After Midnight

The darkening rain, and the charter plane. Drake had a bad feeling about the whole thing, but Drake usually had a bad feeling about most things. He saw the nervousness work at the corners of Lain's calm demeanor, bunching his temples and chewing at the insides of his mouth. Damn aunt had to go and have a stroke in her backyard, tending her oranges. Damn mother insisted everyone in the family get together to surround her uncle. Drake and Lain hadn't seen these people in over ten years, and now a charter flight in a rainstorm.

Lain smiled. "Relax, bro. This will be over in no time."

Drake returned the smile, feeble as it was.

The plane's engines shrieked against the turbulence, and without warning, the turboprop dropped altitude. Seat belts dug across their hips, stomachs back flipped into their throats. The plane caught. A shout from the pilot. "Wow, that was a bad one. We should be outside the storm in a few minutes. It'll be over in no time."

Twice. A bad omen.

Shaking. Metal of the airplane rattling and screeching from the forces picking it apart. Drake swore he saw light shudder through cracks in the fuselage, but his imagination was overwrought. Pattering hiss of ceaseless rain, radio static white noise everywhere in the plane. Far away, lightning boiled through the blackening clouds, rolling white light highlighting potbellied shapes and depths. The thunder clapped against the plane, rattling windows. Drake watched the pilot fighting the yolk, the shuddering creeping through his shoulders and neck. Drake didn't want to watch the pilot any longer – the man's frustrating grasp on keeping the plane in the air was tenuous, and Drake saw his vision graying on the edges of imploding panic.

Another flash of lightning, the white explosion flash flooding the plane, and another horrendous drop, seat belts cutting into them. The pilot said nothing, but tension ossified his neck and shoulders as he hauled back on the yolk. Lights flashed on the control panel. Drake saw peeled fire and blackened shreds of metal out the window, and he turned to his brother. Lain dug his fingers into the armrests, his neck stretched upward as far as it would go and his mouth pulled taunt.

This would be over in no time, even though it felt like years.

Blink. Blink blink to get his eyes working again.

Controlled landscape with the girth of tree trunks holding angled branches over high tide manicured hills. The marbled crosses gave a hint, then Drake saw the crops of burnished copper rectangles planted regularly through the flowing hills. In the distance, just over there, was the blue tarp pop-up shade covering a seating a folding chairs. Every chair was filled, and could barely be seen by the crowd encircling the arc. Tears, dark and sobbing through the whole, quivering. Explosions of flowers on easels. Balloons jauntily bopped the corners of the shade tarp. Kids – equally in loss as the others – didn't run or chase each other on the edges of the gathering.

Lain said, Hey, bro. His voice wasn't in Drake's ears, but his heart.

Drake turned, and there was his brother, and both of them standing under a mulberry tree. Plane didn't make it?

Seems that way.

Drake pointed. Who's that?

Me.

Then he saw his mother, seated in the front, bawling shamelessly. Dad sat next to her, an arm over her shoulder, his face bright red and his eyes agonizing and bloodshot. Lain's wife was there, crying aloud, his kids encircling her each with a hand on her shoulder and shuddering to control their tears. Everyone in the crowd stood close and cried, hung their heads, dabbed their eyes with tissue, twisted their feet into the grass, dangled flowers from their fingers. A minister, who volunteered for the service, stood aside the casket with a hand on the wood, and spoke in low tones. Loved children and children loved him... would do anything for anyone with a single phone call, no matter how inconvenient for him... his sense of humor was boundless, making jokes even if he was deeply in pain... volunteered to care for animals at the local zoo... worked hard to support his family... he will be sorely missed. Lain stood under the tree and listened, and Drake knew he was getting embarrassed by the flooding of praise from the minister he barely knew. Drake listened and waited. The casket lowered into the cavity, and each of the attendees dropped a flower into the hole until the tip of the pile peeped over the rim of the open grave.