The music was slow and comforting. It was in rhythm with her heart. Or was her heart beating to the beat? She didn't know, but as she climbed up the stairs that lead to the podium, she was grateful for its presence. The music was soft and mellow, yet every one of it's notes were filled with such melancholy, it felt as if the piano was bleeding with the multiple broken hearts in the Hall. The lyrics of the song were woven by despair, and as all the different flavours of misery converged they created a very beautiful thing. So very beautiful, yet so incredibly sad.
She climbed the last few stairs that led to the podium, and as she faced the crowd, she turned a blind eye to the body that lay below the podium, at the center of the Hall. She needed to, at the very least, look sane as she gave the speech, and looking at that body would demolish whatever small chance she had of doing that.
"I do not want to stand here and say he was a good man, because he wasn't. No, he was anything but good." Her voice could be heard over the sullen whispers of the people, and the low, incessant clicking of the cameras comiong from the coterie of photographers. "I will not stand here and tell you that he was kind or generous, because that would be the blackest of all blasphemy. I will not say he was loving and caring because there was not a single hair on his body that held any of these qualities. If he was, he never once showed it in his lifetime of 79 years." With a heavy heart she continued her speech, hating every second of it, regretting the words as they left her mouth. Her grandfather was the most loving person she knew, yet here she was, lying through her teeth, a mere week after his sudden death.
As she looked across the audience, she was met with her brother's striking green eyes. She stared at them as she continued with her speech.
"He was not a good man. Pride and wealth were his virtues and love his only weakness. But I loved him still. We all did. We are a family, and family is love, unconditional love, my papi showed me that."
She held her brother's eyes and allowed him to give her the strength she needed as she slowly stepped down the podium.
YOU ARE READING
The Cost of Power
Підліткова літератураWhen Arlette's grandfather dies suddenly, she is pushed into the world of the rich and powerful with no one to guide or help her. Struggling with feelings of grief and depression, Arlette feels mingling with the vipers of the "wealthy community" wil...
