CHAPTER SEVEN — ( my daughter lives within the beat of my heart. )
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two weeks later.
THE FUNERAL New York City
Diana didn't like the way their house felt without Daisy Love's presence in it. Besides the noise of movement within the home, everything else was quiet. The sound of laughter no longer bounced and echoed in every room, and the feeling of love seemed to have disappeared also. Diana found herself spending most of her days standing or sitting in Daisy's room, scrolling through photos and videos of her on her phone or looking through all of the young girl's toys and clothes. Daisy's smell was still in her bed and on her clothing, and Diana would never wash it as long as she was alive. Diana and John only really saw one another when they were going to sleep or when they passed each other in the house. Other than that, not a word was shared between each other. Diana just felt too numb to speak and John was dealing with his grief similarly but also different at the same time. He only left the house to grab food or to head down to the airport runway so that he could drive his car around at whatever speed he wanted to just to let out his anger. Diana seemed to fall back into old habits as she set up all of her old targets and brought out all of her old knives and would throw them whenever she felt herself beginning to boil over the edge.
Daisy's funeral approached way too quickly in Diana's eyes, but John knew that if they didn't have one for the child then neither of them would be able to properly begin to grieve. If Diana and John couldn't show their emotions, the weather sure did a good job at doing the job for them. The day was sad, dark and wet and rained the entire day. Even as they stood around Daisy's little casket and she was lowered into the ground, Diana had a black umbrella in her hand with John beside her. When she was placed at the bottom, Diana and John both threw in a couple of Daisy's onto the casket.
People behind the couple dispersed and headed towards their cars so that they could drive to Diana and John's house for a light afternoon snack and just gather in memory of Daisy. Diana thought it was stupid, these people didn't really know Daisy. Sure, some of them had seen the child when they took her to the playground to play with other kids, but nobody truly knew them or the little girl.
Meeting back at John's car, Diana was surprised to see Marcus standing beside it. John lead the way to meet his old friend who seemed to have also dressed in black for the occasion. "It's been a while," he greeted. John stopped just in front of him and Diana stood to the side, her eyes watching their old friend but lacking any emotion or happiness at the reunion. "My condolences. How are you both holding up?"
Diana didn't respond, she just found her eyes drifting to the side where a large tree stood tall with a man standing under it. "I keep asking, "Why her? She's just a kid"," John spoke.
