The Deluge

⒑ Promises Anew

Chapter 10- Promises Anew

Death is a curious thing.

Some people consider it to be an entity on its own-with a capital ‘D’. Some look to at it as a concept- an inevitable part of life.

A word.

The end of the world.

The ending of Life.

The beginning of something new.

A journey.

For me, standing at the corner of the room, it was a stark reminder of reality. A jolt back to base.

In all the uncertainty of life, Death is the only ever predictable, reliable thing.

I watched the milling people, some crying, some praying, some eating, some consoling, some lost, some in shock, some discussing inheritance… And I felt sick.

They weren’t mourning death. They were merely negotiating their loss.

I felt a bit disgusted by their crass attitudes. Were they even thinking of the body they had just laid to rest? The body that they would never hug or love again? Maybe it was because I had never really experienced the grief that Death boasted of escorting alongside. Maybe I was unjustified to think that of them. But it really made me wonder.

I felt a pressure near my knee and looked down to see a little boy with wide brown eyes staring up at me innocently, tugging on my shirt.

“Do you know her?”

My throat closed up as I tried to choke out an appropriate answer. I looked at the little boy hesitantly, tasting the question on my tongue, did I know her?

Her arrival saved me. “He’s my friend.” She smiled sweetly at the boy.

“Oh.” The little kid wandered away, having lost his interest.

I turned to her, and led her to some chairs when she started swaying on her feet.

“Here,” I handed her a glass of water and she wordlessly gulped it down. “Did you take your pills this morning?”

She grimaced at my question. “Yeah.”

My eyes took in her appearance. Her face was ashen, her eyes crying for help; a deep cavern underlined by purple. Her skin stretched taut over her jutting bones.

Her listless eyes fell on me and she smiled at me. A smile that looked ghastly, but it was comforting to know there was still a bit of life in her, a bit more than the woman who was now six feet under.

My heart clenched when I saw the lifelessness floating between the eclipsing clouds of green between her eyes. Brown flecks danced through them in a dance of mockery. Mocking me.

She leaned into me. “Can you drive me home, please? This is just…getting too much.” She exhaled deeply; it was like watching a balloon deflate.

I excused both of us from the gathering, pushing through the crowd of mourners with half muttered apologies. I made sure she was well covered with my coat before I started the engine.

I stopped by a café and got a coffee and a donut for her. When I got back to the car, her eyes were closed and her cheeks were glistening with wetness.

Silence rode alongside us all the way back to the house.

I followed her into the room, turning on the heating and locking the doors and windows.