The Kindness of Strangers

Ch. 9 - The Funeral

Thomas continues to shrink in the most agonizing way the closer we get to the kitchen. The stench of death and shit hits my nose and I can't help but stumble and dry heave. My Love rubs my back as I brace myself further and look into the room. I gasp, my eyes locking onto the body hanging from the hook, their skull crushed by something heavy. I nod, feeling ill, letting the grief and anger of losing my friend, my...brother wash over me.

"Okay baby. It's okay. You did what needed to be done and that's alright." I rub Thomas's arm absently, not taking my eyes off the corpse that lays on the table.

Thomas groans sadly, holding my hand in his and rubbing my knuckles. "Is this all of them?" Thomas whimpers before opening the deep freezer and I groan in disbelief and agony. "Oh Thomas! We keep our cut meat in there!" Thomas looks at me then the freezer before it clicks and he holds his head in his hands with an angry groan. The dead body contaminated our good food. Luckily there hadn't been much in there, to begin with.

I grip Thomas's hand and lead him out of the kitchen. "Okay, okay..." I feel like my whole body is shaking, my stomach feels light and my head feels heavy. "Um, okay piglet. Well, We'll get rid of them that's all. Do you know how we could make them disappear real good?" Thomas looks at me, his expression unreadable but he nods. I nod in return. "Good, good. Okay, just get rid of them and tell absolutely no one how you do it. You can do it however you need to. No one will say a word. I'll stay here and clean the house and help Mama and Drayton bury Nubbins with the other family. We'll both take care of that van in the morning."

Thomas kisses me on the forehead, squeezing my arms in that way that brings the breath back to my chest. Everything is going to be okay. I'll make sure of that.

I let my head rest against the outside of the house as the hose fills up my mop bucket. This was a fuckin' mess. I feel like I'm up shit creek and I'm trying to break apart my boat to make a paddle. I feel the cold gun press against my body from my waistband and it cements the numb feeling that has been spreading inside of me.

I grunt as I roll the bucket toward the porch when I see a figure coming down the road. Who the hell is strolling down the road this late?

"SALLY? SALLY IS THAT YOU?!" I see the figure is coming at me with more speed. It's the man in a wheelchair.

"Who are you?" The man stops just a few paces away from me before his face contorts in confusion and despair. The man shocks me when he begins to wail.

"I'm looking for my damn cousin. She left me to look for her friends!" He looks toward the house in a huff, seeing the van in the driveway. "Well, hey! I guess you have seen 'em! Are they alright? What's takin' them so damn long?"

Before I can think the man has a bullet between his eyes. Why did I do it? Did I have to? I'm not sure. I gently press the man back into his wheelchair as he slumps forward, his lifeless eyes-rolling. I push the wheelchair into the house and into the kitchen, keeping my eyes on the floor.

Thomas stops what he's doing to see me bring in the unfamiliar corpse and steps toward me with worried huffs and squeals.

"I, I'm fine pumpkin'. He was, uh, he was looking for his friends..." Thomas nods, shielding me with his body from seeing what needs to be done. We part from each other without another word.

My knees feel like they're going to buckle when I see Luda Mae. She's dressed Nubbins in his Sunday Best and cleaned him up. He would look like he was sleeping if it weren't for the crudely sewn gash across his throat.

"Hi, Mama" I sit down on the grass next to her and we lean on each other in silence. Luda pulls out a new cigarette and lights it. The silence seems to stretch on forever. Mama seems so much older like this and I can't even imagine how she feels.

Drayton comes from the barn with two shovels, handing me the shorter one. He's going to be buried next to his dad. They never talked about him, I just hope Nubbins won't receive that same silence.

By the time the hole is done I need help scrambling out of it. My hands hurt and the blisters that had formed are torn open. Drayton and I wheeze with exhaustion out in the cool grass. Thomas comes out and I turn my head to the side and wave at him lazily.

"Are they gone?" Thomas shakes his head no. Figures with how many bodies there were. It's a large job even for my Tommy. I get up to help Thomas put Nubbins on the wood slab next to the grave. I lay my friend's cadaver in his bedsheets and slowly lower him into the ground. My entire body feels like it's on fire and my skin feels raw. The pain is the only thing keeping the worst of the grief away.

Everyone gathers around Nubbins with their heads bowed in prayer but I refuse to lose sight of him. I need to remember every detail of his face before he's gone for good. Pictures can only do so much. Drayton steps up to the front, his face pinched in a sour expression.

"As the oldest child, I always expected that I would be the first of us to go. That damn boy never did know when to run or when to pick a fight. I'll miss him, more than he'd ever know." Luda's sniffling starts again, Thomas holds her into his chest. He passes his mother onto me, grabbing the tallest shovel from Drayton to fill in the hole.

The sun is coming back up by the time the funeral is over. Thomas wraps my hands with rags soaked in antiseptic as I doze off on the couch. The padding of my hands stings from being raw and my knuckles throb gripping a shovel for hours. Thomas lifts me on top of him and we slip into a dreamless slumber. I'll have to awake soon to care for the chickens but that doesn't matter. Right now, it feels like nothing matters anymore.