Up on Cloud Nine

The Funeral

The steely silence continued as the car roared on through the Yorkshire Dales. The hills rolled around them into non- existence. The sky was dark, brooding, and slightly dangerous. Millie hoped that there would not be thunder later, she hated thunder.

She glanced at Maverick who now had his head in his hands. Her father on the other hand stared out of the window, his face blank. Millie copied him, peering back frequently to make sure she was doing it just right.

Millie didn’t like looking for too long, as the many signals from her brain almost overwhelmed her. She could see three cows on the field adjacent to her right and 24 sheep to her left. There were precisely 6 sign posts every 5 meters. She shut her eyes for a while, her mind reeling from all the information she was receiving. She felt on the verge of panicking but her attention was suddenly re- directed as she spotted the Methodist church down the road.   

It was a tall building that was silhouetted eerily against the gloomy sky. The church sign swung in the gentle breeze. It was topped with an ancient weather vane that swayed mysteriously in the distance. Millie watched as the speck of a church became larger and larger as the car approached. At first, she thought that she could see a multitude of swarming ants crowding around the church, she was going to point this out to her Father- but he seemed occupied.   As they advanced she realised that these black ‘ants’ were actually all individually dressed people. She could feel the change in the road as the car wound up the gravelled road to the church.

She could recognise some of their faces, there was Great Aunty Hilda, and Martin her mother’s brother and there was awful Anne, her eccentric cousin. She scanned the scene for sight of her Mother, however as she began scouring the second last row from the back, she became aware that her mother wouldn’t be there, she was dead. Her eye line finally rested on the glass- roofed car in front. She looked at the box with flowers on it, one more time. The flowers were white, lilies. She wondered what could be so special, that it had its own box and car! Suffice to say, it defeated her.

A man with a tail- coated jacket stepped out of the car in front. He had a large velvet top hat, and pointed squeaking shoes. He strode over to their car and held the door open for Maverick, her Dad and herself. Millie cocked her head as she viewed the man once more. His face was a puzzle. She wished she had her emotions book with her. Normally, she always kept it in her left pocket on her shirt but she had not brought it today as her father had said that she had to wear a black dress. It made her feel uneasy. Without her book she couldn’t match people’s expressions with what they really were in her emotions book.  She liked the book, as she had made it with her mother when she was very little.

She remembered the way that she had sat a chair apart from her mother while they made it. She had held her mother’s elbow and helped her move her arm when they applied the glue. She had accidently pushed her mother’s arm too far and they had got glue all over the table. She had started crying, but her mother has laughed and said in her tinkling voice, ‘Millie Molly Mandy,’ (although Millie Molly Mandy was not strictly Millie’s name she had always permitted her mother to use it, as that had been her mother’s favourite book when she was growing up) her mother had placed her hands on her hips as if concerned and then said in a deep silly voice, ‘You are very naughty, young lady I’m just going to have to catch you!’

Then her mother had chased her and Maverick around the garden for a very long time. That was a good day. She had liked that day, and she liked her book because it reminded her of it. The book reminded her of her mother’s smell, her long honey coloured hair, her beautiful shimmering skirts, and her soft bambi eyes that were very easy to understand.

Millie could feel her breathing rate increase, her legs began to shake. Fumbling, she reached for her book on Binary Stars and began to read pushing her emotions away.