Nikki
I sit beside Dallas in the funeral pallor and I grab her hand. She glances over to me and I squeeze her hand. Dallas is trying her damnedest not to cry while the funeral home is filled with people bawling their eyes out. So many people showed up, mostly men in military dressings but the people filled the pews.
Mackenzie has already went up and talked about their gramps and Dakota is up there talking now. Dallas is next and she is worried, I know she is. She spent most of the day trying to figure out how to talk about her gramps, I'm still not sure if Dallas knows what she's going to say.
Dakota gets down and looks at Dallas, I look over to her and she nods. Dallas stands up and walks up and on to the stage. She stands behind the podium and looks out at the eyes that watch her every move.
"I, uh, I spent all day today trying to figure out what I was going to say about my gramps but I couldn't think of anything. All I could think about was this one time right after my mom died, Mackenzie, Dakota, and I were sitting in a tree on the edge of our property. Gramps loaded a '22 with blanks and shot at the tree, the tree of us fell out of the tree and gramps ran down and stood over us. He looked at us and said 'the past can hurt but you have to learn from it or you're doomed to repeat it'. We honestly thought the old man had lost his mind." Everyone starts to laugh and my girlfriend smiles a little bit. "My mom died when I was seven years old and at that point my dad wasn't winning any father of the year awards. Gramps was my father figure, he taught me things that my dad should've taught me. He taught me to ride a bike, shoot a gun, and tear an engine apart and put it back together running better than ever. I have some of the best memories of my life with this man." Dallas stops and kinda laughs. "When I was in my freshman year at NC State, I was at a Halloween party when my roommate came and found me and told me that my grandfather was arrested and I had to go and pick him up. So when I got to the police station I saw my eighty year old grandfather sitting in the holding cell. I go up to the cell and I asked him what he was doing in there but my grandfather was more interested in my Halloween costume. After explaining my black cat costume to my grandfather he looked at me and said 'you're too pasty to be a black cat, Dolly. You look like three Oreo cookies stacked on top of each other with ears'. At which time I took a strip off the sheriff and found out the only reason my grandfather was in the clink was because he thought my grandfather's ghost costume that he put on to hand out candy to the little trick or treaters made him look like a member of the Ku Klux Klan, I guess a redneck in a white sheet doesn't put off a good message." Everyone laughs and Dallas smiles again. "I can't even think of anything picture a world without my grandfather because for the past almost fifteen years he's been my only parent, even if I wasn't living with him. I'm not ready to face the world without him but he's always in my corner, even if he's a little further way now."
With that Dallas walks off the stage and takes her seat beside me. She grabs my hand and smiles a little bit at me.
"You alright?" I ask he quietly and she nods.
"It wasn't that bad." She admits in a whisper and I smile.
Dallas is the strongest person I've ever met, I love her more than anything.
A/N:
Hey guys, I just wanted to let you guys know that my friend AshyShy is spinning off this story from Dakota's point of view, it's great and you guys should go read it. Thank you guys so much for read, I love you for it 😀
--Brooke