Forgot to Remember

Devil in Disguise

Dec brought another spoonful of cornflakes to his mouth and chewed on it thoughtfully. A doubt about the flowers suddenly struck him and he turned to Martin.
"Are you sure...," he started to ask but then he realised that his brother was only physically present beside him. The older sibling was blankly staring into space, spoon dangling from his fingers, his breakfast lying completely forgotten.
"Are you alright?" Dec quietly asked his brother, gently patting him on the shoulder. Martin startled then answered.
"Yeah! I'm fine."
But his bravado slipped and he confessed, "Actually I'm damn nervous. Aren't you?"
"Scared shitless," Dec replied with a guilty smile which was mirrored by Martin.
"But I wasn't just talking about the plan," Dec continued and put his arm around his brothers shoulder then said, "If this wake turns out to be a success it will affect you the most."
Martin shrugged, "Fairytale castles have to collapse sometime, don't they?"
He then started to get up but Dec pulled him into a hug.

Dressed all in black Dec slowly crossed the street and entered the small church hall opposite his house, where the wake for Ant would be held. All the chairs had been placed in neat rows, facing the wall where an ornately framed, enlarged picture of Ant had been hung up. Underneath it was a table with candles and leaning against the wall just underneath the picture stood a large funeral wreath, specially delivered half an hour earlier from ITV. At the other end of the hall, tables had been placed and the caterers were setting up. Dec checked outside the door again, to make sure that the note saying, no entry for uninvited guests today, was hanging there. Just as he wanted to shut the door, Ali hurriedly came in, followed by a tearful Holly, who started howling as soon as she saw Dec.

While Ali headed to the back to talk to the caterers, Dec headed towards the entrance to talk to Christine. Before he could reach it, his mobile phone beeped.
*U look HOT!*
Dec read it and wondered if Ant really understood the gravity of the situation. Turning back around he approached the 'altar' and as he pretended to dust off an invisible speck off Ant's picture he stuck out his tongue into the camera, hidden in the left crevice of the frame moulding.
"Are we going to see a video here?" Christine asked when she saw Martin placing a projector screen on a stand.
"A small slideshow and video of Anthony that I made." Dec replied but was unable to hold Christine's gaze as his reply was a half truth.
"Oh...Ok." she nodded and walked away feeling awkward for asking an obvious question. Dec let out a calming breath hoping that his boyfriend's mother hadn't caught on to his blatant lie. As the clock struck 10am the invitees to the wake trickled in. It was a very diverse collection of people. Most of them were people that had been close to Ant. Others were just acquaintances from the showbiz world.

***

She patted her short blond hair one last time before entering the hall. She would have rather popped a bottle of champagne and done a victory dance but instead she had to take part in this stupid function. She smiled to herself as she felt satisfaction from knowing that her love was safe from being snatched away. Why did these stupid people think that they could so easily come between them? Well this fool had ended up at the bottom of a river.
She gagged again when she realised that she would have to sit beside that stupid Neanderthal and act supportive, giving him a shoulder to cry on.
*Lord! Would this torture ever end?*
She steeled herself, plastered on her most morose expression, opened the door and plunged into the ritual of mourning that she had to perforce participate in.
Father Collins began the service by singing "Abide With Me"
He then invited Dec to give the eulogy.
"Unlike me, Ant never really was a religious man. But he believes...believed that some kind of Lord exists and will always look over him and so did I. Since he's gone I've lost that faith. But then again only God can perform miracles and he brought to me a miracle called Anthony David McPartlin."
Dec turned to around to face Ant's picture
On cue Ali turned out the lights as Martin pulled down the projector screen and turned on the projector.

A slideshow of Ant's pictures began. But the song playing in the background though was completely inappropriate. You could hear Devil in disguise by Elvis Presley, which left everyone confused.
Christine glared at the back of Dec's head as she too watched the slideshow.
As the string of pictures ended the screen went dark, an irritated female voice said, "Can we have the lights back on now?"
"Not yet!" came Dec's curt reply as the screen brightened again and this time a mute video started to play.
It was a black and white capture of the bridge, which Ant had jumped off. There were a series of gasps when the audience saw Ant walk into the camera's view. He was leaning on the fence on the side of the bridge looking intently into the water.
"Declan what nonsense is this?" Christine roared.
"Christine be quiet please and watch," Dec pleaded.

As all watched an individual approached the thoughtful man on screen. As they talked the video zoomed slightly into them. This helped all that were present to see that the newcomer was fiddling with a bolt which attached the horizontal steel bar to the bridge fence poles. The bar dropped on one side. Then a well placed, ingeniously timed push on the back sent Ant flying off the bridge. The culprit turned patted her short blond hair, held her head high and sauntered off the scene as a crowd gathered, unaware that her face had been captured by the CCTV camera placed on the bridge to identify and catch jumpers before they could complete their intent.
There was quick click clack of heels followed by a thump and a feminine shriek.
The lights came on and everyone turned towards the origin of the shriek to see that Clare was being pulled up back onto her feet her hands cuffed behind her back.
An ugly snarl twisted her angelic face as she spat at the shocked crowd, "He deserved what he got."