Lucy died three weeks later. But not without living her last days with purpose. Having left support group, Jack heard of her passing, which was so very unexpected. He attended her funeral and eulogised her as best he could, because aside from exchanging small nods and small smiles, Lucy and Jack had never had a proper conversation. And it was then that Jack realised he had allowed himself to fall in love with a girl he never knew.
So he spoke of her, and only a few family members were present. And they cried or laughed or sighed at the memories of her-even though most were merely fantasies, and none of them had ever occured. And then it was all at once time to lower her body into her grave.
She had not requested it-and no one else seemed pleased by this-but her sister had insisted on burying Lucy beside her mother.
Mamma told me she wanted Lucy to come home to her. Everyone stared sympathetically at the teenage girl. She was mad. They all assumed it ran in the family and later came to the conclusion that she would meet the same demise.
They protested: Her body will rot! Just like your mother's, they thought.
They were silent when she solemnly replied, Lucy would have wanted to rot. Because they knew it was true. But even though Lucy lived a sad life, Jack liked to believe she had died smiling, or laughing, or peacefully dreaming. Of what? Perhaps little birdy. And now that she had died, he knew she was walking the great courts of heaven, smiling down on everyone, either because she was happy to be there, or perhaps because she was glad to have left the hell they called earth.
And so for the second time in her life, Jemma walked up to the river bank to bury another loved family member.
And as her father silently wiped away a tear, and Jemma quietly wept, Jack noticed a little bird soar above them, circling the tiny group of people dressed in black. And then it slowly descended, only to perch softly onto the dirt above Lucy. So lost, so out of place. And in that moment he felt so equally lost at this funeral.
Relatives did not complain as they lowered dear Lucy's limp body-carefully wrapped in plastic because of their lack of money to purchase a coffin-into the muddy earth.
Right beside her mother (where a few plants had already begun to sprout from the earth). Jack imagined their roots piercing through her body, but then of course, nothing of her body was left. She had become the earth, and the earth had become her. Her home, her safe haven.
And now, Lucy had come home as well.
