she did." Rose paused as she looked at her mother's photo on the golden stand next to her. "She, uh, she did." Rose admitted quietly looking down. "And yeah, cancer's a bitch." She added as Aunt Clara clutched her pearls. "But my mom would want her life celebrated." She eyed the lake. "So let's celebrate."