Caught Red Handed

19 Anything That Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong

Chapter 19

Alyssa Petrelli

We all get out of our black cars, four-wheel drives and limousines and walk down the dirt path. The funeral is being held at the new McCoy estate, ten miles north of their mansion. I can hear the dead leaves being crushed under my feet. Although, this city doesn’t get a lot of rain during this time of year, we have been receiving an unexpected amount and so the land is quite green. The grass is alive and breathing. And even though leaves are meant to be falling off this season, they still seem surprisingly healthy. Although, you can tell they’re at the edge of autumn. We walk up to where Janet is being buried. Her casket is already in the grave. Though, it hasn’t been buried yet. There is a beautifully carved stone before her grave. With her name and how long she’d lived engraved onto it, as well as ‘Beloved Wife, Mother and Friend’ and ‘She Shall Never Be Forgotten’. But we all know that she eventually will, she’ll be nothing but a name.

After we’ve all gathered, the priest begins his speech. I’ve been to only two funerals before. One was my great uncle’s, I don’t remember knowing him but he did know me. The other was my close friend, April’s father. He was a kind man, always thinking of other people. A funny character too, always made everyone’s day better. Made some great lasagna. But he left us seven years ago. I barely remember him anymore.

The sunlight feels heavy on my eyes. The speech blurs by, I barely take any of it in. We are all dressed in black and all I can think of is the dress she’d bought me to wear for the Miss Coburn Grove pageant. I never spoke about what she said to me when we first met. When I first moved in and she took me on a tour around her garden. She compared her children to her garden. The way she nurtured them both, raise them up. They way she loves them both, how they needed every bit of attention they can get. How they rest at night and bloom in the day, how they are both fragile and the way you need to be there for them, every single day, how she loves to see them both grow, and morph into something surprisingly spectacular. She also explained about how she loved the winter, seeing as she can see both her garden and her children, since the cold keeps them in.

She was a protective mother, maybe that’s where Trent gets his protectiveness from, she told me about what happened with Serena. Although, she didn’t mention her last name and there hadn’t been much media attention on the couple’s break-up, (they probably paid them to keep it silent) that’s why it didn’t occur to me when we met. I think she knew about what happened with Melissa since she mentioned something about her too.

I remember seeing how happy Trish was with her. And after she died, it was like a part of Trish died with her. A part that can never be replaced but maybe, nurtured back.

I catch Trent wipe away a tear from the corner of my eye, it hadn’t even dropped yet but he wiped it away anyway. I move my hand unnoticeably, to feel if I can find his. I can’t but he finds mine, I can feel the back of his hand against the back of mine. I bend my fingers into his, he takes a breath and I knew that it is enough.