(alice's black dress trailed down over her knees. her hair tie was falling, but she didn't care. she couldn't care. her mind was already somewhere else. everything around that presents itself as reality seemed surreal. she wondered if she was asleep or high on drugs. or better, yet dead. because she couldn't think straight, her thoughts were fuzzy, and things were spinning about her. she had been in this condition ever since hewer's funeral had ended.
noa walked towards her with canned coffee in his hands. he found alice staring into a space, and placed the cold drink against her cheek. alice abruptly came back to life, and glared at noa accusingly.)
"are you okay?"
"yeah... i think so. are you?"
"i don't know... you know, it feels really, really strange... the fact that a person is permanently gone. when i left my hometown, i still knew that the people there would be... there. but arthur hewer is... well, gone. it feels like there's a large gap left in his place. a hole."
"i had been to a funeral before... but hewer's was different. no one had cried for hewer's death, not even his parents. they were all very quiet, not even a tear. it freaked me out a little. when my dad died... my mother and i were like leaking pipes. so was most of the people attending. but hewer's was different... and that made me very sad that no one was crying for him.
i didn't know the guy very well to cry. i don't think anyone was. instead, it was like all of us were watching a sad scene from a movie. we were sad, but we were impartial. it was more like a silent death. a silent murder. because in that funeral, we were erasing all the memories of aruther. i still treasure the memories of my father. but everyone... was saying goodbye."
"mmm... i once heard that a funeral is not for the dead, but for the living. the funeral itself is a promise from the living. like a prayer. the parent's promise that they won't forget their child. the friends' promise that they'll still visit him sometime... i think that it's like that."
(they held their hands tightly, making sure that they were still there, drinking coffee, and thinking about death. )
" what do you think will happen now?"
" we keep moving on. but first of all, i must ask you on a date. alice, would you like to be my girlfriend?"
"i thought i already was..."
"i know, i'm just like checking."
(and noa kissed alice's cheeks. )
