My daughter -The Rookie

18- Tuesday

It had been exactly a week since her death, which meant today was her funeral. I was standing in Tim's bathroom doing my makeup, but It wasn't really going well. The red blush I tried to put on kept looking unnatural. It took me twice as long to do than normally. When I was done, I walked into the kitchen where I found Tim, cooking french toast. He was wearing a navy blue suit. That was the dress code for today. Zoe hated black, especially on sad occasions, so we all went for a dark blue color. I too was wearing a long navy blue dress, matched with blue jewelry and a soft, black vest, black heels and a small, black shoulder bag. The heels weren't very high but they still made a lot of sound when walking over laminate flooring. 'I like the suit.' I complimented him. 'Thank you, it's the only navy blue suit I own. You look great too.' He responded. 'Thank you.' 'I made french toast, I know you're probably not very hungry but I would advise to at least eat something before we go.' He said while putting one toast on a plate. 'I'll try eating one.' I said and he handed me the plate. He was right. I was very nauseous, but I had already been eating less the last couple days and missing even more meals wouldn't be a good idea.

I finished the plate and drank a glass of water and then it was time to go. 'Are you ready?' Tim asked me when I came out of the guestroom. I sighed. 'Yes, I guess let's go.' I answered. We got in the car and drove in silence to the venue I had reserved. It kind of looked like a church but it was in fact just a large hall. The doors were already open and we were greeted by the owner. 'Hello, I'm Richard. I believe we had contact over the phone? You must be Lucy Andersen' He was and I shook his hand. 'It's Lucy Chen, but that doesn't matter. Nice to meet you.' I said, smiling, hiding my pain. 'Oh, I'm so sorry. Nice to meet you too. Who did you bring with you?' Richard asked. 'Hi, I'm Tim.' Tim introduced himself while they shook hands. 'Okay, good. Come in' Richard waved at us to come in.

We walked through the cloakroom where guests could hang their coats. Then we walked into the hall. I saw several rows of white-colored benches. Next to the entrance door was a high round table with cards for guests to write. There were racks at the front where you could hang your card and also read other people's cards. At the front left was a stand for the reader and in the middle of the stage stood the casket. It all looked beautiful. The casket also had a navy blue color and it had black handles for transportation. A beautiful and large bouquet had been placed on top of the casket. There were several types of white flowers and occasionally a blue rose stuck out. At the foot of the casket layed a folded American flag. The intention was for the flag to be draped over the casket after the ceremony. It would then be folded back into a triangle before the box went into grave. Next to the casket were 2 wooden pillars with candles on them and on the right side next to the stage was a large black piano. Furthermore, there were several bouquets of the same white and blue flowers scattered throughout the room.

As I took this all in, I felt Tim's hand on my shoulder. 'It's beautiful.' I brought it out. 'Well, I like to hear that.' Richard said. 'One thing though, can we take the candles away?' I hesitated with asking, but it seemed weird to keep the candles unlit. 'Well, it's kind of a tradition to light some candles.' Richard protested. 'I know, but fire is one of my worst phobias and I really can't be near it without having a panic attack.' I explained and Richard's facial expression immediately changed. 'Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that. Yes, of course we can take that away, I'll do that for a minute. 'No worries, thank you.' I replied.

We talked a bit about other things that would go on over the day. The ceremony would start at 11 AM and end around 12:30. After that, they would serve snacks and drinks like: coffee, tea, juice, cake, small toasts, bruschetta and some other things. We were still talking when I saw Angela, Wesley, Nyla, John, Jackson and Grey arriving. I smiled when I saw them all in the same shade of dark blue. 'I'll go say hello, You take the time to finish this, alright?' Tim said. I nodded and he left.

I finished my conversation with Richard and then he felt us alone for a while. It was now 10:40 and other guests started to arrive. I walked up to the others and greeted them. 'Hi, good to see you guys.' I smiled. I had no idea why, because I was breaking apart from the inside. 'Hi lucy. How are you?' Wesley asked me. 'Well, I just lost the most important person in my life but overall, I'm good.' I joked a little. 'How come?' Wesley asked, confused. My little smile dropped off my face and I looked at Angela. 'Don't tell me, you didn't tell him.' I begged and also her smile disappeared. 'I might've forgotten about that detail.' She said, guilty. 'Okay, wait, wait. Who knows about this secret?' I asked, fearing that nobody knew and I had to rewrite my speech. 'Which secret?' Wesley asked, confused. 'Don't worry. I told all the officers during roll call so they know.' Grey said and I relaxed a little. 'Good.' I sighed. 'Can anyone fill me in?' Wesley asked again and Angela pulled him away by his sleeve.

'Did he really not know?' I asked the others, confused. 'Apparently.' Jackson responded. We kept talking a bit, but the only thing I could focus on was Wesley. It was actually pretty funny to see his body language change from confused to even more confused to shocked. After a couple of minutes, they came up to us again. 'I'm so sorry Lucy. I had no idea.' Wesley apologized and I smiled. 'It's okay. It wasn't your fault.' I said, giving Angela a withering look. 'Sorry.' She smiled guilty.