Refuge In Symphony

Chapter 2 - Loss

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As Mary stood by the graveside, the chill of the early spring wind cutting through her black raincoat, she watched the somber proceedings with a heavy heart. It was a gray and overcast day. Her grandmother's funeral was a solemn affair, attended by friends and distant relatives. Her mother, as always, did not come.

"As we stand here, surrounded by the early flowers of spring we are reminded of the cycles of life and death. Janet Waters had a smile that shone as bright as a summer's day, but just as the leaves fall from the trees in autumn, so too must we eventually return to the earth from which we ..."

The priest's words were a distant murmur in her ears as she gazed down at the casket, adorned with flowers in various shades of white and pink. Her grandmother had been working as the city's florist for more than 35 years before retiring, and even in her final moments, she had maintained a sense of grace and elegance, her eyes closed.

Mary clenched her hands, refusing to let the tears fall. She had always been the strong one, the pillar of her family since her parents had separated and her mother had left her in the care of her beloved grandmother. She couldn't allow herself to break down now, not in front of everyone. She felt as numb as the day that she went home from a week of hard studying for her finals and went to announce the good news only to see her Mama with her eyes closed forever.

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Mary walked back home after the funeral. It rained a little bit as she saw the beach house on top of the creek. She pushed the doorknob, half expecting to smell her grandma's banana cakes or hear her arguing with a TV host.

Instead, the house felt different, empty, a ship without its guiding star, or crew for that matter. The absence of her grandmother's presence hung heavily in the air, like a dense fog rolling in from the horizon.

Mary thought she had grown accustomed to the silence when she left for her dorm apartment. But the tears rolling on her cheeks like dew on a flower proved her otherwise. Everything did. 

 "Mama... I really should've done more." Her voice, tinged with regret, whispered through the hushed rooms. "Visited more. Called you more, invited for a coffee more often."

More. It was always more that she could've done, should've done. But she didn't, believing she had time, her grandma to be immortal, her to have done everything she could.

She stood there, in the heart of her childhood home, feeling the weight of memories crashing over her like relentless waves upon the shore. It echoed through the walls. The photograph, a cherished relic of her past, beckoned to her from its place on the shelf. It was a moment frozen in time, captured within the confines of a delicate seashell frame. Mary approached and took it from its untouched place, leaving a fine trace of dust. 

As she gazed upon the image, the sea seemed to roar in her ears. In the photograph, her grandmother's eyes sparkled like the sun dancing on the water's surface, and the smile they shared was as warm and comforting as a gentle sea breeze. They stood there, together as always, their feet sinking into the sand as if they were anchored to that very moment.  Tears blurred Mary's vision as she traced the contours of the seashell with trembling fingers.

 She wished, with all her heart, that she could turn back time, that she could once again hear her grandmother's laughter and the stories of their seaside adventures, as silly as they were.
But time, relentless as the tide, had carried her grandmother away. 

 In the solitude of that house, Mary found a vinyl. Old, she wasn't sure if it would work as she put it on the nearby turntable. But as the turntable began to spin and the needle traced its path along the record's surface, all that emerged was a dissonant hiss, a mournful echo of a bygone era. She could hear bits and pieces of the original melodies, but it made her head hurt so much she slowly lifted the stylus. 

Checking her phone and the small town's social media page, her eyes fell on a particular shop. A music shop, it just opened a few days ago, but she didn't notice it as she was so deep into her studies until... She closed her eyes, fighting back the tears. She didn't know where else to go.

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