Paisley King - A Tale by Elspeth Ellington

Abide With Me - November 25, 2019

November 25, 2019

"It's almost time Paisley, are you ready?" Mrs. Abernathy was buttoning up her black wool coat and tying a silk scarf over her hair.

"No....but it's time". Paisley opened the huge heavy front door of her uncle's house and gasped at the sight of the shiny black hearse and black horses. It was magnificent, and her heart broke standing there, knowing how much her uncle would've loved it. The hearse belonged to a neighbour who brought it out for every farmer family who wanted to use it for a funeral and kept 2 horses specially trained for the long slow pace they would keep for most of the day. The pace they would all be keeping as they said goodbye to Archie King, uncle, friend, and gentleman farmer.

A farmer's funeral was always something to behold as the circle of life was a way of life for country people. The fragility of every passing season was never lost on a farming family, and they came in droves whenever one of their own was lost. Day or night they showed up for each other, to help deliver calves, with barrels of water when a crop was at risk of being lost to fire, and with tools to work until a barn was raised while the women made salads and sandwiches and set up tables for a community lunch. Paisley had grown up under her uncle's wing and knew the rituals of country life the same way she knew the country roads - like the back of her hand. The night her uncle went missing was no different, as soon as the call went out, men and women from neighbouring farms came in droves to search the fields and forest until he was found. Here today, they honoured the completion of Archie's circle.

The funeral directors came in to get the flowers, close the casket, and took their places, nodding in silence, ready for the moment the trip to the church would begin. Paisley went to the study to fetch Gray and the other pallbearers, each of whom had taken shifts over the last 3 days, sitting with their friend and mentor, day and night, never leaving him alone. The men, polished to a high shine for the occasion, all looked solemn and handsome standing there in their suits. They stopped chatting and looked at her as she entered the room, "It's time" she said and they all nodded, emptied their whiskey glasses, and filed out to get their instructions from the funeral director. Paisley followed them to the front hall and watched as they carefully carried her uncle down the steps to the horse drawn hearse. His last time leaving the house he built and loved, she realized, but kept that thought to herself. The casket was lifted into the hearse and as the men started their walk to the church Gray stopped and stared at her for a moment before speaking,

"I've got the cheques for everyone, you don't need to worry about anything today"

"Thank you Gray, you've been really great with all of this, honestly I don't know what I would've done without your help this week". The night of the harvest dance had left her unnerved, not knowing where she stood with Gray or what she could do to find out, but in the meantime there were many much more important things to worry about.

He smiled slightly though there was sadness in his eyes, "Anything for you...and Archie, of course. I'll miss him a lot...we all will". He reached out to touch her arm before starting his walk to the church, leaving her alone with her thoughts, and her uncle in his casket.

The old Presbyterian church was only about a kilometre away and Paisley had already made the decision to walk behind the hearse with her Uncle Archie's beloved dog Jock leashed next to her and waited while Mrs. Abernathy made sure the little dog was offered a cookie before starting the journey to say goodbye to the man he had devoted his whole life to. She checked her phone while Mrs. Abernathy was coming down the stone stairs from the front door and quickly sent a text to Karling telling her they were going to the church now. The last 14 messages she sent had gone unanswered but she felt she needed to keep her friend updated just in case she was getting the messages and for some reason couldn't reply. Paisley hoped she wasn't being ghosted, again, especially on a day like today.

"Will you walk with me? Or would you like to go in the car?", she asked Mrs Abernathy while taking the leash and bending down to pat the dog's head, "I think I will go in the car and try walking with everyone to the cemetery, I don't think my old knees will last the walk both ways", Paisley nodded and walked the housekeeper to the funeral director's car to make sure she was settled. They drove off and left her, and Jock there with the hearse and driver. She let out a deep exhale and stared at her uncle's casket through the glass of the hearse, wondering how it all came to this, what happened that night in the forest behind the house. Archie was only 84, while hardly a young man, he was hardly ancient and though his body had started to fail him with arthritis setting in and the usual medical episodes the elderly often experienced, he was, still a still a spirited man, full of life, as well as piss and vinegar when it was required.

Feeling the minutes ticking she brought herself back to the present and nodded to the driver who silently tapped the horses who whinnied as they were urged forward. Together they began the walk down the long driveway to the road as snow started to lightly fall. "It's the first now of the year!", she could hear her uncle say, "We better make sure all the lights are working". There was nothing he loved more than spending a weekend in November checking every bulb on every single tree along the driveway. He made her check one side while he tested the other, and by the end of the day the sun would be going down and she would be frozen solid. He always said he loved coming home at night seeing the path of sparkling trees showing him the way to the house. She wondered if it would be worth lighting them up this year if no one would be here at the ranch to enjoy them.

The hearse turned out onto the country road for the slow trip to the little stone church attended by farmers and country people for 150 years. As she passed through the gate at the bottom of the driveway she saw there was a police car a short distance down the road. She gave a small wave of gratitude knowing the police were there to make sure no cars passed the hearse and the mourners were safe both ways as the cortege would return along the same road at the end of the funeral service to her uncle's final resting place in the family cemetery.

The journey from her uncle's house to the gates of the church took about 20 minutes and it dawned on Paisley it was the first time she had been on her own with her thoughts for a week. There had been a constant stream of neighbours and associates stopping by, and dozens of places to be and people to meet with to arrange the funeral, keeping her so busy she fell into bed almost immediately falling asleep each night since Archie died.

She knew what she was doing, staying so busy during the day that she didn't have to think or feel anything, and giving in to the narcoleptic withdrawal that had its grip on her every night, gifting her with almost instant sleep the moment her head hit the pillow. She had refused to let her grief get a hold on her until she had the time to collapse under the weight of it. For now she had to be a King, keeping her head held high lest the figurative crown slip, and putting on a good show for the community who would soon depend on her to step into Archie's shoes as heir to everything he had built.

She inhaled the crisp scent of pines as she followed the hearse, attempting to relax her mind, but she kept coming back to the same thoughts. What was her uncle doing out in the middle of the night with his shotgun? What was going on out in the darkness that was so unusual? What would wake him, and make him get out of bed to investigate? There was no livestock on the land so no urgent need to shoo away coyotes or other predators. The gate had been locked the whole night so no cars had come in, say a lost driver from the city looking for a place to turn around. So far no one had been able to come up with any ideas and the police didn't consider it a criminal situation, so it was left to her to get to the bottom of things, just as soon as today was behind her.

She made a mental note to spend some time searching the area where they found Archie, maybe there are more clues to help everyone understand what was going on that night. The cigarette butt she found near where her uncle was lying in the woods was still in her coat pocket, wrapped in the leaves she had quickly grabbed, hoping someone would recognize the paper. She had forgotten about it until she had been digging in her coat pocket for some mints earlier and took this moment to take it out for a quick examination. She carefully peeled off the leaf wrapping, as though she was holding a chrysalis in her gloved hands, and exposed the remnants of the cigarette. Staring at it while she walked, the little dog pulling her gently along behind the hearse, the only sound was wooden wheels on the pavement and jingling of the horses' tack, otherwise the world was silent and she felt like she was in a bubble, no she thought, a snow globe.

She knew she had seen this kind of cigarette before but couldn't force her tired, overworked brain to that exact moment. She knew this tiny piece of evidence held at least one secret and she was determined to find out what that was...and if her uncle was murdered.