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🥘 nineteen. better luck next time .⊹ °ʚ☆ɞ°.⭒₊
SIX MONTHS AGO.
A wooden casket was placed in front of the rabbi's podium with his hand held out and his voice boomed throughout the synagogue while he recited the Torah. Psalms and prayers easily slipped through his lips as if it were a second language, but the big, blue stained glass behind the rabbi made him all the more intimidating.
Atticus Sinclair had a habit of talking to many people throughout his life because he was very sociable and he was very kind, respectful. He was the type of person to share leftovers with his coworkers, making sure they ate and not waste food at the same time, and he always took the moment out of his day to talk to someone. He was the type of person you'd want to be friends with because he would be kind to those around him and he always make time out of his day for anyone — especially his only daughter.
But he was dead.
His body laid in a wooden casket with his arms crossed over his lifeless chest and the prayers were muffled because of the bleak, wooden box.
In the synagogue, the pews were almost bare. There were a few of his old coworkers who were wearing their yarmulkes atop of their heads and their faces were worn out, pinched in solemn. They were just coworkers though, not actual family. In one of the first pews, the staff of The Bear sat together. Their faces were solemn as well, all of them wore black in respects to the passing.
Marcus came up first, grabbing the card that detailed the life and end of Atticus Sinclair. Then Tina came up, then Richie, then the Faks, then Natalie, then everyone else. They scattered around the first two pews with no smiles nor insults on their faces or anything.
Their faces showed sorrow, some of them were even crying.
On her dress, a black ribbon was tied.
Translucent tears slowly rolled down her cheeks as she stared ahead, her hand gripping Carmy's so tight that it almost broke skin, and her knee repeatedly bounced up then down. Her heel clacked against the floor. Odessa never cried at weddings or anyone else's funeral, but this was on another level of weird.
In everyone else's funerals, flowers were always set up and Ave Maria would play, but Jewish funerals were different. No music, no flowers, no decorated coffins, absolutely nothing because the rabbi believed that it was better for the deceased to be immediately buried into the ground for a faster route into the Next World.
After the rabbi recited Atticus's eulogy and the Jewish prayer, he looked around the empty pews with a solemn look and he looked over at Odessa. He gestured her up to the podium with the wave of his hand.
Odessa stood up on wobbly legs, sniffling softly as she walked up to the podium, and she turned her head away since she felt so embarrassed for even crying in the first place. The brunette cleared her throat and she wiped her tears that were on the brink of slipping out of her eyes. She sniffled again and she cleared her throat.
Their eyes bore into hers, waiting for her careful words.
"My father was my protector and I believe he will still be my protector." said Odessa, her voice echoed through the synagogue, and her grip on the wooden podium tightened. "I used to think he was a tree because he was so tall and he had arms of a tree trunk. But he was still my protector. He protected me from the world and he protected me from..from the woman he married. My father never, ever got mad at me or anyone else because he was so forgiving and he was so friendly. I-I remember when he would give me lilies for my birthday and he just..kept going with our little tradition, even when I was away from home."
Odessa paused and she wiped her tears with the sleeves of her dress. "So many people loved him and he loved so many people, but I'm so confused why there isn't any more people here. I'm sure some people couldn't come, but it still hurts me because my father was this generous man who would do the right thing when nobody was looking. I, uhm, I would like to thank those who actually came though."
She wiped her nose with her balled up white tissue. "That's all. Thank you."
.⊹ °ʚ☆ɞ°.⭒₊
The sky was purple with the sun barely rising and the flickering streetlights were still on, illuminating the empty, cemented sidewalks. There were no people in the Oak Street Beach except for the birds chirping and the glass buildings were beginning to power up for the workers who had the early shift. Seagulls cried nearby as they picked at the grainy sand for food, but they flew away when they heard heavy footsteps repeatedly rising then falling against the sand. The only sound emanating from the beach was heavy breathing and running shoes slamming against the ground.
You should go for a run, Elise once suggested, you ran the eight hundred in high school, maybe you could do it again.
Her cousin's words echoed within Odessa's head as she ran against the shoreline of the beach. Her breaths came out as misty from the coldness of the morning and she already mourned for Halloween to come soon. She could already remember the cheap Halloween costumes she used to wear and how she and Mikey used to pig out on leftover Halloween candy.
Odessa panted as she bent over on her knees, her chest rising then falling, and she began sobbing. The brunette sobbed helplessly into her hands as she moved to sit down, not caring if the grains of sand were clinging onto the fabric of her black leggings.
Her whole life was falling apart.
Her best friend was dead, her parents were dead, and her boyfriend broke up with her after calling their six months of dating "bullshit." Odessa threw herself back against the ground of the sand, sobbing relentlessly into the palms of her hands, and she didn't care if she was crying in public. People could stare at her, judge her, but she didn't care in general because it wasn't their business in the first place and it was a public place. So, fuck them.
Odessa sniffled as she sat up, her lips were dry and pulled into a droopy frown before she brushed off the sand in her hair that was beginning to grow out. She continued to cry as she brushed off the millions of sands on her clothes and the brunette cleared her throat as she dried off her tears.
She had to remind herself that the world didn't stop just because she was alone now. People lost their families, people lost their best friends, and people got broken up with everyday. To a normal person, it was okay and they just pushed through because they had other stuff to worry about.
The tears were drying off now.
Odessa sniffled as she stood up on her wobbly feet and she exhaled sharply. She had to keep going, for her father if anything, and she gently rolled her neck before she took a puff of her inhaler. She turned to face towards the glass buildings and she stretched out her legs.
She inhaled sharply, her hand clutching her inhaler, and Odessa began running while the sun began rising higher.
