Feathers and Flight

Chapter 10

                                                               The Tree of Death

Rosy pink and pale orange highlighted the few clouds that still clung to the underbelly of the sky and the setting sun glowed like a softly burning coal. The air was still, like it was holding its breath for what was to come next and no wind dared to caress the lush meadow on top of the cliffs to disrupt the silence. 

If we had been aiming for elegance, we would have failed miserably. The best we could do for Jared as far as a casket was to zip him into his sleeping bag and our nicest clothes turned out to be the ones we were waring. As the sunset deepened, we arduously carried Jared's body up to the top of the cliffs where we had dug a large hole in the soft soil. We placed him next to his grave, took a couple steps back and huddled together with our arms linked. 

Fizzle fluttered up to his usual perch on my shoulder and nuzzled up against my chin. His antenna came up and wiped away a tear I hadn't even realized I had let slip. With that one tear came the rivers of salt water that had been building up since I had first learned of Jared's death. They cascaded down my flushed cheeks like Niagara Falls in miniature and my shoulders started to shake with suppressed grief. 

Fizz started humming quietly by my ear and it took me a moment to recognize the song as one of Jared's favorites. The familiar melody of "Adagio" by Samuel Barber, drifted sweetly across the open meadow and increased in volume as first Kallie, then Jamie, hummed along with Fizz in their sweet sopranos. Taking my cue to follow suit, I contributed my rich alto to the quartet.

When the song ended, Fizz started over but Jamie, Kallie and I all moved together to start lowering Jared into his grave. When The sleeping bag reached the bottom of the hole, the three of us stepped around the grave to the large mound of loose soil. We all took a handful of dirt and let it fall gently through our fingers and into the grave. After that first handful pattered against the sleeping bag, we just pushed the rest of the soil into the grave until it was full. Then Kallie did something that surprised me and reached behind a nearby rock to grab a small potted sapling.

It was a Dogwood, one of Jared's favorites. Kallie pulled it out of the pot and and Jamie dug a little hole in the center of Jared's final resting place. Kallie handed the baby tree to me and I knelt down to get closer to the freshly dug hole. My hands trembled slightly as I placed the young plant in the depression and carefully scooped some soil over the fragile roots. I stepped back and admired our handywork, it was the perfect gravestone and I knew it would thrive over Jared's grave.

Moving to stand next to each other again, we all put an arm around each others waists and stood together at our friend's grave until the sun had long set.