What Is A Dream?

Chapter 4

The next day was the funeral. Melissa and Christine both had bandages around their heads, and Christine's arm was broken. Everyone had an injury of some kind except Ian and Samuel.

Geoffrey, Samuel, Lucy, Adela and Ian had alternated in digging the grave. They finished before midnight. Adela hadn't spoken to Samuel the entire time. There had been very little talking at all.

Everyone dressed in black, even though it was so hot. Everyone, that is, but Melissa. She wore a bright pink jumper and pencil skirt. Nobody asked her because they all knew why. Stephanie had loved pink. She probably would have chosen to wear pink at her funeral if she'd known she was to die.

But she hadn't, so she lay in her coffin in a beautiful satin black dress and kitten heels. Her blonde hair was held out of her pretty face by a black headband. She looked peaceful, which was odd. In the short time Adela had known her, Stephanie had never stopped moving until she hit that tree.

A solitary tear trickled down her face. I miss you, she said in her mind.

Hey, Adela, said Stephanie's voice as clear as Samuel's voice had always been. That's good to hear. At least I look good dead. I'd hate to have died at 80 and be all saggy and wrinkly. Adela couldn't help it. She snorted. Ian did too and she knew he was hearing the same thing. Everyone else stared at them. Tell Mom she looks great, Stephanie continued.

"You look amazing, Melissa," Ian said. "From Stephanie." There was suddenly a clam out around the psychics.

"You heard-" "-she talked-" "-can we listen?"

Ian held up his hands. "I'm not a speakerphone, and neither is Adela. But we will tell you guys what she's saying."

Melissa pushed to the front. "Where is she?"

"Stairway to heaven," Ian and Adela answered at the same time. They grinned at each other. Knowing they could hear their friend and that she was going to a better place lessened the grief from her loss.

"So she's not there yet?" Lucy asked. It was the first time she'd spoken to anyone since her conversation with Ian.

Adela and Ian looked at each other with frowns. "She wanted to say goodbye."

I'm told that once I'm up in heaven I can't talk to you, Stephanie said to them. But I want to go there. Let me go. Ian, let me go. Adela looked at him questioningly but he didn't give her any clues.

Melissa let out a sob and Geoffrey hugged her.

"Let's continue," Samuel suggested. Adela thought she caught a look of something like distaste, or even hate, that Lucy flashed at Samuel, but she couldn't be sure. They went on with saying goodbye. Then Melissa kissed Stephanie's head one last time and closed the coffin. Geoffrey, Samuel, Ian, and Lucy each held an end of the rope that they used to lower the coffin into the grave. When they were done nobody had the heart to cover the grave yet. Melissa gasped and ran inside. Geoffrey ran after her. Adela studiously ignored her father, so he helped Christine inside. Lucy tried to talk to Ian but he was mastering the ignoring thing like Adela. She huffed and went inside.

"What did she mean to let her go?" Adela asked. She started to fill the grave because she had nothing better to do. Ian grumbled and avoided the question. "Answer me!" she demanded.

"We were going to ask Belith to save her," he finally admitted.

"Why wouldn't she want you to do that?" Adela asked, which is not the response that Ian had been expecting. He faltered.

"I don't know. I guess she just wanted to be safe for once in her life." He paused, then continued. "This life, it has casualties."

Adela couldn't help but think about her mother and brother. Would they have just been casualties? Surely not.

"Lucy blamed your dad," Ian burst out. Adela looked at him with a confused face. "I don't," he quickly amended. "And she's just going through grief. It's normal."

"I blame him too, a little," Adela admitted. "I love him more than anything, but I can't help but think that Stephanie would be alive now if he had stayed gone."

"Christine and Ruby would be dead," Ian reminded her. "Don't blame him. Death separated you once, don't let pettiness do it again."

Adela nodded and continued to shovel dirt back into the grave. Before she knew it, it was dark and they were patting the soil on top of the grave.

"We'll make a stone and put it in in a few weeks," Ian said. "You have to wait for the ground to settle." Adela winced. Ian's hand slipped into hers. She squeezed it gratefully. They stood like that until the dark turned to a biting cold. They hurried inside. It was dark. Apparently everyone had forgotten about them, or just didn't care. She passed her hand around the wall to find the light switch but to no avail.

"Here," Ian said. He had pulled a candle out of a glass case and was lighting a match. Soon the candle shone brightly. It cast an eerie glow on Ian's face. He looked rather handsome with the flickering shadows dancing around his facial structure. Ian took a few steps toward her. For some reason, Adela's breath caught. She'd never been this uncomfortable, and yet totally at ease before.

Ian took her hand in his own. It was warm and tingled against her cold skin. "Maybe," he started, keeping his eyes down at the candle. "Maybe we can stay up a bit longer."

Adela swallowed hard as her heart leapt. He looked perfect. She put her hand under his chin to lift his face up. That's when she saw his eyes.