We left six days later, Coral would have wanted us to. I didn't cry again , but I feel so empty. Everyone came to her funeral. We are taking her ashes to Australia with us, but are burying most of her possessions here. I put the large box into a pre-dug hole in the ground. All around are crude headstones, we had to bury more than half the remaining people, including Emily and Coral, and we tried to identify each body to give them a proper headstone but some are impossible to tell, or they have no family or friends left to tell. Either way, every one of the body's has a stone, no mass graves, no more bodies lying around. We spent all night gathering the bodys all over the island. The stones alone make me feel like crying. Most of them are plain stones, some with a carving and most have the name of those beneath the stone. None are as proper as they should be.
Coral sacrificed herself for everyone. We made a white cross from marble and it has her name on it. Everyone who truly knew her came up and shoveled a shovel full of dirt onto her grave. I clutch the tiny glass bottle containing some of her ashes hanging from a thin silver chain, hanging beside the cross she wore when she died. Emma, Lilly and Faith all have a bottle exactly like it. Lillys daughter was named after her.
Baby Coral even has the same hair. She cries until the funeral begins, and she stops, as if she understands not to be loud. I think I already like this little girl.
Emma concludes her speech, and I am the last one left to say something although I didn't really hear anything, it all went in one ear and out the other. I didn't hear any of the speeches. I step forward to deliver my speech.
"My name is Akari, and Coral was my best friend, and I was hers. But we were more than that. Coral was my family. Coral affected all of us. If she were here, she would have said that any decent person would have done the same, but that's not true. She gave her life, knowing , knowing that she, that she might die," I pause trying not to cry. Now I feel like crying, because I said that word out loud. If I cry nobody would judge me, but I need to pull it together. If I cry I won't stop. Emma is bawling in the crowd and even Faith looks misty eyed. I take a deep breath and continue.
"But she went through with it anyways. Coral tried what few would dare, and she succeeded. She wouldn't want us to grieve, but to thrive. If only she could see what treasures we will behold. She is gone, but in a way, she isn't. She is in our hearts. Many, if not all of us wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her. We shouldn't focus on the past, but on the future. Coral once told me that if you give someone an inch, they will receive infinity. This," I motion around me, to the island, with so many mixed feelings. Sadness, happiness, anger and hatred course through me.
"This is our inch. It has limits and boundaries. It is small and the possibilities are few, but if we take this inch, and we use it right, with work we can make it our infinity, and that is just what she would want. So let's take this inch" I stick the shovel into the sandy ground,
"And let's go make it our infinity." and I sprinkle the sandy dirt onto the grave,and with that I turn and walk up the ramp out to the boat.
Tears roll down my cheek as I finally let myself cry, but Coral really isn't gone, it's as if covering her in sand and dirt freed her spirit. I keep going, and I don't look back. I will never look back again.
YOU ARE READING
An Inch Of Infinity (Short Version)
AcciónIn the near future the entire world is conquered by a group of people known as Royalties, or the Royals for short. They declared war on the planet. If you were not with them, you were against them. by the end of the 21st century the world was utter...
