Between Worlds (The Wall Series #1)

Chapter 5

I sighed. Heather. I should apologise to her, firstly, and then tell her about what had happened.

Yes, I hardly knew her, but she seemed like she wanted to help me, and besides, I had to tell someone.

Though...that wasn't the first thing I would do. I had to see the wall myself before telling anyone else about anything.

I didn't know how much I slept, but it clearly wasn't enough, because the next day, my drowsiness was overwhelming.

The next day was the funeral. We were gathered at St. Mary's church and Mrs Janet was to say the eulogy. She arrived in a minute or two, walked over to the podium and began her speech. Meanwhile, I sat silently in the front pew, hardly able to register what was happening. I could barely decipher Mrs Janet's words. All these people here, my neighbours, some relatives, my uncle and cousin--they were all a blur. There were many I didn't even recognise. It was as if the pain I was trying not to think about had resurfaced and hit me with an axe.

Was it only yesterday, that I had given my last exam? How had everything happened so quickly? How?

We headed to a cemetery nearby the church. We all stood around the hole dug deep, hands folded, some uttering prayers, others silent. The cemetery-filled with stone grave after stone grave of so many people like her, people who were cared about and loved by someone or the other. But some were forgotten. My heart broke to think about my mother that way, about no one being there to visit her grave hundreds of years later.

Watching her coffin being laid into the earth for all of eternity burned my eyes. It made me wonder about my father. He would be devastated. Shattered. Crushed. Broken.

Like me.

I shut my eyes tight. Everything was alright till yesterday afternoon. And now, twenty four hours later, the world had fallen apart.

As the priest said the final words and people slowly began dispersing, I heard something beside me-whispers. My head cleared a little as I focused on the words. A man and a woman's voices.

"Really tragic. It was so unexpected."

"I heard the police say it was a car accident."

"But how? The last time an accident happened in our neighbourhood was like...when? Years ago?"

"Three years ago. Even that was a minor collision."

"Then how did it happen?"

"I'm not sure. It's what they were saying to everyone."

I tilted my head to see the speaker. A woman, medium height, mid fifties, and a man who was probably another neighbour of mine. They didn't pay any attention to me. Quietly, they left.

When did the police come? Where did they come?

I racked my brain a little. They must've shown up at the alley after we took my mother to the hospital.

Even they concluded that it was a car accident.

Only a car accident. Nothing else.

I'd find out. This wasn't a car accident. No way.

After everything was over-the burial, the misery-Mrs Janet, my uncle, Heather and I went back to my house. We sat in the drawing room, my uncle and I on one of the cushions and Mrs Janet and Heather on the other. I was staring, absent-mindedly, at my reflection on the screen of the TV, my big, lost eyes staring back at me. Mrs Janet and my uncle were talking about something, but I wasn't paying attention. No one touched the bowl of biscuits on the wooden coffee table that separated both of us.