Crimson [840658]

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Getting ready for the funeral kind of felt surreal, I couldn't quite come to terms with the fact that this was it. Even when I was in the funeral car with Sandy and Codie (Nathan was more than happy to share a car with Ella and my parents since he'd really hit off with them) it felt almost as if I was numb. The silence between Codie, Sandy and I was kind of weird since conversation usually never stopped flowing between us, even though things may be not quite normal now, I knew that sooner than I would realise we would be back to the good old days, where talking about boys, going shopping and laughing at nothing in particular would be more than a regular occurrence.

We were in the second funeral car behind the Hearse, the first car consisted of his closest family members, and there were about six or seven cars trailing behind us. When I had seen the coffin draped with the English flag, Daniels name, and dozens of flowers it took me back a bit, I’m not sure why, I guess it’s because he was in there, the charming, funny Daniel that I knew wasn’t cracking stupid jokes anymore, but lying cold as ice in a box, and that was one of the hardest things I had to see.

Before we made it to the Church where the funeral was taking place, it had been arranged for the procession to go through a small town, where everyone stops and stands silent for two minutes. As we drove up there we began to see more and more people, not just strangers who showing their respect but men and women in army uniform who had come down to honour one of their own. I’m not going to lie, seeing everyone there was kind of overwhelming, the flowers thrown over the Hearse lay on the roof while some fell to the floor. But it didn’t matter, because everyone here was showing their support for the people that fought for our country (like Sandy, Codie and I) and that was all we could ever want.

After the procession we made our way to the church, there were going to be six reading in total. Daniels mum was saying a few words, Codie too, the army director general, and Sandy and I who were going to be reading poems. I hadn’t really practised it, but the words were going to be in-front of me so I figured it wouldn’t be too hard.

As we neared I spotted a lot of people wearing either black or army uniforms, and as the cars pulled up one after each other my mouth opened at just how many people were here. Like in the town where strangers had come to pay their last respects, they had here too. I recognized a lot of faces from the barracks, and some not so familiar faces wearing their uniforms. It was so patriotic, and I knew that if Daniel had seen just how many people had turned he would have had a huge smile on his face. Sure he might be annoyed that he didn’t recognize half the people, but with his family, his friends, us, I knew that he would be happy with what he got. I hoped that if anything happened to me, this is what I would get. We all want to make a difference in life one way or another, and if there was so many strangers here for me it would prove that I had done something in life worth it, and Daniel had.

My legs wobbled as I got out the car, Codie who was in the middle held both mine and Sandy’s hands as we were going through this together. I glanced back and noticed that a few cars down Nathan in his suit was standing with Ella, though he didn’t notice me it helped me to know that he was here.

Daniels dad, uncle, two cousins and two fellow servicemen carried the coffin on their shoulders into the church while everyone else followed, it didn’t surprize me when I noticed that the church was so full people were standing outside, it was amazing. Sitting on the front row between Daniels dad and Codie was hard, because I was sat with the people most affected, and I knew that if any of them cried, I would follow suit.

The Priest took his place making the church fall into silence, I hadn’t yet looked at the coffin since it was placed in here but at that minute I didn’t want to. Instead I looked at the large picture of Daniel in his army uniform which was placed at the very front, he looked so happy in it, so unaware, so full of life that it was hard to comprehend that wasn’t him anymore, that he wasn’t here.