Troublemaker

Chapter Two

Standing in front of the crowd made his hands sweat and his heart race like a caged animal. His throat felt like a desert, causing the man to rub his tongue against the roof of his mouth nervously. The fact that he did this once a week never made it any easier, rather the eyes upon him usually only made the man shake his head and sit back down. Duncan found it nearly impossible to put all of his emotions into words, but one that was easiest was guilt. He felt guilty in every sense of the word, even though he reasonably had no idea what would occur that day. "Hi everyone. My name is Duncan Rigby," he began, all trace of confidence seemed to fade the second he looked out at the sea of faces before him.

"Hi Duncan," the group chorused back in monotone. Most of the time that was as far as Duncan got so a good many looked bored. Many had turned their attention to the thermoses of coffee and plates of donuts that were given out when the meeting was over.

He allowed himself a huff before closing his eyes. "I am trying to move on from my sister and nieces passing. You see they had been on their way to visit me because I had gone through a breakup and hadn't been in contact with them." No amount of swallowing could help the lump forming in his throat as he spoke.

He could picture his niece, a beautiful girl of five years old. Her hair had been a vibrant red that hid eyes of mossy green. She had more of an olive skin tone than Duncan's sister compliments of her father, and her favorite outfit was a white summer dress that matched her teddy bear's. Sarai had been the kind of child that brought a smile to everyone's face, as she had a tendency to pick up on her father's horrible puns and repeat them. The child could often be found laughing at her own jokes, but her laughter was infectious.

His niece got it honest enough as his sister had been known to make a room smile, just by flashing her own set of pearly whites. She had been a plump woman with rosy cheeks and flaming red hair. Kaylee was known to be the kind of woman to give the shirt off her back when needed, too many times she had given up her jacket when she found someone who needed it more. He couldn't help wonder if his niece would have grown into the same sort of woman, but both were gone too soon on account of his foolishness.

He couldn't help the tears that burned at his eyes despite how weak they made him feel. Angry with himself once more for getting so choked up he couldn't speak Duncan shook his head and moved to sit back down. The little old woman that he referred to as Gran gave him a gentle pat on his knee.

"You did good today, Duncan," she rattled before sitting back in her own chair with her lips pursed and tears in her eyes.

"I can't even look at their pictures yet, much less talk about them," he whispered back, unable to look at her anymore. "So many people have just moved on like nothing happened."

He didn't see it, but she nodded her head in agreement. Her long white hair fell into her face, making her grumble in annoyance before facing him once more. "You can't expect ta move on the way everyone else does. It takes time and everyone has their own way of mournin'."

"I should have just called so they didn't have to worry, Gran."

Gran gave a soft chuckle at the nickname before taking his hand in hers, "We can't change the past, but you couldn't have known any of those events would come ta pass." With a groan she stood and made her way to where a line was forming for the coffee.

The older woman had a special way about making everyone else feel just a little bit better as she spoke with many members who had joined the group. It was hard to tell that Gran had recently lost her husband to a rather nasty form of lung cancer, but there she was, helping others to move on from their loss.

Duncan remained glued to his seat, as he lacked the motivation to get up. The weight of his grief often left him without much energy to keep up the confident bravado he usually carried himself with. He lit a cigarette in his chair and leaned his head back, inhaling deeply as he did so. It wasn't long before he felt the rough thud of Gran's cane upon his skull. "Alright. Alright Gran, I'm going outside."