All Roads Lead Home (Book #1)

Chapter 6

Five days. In a span of five days, my entire life was changed. In one day, I lost my dad. The remaining four days is all that it took to arrange all the details of his funeral. I feel like I've been holding my breath since that phone call came through.

I'm standing in a dark gray dress with matching flats and a black wool shawl around my shoulders. Jayden is standing on my left and Ava's to my right. The rest of Ava's family is standing around me. Thank God for them. Without them, I'm sure to collapse. I can't believe dad is gone. I wasn't ready for this. Nobody was.

I look around at the people who came today. Everyone is dressed in warmer clothes than I am. I haven't really felt the temperature in the last week. I knew it was still cold though. It's March in upstate New York. Of course, it's still cold. But I don't feel it.

Some of the officers that knew dad are here. Some shop owners and other people from around town who dad helped over the years. All people who I don't know. The only people that matter to me though are the ones that are around me at this moment. My only remaining family.

Everything is calm and quiet. In the distance, I can hear thunder rumbling through the sky. I look up towards the clouds and see that they are getting darker. Over the sound of the thunder, I hear the muted words that are being said by the reverend.

As we're standing there the temperature shifts suddenly. I wrap my shawl tighter around my shoulders as the wind begins to pick up, blowing some snow around our ankles. I can feel it now. I can feel the cold.

I can hear Ava speaking to me. I turn my head towards her slowly, trying to focus on her words.

"Krystah? If you want to put your flowers on the casket you have to do it now. " I shake my head. No, I can't do this. If I take one step I may fall and not get back up. I can't do it. "I'll go with you. Come on." Ava is slowly nudging me forward, her arm wrapped tightly around my waist. Without her, I'm sure to give into my mind telling me to just give up. Go with dad.

We walk up to the casket together, my feet not wanting to move with every step that brought me closer to it. The final resting place of my dad. I'll never see him again.

I reach my hand out and lay it on top of the casket. I lay my white daisies down and take a shaky step back. White daisies were his favourite. I always picked them from the fields behind our house and put them in a vase on the mantle. He always told me they were his favourite, but maybe that was because they were mine.

"Goodbye, daddy. Don't forget me, okay? I'll never forget you." Fresh tears break loose, staining my cheeks. Goodbye, daddy.

I watch as other people placed their flowers on the casket beside mine. So many people loved dad. He truly was a hero.

As we climb in the car to go back to the house a huge clap of thunder shakes me to my core. I glance out the window just as a flash of lightning rips through the sky to expose the underbelly of the world above us. Then the sky opens, and the rain begins to fall as if God himself was sharing in my sorrow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'm sick of hearing the same things over and over again. 'I'm so sorry for your loss', or 'He was a good man' or my favourite one of all 'he was a great father'.

All I want to scream is 'how would you know if he was a great father? I don't even know you. You don't know how great of a father he was. When my mom gave up on us, he didn't. He wasn't just a great father; he was an amazing one. You people don't know anything.' But I didn't scream that. It would have been disrespectful. They didn't have to come today, they chose to.

I need a break from all of this. I can't breathe. I look around to make sure no one is watching me. They aren't. Everyone is worried about getting their plates filled and catching up with people they haven't talked to in a while.

I turn to head upstairs to one of the spare rooms I was using in Ethan and Ava's house. I need space away from all of this.

I can hear Ethan and Ava out on the front porch arguing with someone. I decide to move closer to the door.

What are they fighting about?