A New Journey

Ch6. Truth or Dare

The drive to the graveyard was a bit uneasy as the radio stations were all playing white noise, but both Willow and I chalked it up to bad weather. Speaking on the weather, I tied my hair up into a bun as the humidity was too much for my long curls. It took me 18 years to finally get a grasp on the nest that I called hair, and the most important lesson is to tie up your hair in humid weather or suffer a lion's mane.

Since the two of us were the first to arrive we decided to chill on the swings, or at least Willow did. Half moon was high in the sky and bright enough to allow us to see fair enough in the dark. Willow looked more pale than usual in the moonlight, she even cracked a few 'Willow the friendly ghost' jokes. When I look past Willow I can see the headstones of Mineworth Cemetery, Willow notices me staring and asks, "What are you thinking?"

"I-is it still there?" My voice shakes as I focus my line of sight on a small group of headstones.

"It?"

"The headstone....my headstone?"

Willow jumps in realization, "Oh! I'm not sure actually, your parents didn't mention something?"

"Nope, and had you not have told me  years ago, I probably would have never known." I pull up blades of grass from where I sit, but then I feel bad and attempt to pat the grass back into place.

"I thought you wanted to be cremated though?"

"No, I do. Before I was even born my grandmother on my father's side bought space at the cemetery. In her will she wanted every descendent to have a headstone even if their actual remains were not there, I am guessing they were going to spread ashes there" I scratch the side of my head "it's crazy to wrap it around my head that everyone truly thought I was dead."

"Cerys there was so much blood like we were all told that the best case scenario was that your body would turn up." There is emotion behind her words and it makes me feel guilty, though I realize that I did nothing wrong.

"It did turn up!" I wink at her and she sticks her tongue out at me. The bright lights of another car's headlight make us shield our eyes. Even though the doors were still closed the sound of music was loud enough to hear from outside. Serena steps out of the car and she walks toward us with her glitter red top and matching wedges sparkling in the moonlight. Valerie is next to come out of the car and she also changed her outfit into a purple dress covered in pink flowers.

"Hm, Willow and I didn't get the memo on an outfit change," I say as I look down at my pajama shirt and jeans.

"We both had our own version of dates." Serena sits on the floor beside me and Valerie takes the swing beside Willow. Opening up her bag Serena starts handing out cans of beer to us, I automatically decline and so does Valerie. I have issues with underage drinking but for the sake of the moment, I keep my comments to myself in order to avoid causing conflict.

"Cerys you have such a nice deep tan, where do you go?" asks Valerie and I am confused by her question.

"Go for what?"

"To tan?" We all look at Valerie who appears to genuinely believe I have a fake tan.

"Um, my mother is Black and my father is Mexican...so together I was gifted with this golden brown skin." I gesture to my skin like a product on the QVC network and Valerie's mouth slightly hangs.

"So your hair?"

"Is naturally curly...it's fine really." Valerie's shoulders slump in embarrassment,  "I have been asked numerous times how I get my hair so curly, you should see the shock when I tell the person I wake up like this." When I finish a smile returns to Valerie's face.