Ryder's Angel

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Tears like Rain, Rain like Tears: Angeline

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Rain like Tears, Tears like Rain: Angeline

I never let go of Ethan or Danny – I absolutely refused to let them out of my sight. I didn’t want to miss a second of the rest of my life without them. It was indescribable how much I missed them and how I felt now.

I was hardly anywhere without them. If I wasn’t with Danny, I was with Ethan. We had brought back our game of hide-and-seek, which was more interesting since Ethan could control his powers, even more so when other kids joined. We spent hours telling each other of everything we missed. Ethan absolutely adored his classes. He was getting better each day at using his powers. I was just as thrilled as he was. Danny and I would take up teaching the thirteen-year-olds again, too, now that normal classes started up.

Everyone was overjoyed to have me back, but still the cloud hung over everyone’s heads – the dreary, black cloud that reminded the orphanage that Miss Sadie was dead. Everyday life was back to normal – classes, mealtimes together, the horseplay, everything – but there was just a little less happiness.

Claire, Miss Sadie’s niece, was a good leader, despite the fact she was only twenty. She had kept everyone and everything together, I heard, and, with help from her mother, booked funerals for the dead. She found a cemetery that allowed mutants to be buried there. Many agreed, but a good few others disagreed about burying Miss Sadie there. Her other relatives, including her parents, had been buried at a sacred place, a place only the Hawthorne’s knew about, and they’d kept it a secret for generations. And Miss Sadie’s sister, Claire’s mother, Sienna, also disagreed.

“None of you knew my older sister better than I,” she had said at dinner. “And she, in her older days, always told me she didn’t want to be buried with our family. She was always saying that…” Sienna’s voice had faltered. “…that she didn’t want special treatment; she wanted to break the tradition and be normal. We should – should give her what she wanted.”

Sienna loved her sister very much and respected her even more. For the sake of Sienna, most agreed.

So, three weeks after I came home, the funeral was here.

The entire orphanage was a sea of mournful black. They were like crows and ravens, their hope and happiness slipping away like a leaf in a breeze. Miss Sadie was such a light, helpful, lovable person, had been around for so long – and now she was gone. It was so hard to believe, like waking up from a shocking dream, and when one started to think about it, it was like a very painful jolt to the heart. Or maybe, thinking it was only a dream. But it was real. And she was gone, just like that, and she can’t return.

Danny was painstakingly silent that day. Ethan didn’t like it, but he didn’t push his father, instead keeping close to me. We were dressed in black, and our hearts were as well, heavy with grief. Death was a terrible thing. Danny, of course, above all, was the most upset, besides Miss Sadie’s family. He’d known her for his entire life; she was like his mother, she’d raised him after his parents left him. And to know she was dead, when his own son was partially the reason she died – I couldn’t even imagine what that felt like.

The call from downstairs brought us to reality. Danny, avoiding my eyes, put his arm around my waist. Ethan, in my arms, buried his face in my shoulder. When we got to the first floor, I couldn’t tell who was who in all the black. There was hardly any noise except for the quiet sobs. Nobody spoke.

Finally, there was the signal to go. Everyone was clear on their instructions. We would all get to the cemetery unseen by the humans: either by invisibility, teleporting, flying, or simply running. Danny, Ethan, and I would fly. Danny would morph, I would be myself, as an angel, but Ethan wasn’t trained fully yet. My son would be in my arms the entire way.

The sky was grey and cold, as cold and grey as Miss Sadie’s body. The air was chilly, the city below moving slowly. It was drizzling, and soon my hair was frizzy and sticking to my face and Ethan’s. We flew to the cemetery, far away from New York. My heart was as lifeless as the weather.

I landed in the marshy graveyard beside Danny, and, wet to the bone, we gathered with the others. Still no one spoke. Sienna, Claire, and Claire’s father emerged from the drizzle with a white marble casket. They laid it on the table in the middle of the cemetery.

The rain thickened. No one brought umbrellas. Ethan put his head under my arm; Danny buried his face in my sopping wet hair. I knew he was hiding tears. My own eyes were swimming in the wetness. I hated crying. Heads hung in sorrow, we stood there, letting the cold rain soak our hearts in sadness. Claire’s mother, Sienna, suddenly let out a sob and threw herself on Miss Sadie’s casket. Her husband, Michael, stroked her back, whispering such soft words that no one could hear over the rushing of the rain. Such sadness.

We stood there, long enough for the day to get darker and the rain to come harder. There was no special ceremony, no special words for Miss Sadie in the afterlife. And the rest of us didn’t say anything. I myself was too deep in grief that I couldn’t utter a sound. The rain soaked me right down to the bone, so freezing and dreary that I couldn’t cry anymore. The tears had frozen inside of me; I just ran out of them. Danny kept his face buried in my hair, resting his head on my shoulder. I felt him shake with sobs every once in a while. Such sadness.

The rain came harder still, and I shivered so much that I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop. But I didn’t care. I kept my head hung; staring blankly at the grey, marshy grass as if doing so would bring back the dead. But of course it wouldn’t. You couldn’t bring people back from the dead; you couldn’t mock Death.

I heard Ethan whimper. Looking down at his little face streaming with water, he trembled like a leaf in the breeze. Rain poured down on him mercilessly, despite my cover. I should have brought a thicker coat for him, or an umbrella. I blinked at him sadly as he pressed his face into my side, wiping his runny nose on me. Just then, Danny took a step away from me and stood closer to Sienna. He whispered something to her, but her face was still laid against her sister’s coffin. Taking this as an advantage to Ethan’s warmth, I pulled out my wings. They were blindingly white against all the grey and black. I held them in a way where both Ethan and I stayed dry. Ethan clung to my leg, sniffling. How bored he must be. Children didn’t like standing around for hours on end, in the pouring rain for a funeral. I stroked his cheek.

Now shielded from the rain, I watched the grey sky. I was unable to look at Sienna for fear I’d cry again. But when whatever Danny had said sunk in, she wiped her eyes and nodded to Michael, going by Claire and standing very still. Her husband then, grimfaced, waved his hand. Two girls shot off, coming back seconds later. Heads were still bowed until the first hearse appeared down the road. I watched in sudden horror. More and more cars came, more and more dead. They lined up, coming to a silent halt. Thirteen in all. Thirteen hearses, thirteen dead, innocent children. The rain never took a breath.

The drivers unloaded all thirteen and laid them on either side of Miss Sadie’s casket. Then they left, leaving the grass wetter than before with the water their tires sent up. Puddles the size of small swimming pools. Several people threw themselves at different coffins, much less elaborate as Miss Sadie’s but nice still. Sisters, brothers, boyfriends and girlfriends – they’d lost someone, and they couldn’t bring them back. I watched one girl, about seven years old, fall to her knees beside one casket, sobbing, “Brandon, Brandon, why did you leave me? Who’s gonna teach me to ride a bike?”

I began crying again, as if the rain gave me more tears. Ethan squeezed my hand.

Death was a stupid thing.

Two hours later, all thirteen were buried under soggy, muddy ground. But Veronica, using her powers, made grass grow, flowers bloom. And when everyone had said their goodbyes one last time, Miss Sadie was lowered into the ground in her marble tomb. She had a marble tombstone.

Sadie Hawthorne

Teacher, friend, and loved always

For the rest of forever

Claire and her mother and father were last to leave.

The rain never ceased. The sorrow never went away.