Chasing Rainbows

Part Two: Chapter Eighteen

Standing around the trench, I feel tears slip further and further down my face. The brown dirt exposed through the six foot hole is shown more and more as the simplistic wooden casket is lowered farther into the ground, wrapped in the bright colors of the Australian flag. With each inch that my brother's memory falls, I feel him rise higher and higher above me, finally finding a sense of happiness in this cruel world.

Yet, with all of the contentment I feel with my brother's memory, I can't stop the crushing feeling on my chest. "Gaige was an amazing person," the reverend speaks, looking across the crowd of mourners. Standing with me at the front of the crowd, my mother clings to my father helplessly as if he is her last lifeline, her last thing worth living for. My father, whose face normally invokes such emotion in people, now stands like stone, making the shivering coldness in my body reach my toes. "Now, Larkin, his sister, would like to say a few words."

"Gray was my best friend," I mutter, standing beside his memorial. "There was so much that I could have said; there was more that I could have done. But that was the thing about Gray. He was so kind, so caring. Neither of us needed to say how we felt; we just knew. You know, when he left for boot camp," I start, feeling the tears pool up, blocking my vision, "When he left for boot camp he promised me that he would come back to me." A strangled sob leaves my mouth. My body convulses as I try to calm my overwhelming grief. "And I know..." I breathe out. "I know that even if he isn't here anymore, it doesn't mean that he didn't do a damn hard job trying. Because he never broke a promise. Ever."