In the Woods Somewhere

The funeral had been quick. Quick for Bryant. The slideshow pictures of Kiara's life that preceded the service had proved too much for him. The photos, to him, were insidiously deceptive. They portrayed her as she no longer was. In the throws of life. They hadn't started off badly. It had begun with pictures of her as a baby. Pictures that he had seen a million times in her house, proudly displayed above the mantel in her parents' living room and marching up the walls along their stairs. These pictures were fine. They showed Kiara before Bryant had known her. He could almost pretend that it was another person entirely. It was when they had gotten to her elementary school pictures that Bryant had decided he was not fine. More specifically, when they got to her fourth-grade pictures. She boasted a wide gap-toothed smile and flaunted a powder blue jumper with yellow flowers. On either side of her head, her hair held a twist weighted down with blue bobbles that dangled just above her shoulders. This was the first day of the fourth grade. The day she had met Bryant. This picture had brought heat to the back of his eyes and blurred his vision. It was a stinging reminder that he had lost someone he had known for over half his life.

But that was just the beginning. The other pictures showed her laughing and smiling, as she no longer could. Painting and dancing. Things she would never do again. Eating and drinking. Things a dead person had no need for. He'd stood abruptly, startling his mother, and rushed from his chair stepping on shoes and smashing purses. But he didn't care. He needed to get out of there. Away from this... this... this hell.

Bryant made his way to the bathroom. His nose still seemed a bit stuffed and there was a tickle in the back of his throat, but he was breathing easier in here, away from the crowd. What was he going to do now that he'd made his escape? He definitely wasn't going to hide back here and cry. He cleared his throat but the tickle remained. And he certainly couldn't leave, which is what he wanted to do more than anything else in the world. No. What he wanted more than anything else was for her to be beside him. Maybe, prankster that she was, she would pull a Tom Sawyer and walk through the doors of her own funeral. That would be the exact kind of mean-spirited thing she'd do to get back at someone. Fake her own death in such an elaborate way. But who would she have been trying to prank? He shook the thought loose. She could be mean at times, petty for sure, vindictive to a fault, but she would never be that cruel.

He'd finally decided to lock himself in one of the stalls, take out his Bluetooth headphones and watch The Office on his cell phone. He'd only stopped when the show had been interrupted, right in the middle of Ryan's epic downfall, by his brother's phone call.

"Hey, where are you? Ma's about to send out a search party and Dad... Dad's worried."

There's a pregnant pause. Bryant's brother obviously didn't have anything else to say on the subject. And Bryant had no idea how to respond. Time had flown. Has it been an hour already? And now he was expected to rejoin everyone. Everyone with their pity and their "sorry for your losses and their sorrowful, "she was so young"s. He wasn't moved to move from his seat. But both he and his brother were stubborn. So there they were on either side of the line, trying to out silence each other. Bryant won.

"I'll tell Mom and Dad you will meet us at the house later."

"Thanks," Bryant hang up the phone before his brother could say more.

He had just arrived at his aunty's house, making his way through the crowds of people gathered, their plates piled high with massive amounts of food when his mother accosted him.

"Where have you been?" she demands. Even though she is about a foot shorter than him she manages to look down at him with her dark, fierce eyes.

Bryant looks down, unable to hold her heated gaze. "I'm sorry, Ma. I just needed a little space."