The funeral home was open early today. It was unusually for a bright, normal Tuesday. I pulled up on the opposite side of the street and looked over at the ivy-ridden building.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
I reached over and picked up the dozen roses I bought that morning; they were fresh and a beautiful shade of blood red. I got out of the car and slowly crossed the street towards the front door. The summer sun made the morning dew evaporate right before my eyes. I made my way up the stairs and opened the door. A cold rush of air hit me as I walked in. Two men where sitting behind a desk to my right, looking as if they had just seen a monster.
"I'm here for Anderson." I said in a voice that shook with intensity.
Silence.
"Right this way Sir." The short, fat man stood up and led me down the hallway.
As we passed by room after room, I looked in and saw the bodies and ashes of loved ones now gone. I shuttered. Its not something you want to experience more than once in your life. As we continued to walk and I continued to look into rooms, we came to a sudden halt. I practically crashed into the poor man that led me all the way down here.
"Anderson. Here you go." A man of few words, suddenly disappearing.
I walked in slowly and saw the open door of the casket. She was wearing baby blue, the color she would wear everyday if she had a choice. I always told her how much I loved that color on her. It made her eyes look like an endless ocean and I was always drowning in them. I finally arrived to the side of the big wooden box.
I looked closely at her. No pulse. No movement. Complete silence and calmness. I pulled over the wooden chair that had been collecting dust in the corner and sat right beside her.
"Hey Sadee. We missed you today." I spoke in a quiet whisper.
"Today in Biology, Mr. Kilowsky threw a chair at a student. You always said he had a temperament problem, remember? I would never listen, but you were always right about everything."
No response.
"Alice asked about you today. She says she misses you. We talked all of lunch about you."
The tears started coming from the corner of my eyes.
"Do you remember that seminar you planned? The one about the topics no one ever dared to talk about? Well, we had that seminar yesterday in town square. Standing ovation. What do you think of that?"
I put my hand on her hair and started to pet her head like a child. She always loved it when she was alive. I stayed in that spot for 4 hours until the sound of shuffling footsteps appeared in the hallway. I quietly got up and left through the back door. Too afraid to face the ones that loved her the most.
As I disappeared through the brush in the back of the building, I thought of the smile she would give me everyday in the hallway. It was always perfection. If I could spend everyday, for the rest of my life with her, there is no doubt I would have. But after five minutes of walking my mind went blank.
I appeared on the edge of the street where all of this started. I began to walk across but before I could everything went black.
Upon waking up, everything was around me was white. As I sat up I couldn't name where I was or what was around me.
The only thing I could see was a baby blue dress in the distance.
