Floyd Charles Van Horn III

Chapter 3: Alex

Dolly had passed through the graveyard again; like always she didn't come near Alex. Dolly, who she had known since second grade, hasn't visited her grave since Alex's funeral. It's nearing two years since she died.
Dolly started walking through the graveyard everyday for about five months. Alex watches her; Dolly's hair as red as ever, stroll down the road on the side of Cemetery Hill. Today, Dolly did something she doesn't usually do; she walked over to a grave, the owner of which Alex does not know. Why would Dolly stop there, and not at Alex's grave?
Alex killed herself for a simple reason. She told her parents she was a lesbian, and they kicked her out; Naturally, she slit her wrists and bled to death on a park bench. At her funeral, her mother gave a moving speech about how she is so sad she'll never get to see Alex marry; Ironically, her mother was against gay marriage.
Alex picks up a bouquet of sunflowers her cousin put on her grave last weekend. She throws them down the hill, toward the south.
"Ow!"
A boy shrieks. He is running up the hill; the flowers hit him snack in the face.
"Sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to bother you," he says, coming to a stop a few yards from Alex, the bouquet at his feet.
"Who're you?" she says, then blushes, "I mean, I'm sorry I hit you with those flowers,"
Floyd picks them up and hands them to her.
"It's ok," He sits down on the grass.
"So," she says, eyeing him. "What do you want?"
"Well, first," he says, reaching his hand out, "I'd like to introduce myself. Floyd Charles Van Horn the third. Born 1978, died 1995." She shakes his hand.
"Alex, born 1995, died 2010."
Floyd thinks for a moment.
"You died at 15? Tough break."
"I died three days before my 16th birthday," she says, "Besides, you died at 16."
"Yea," he says, his eyes falling away from her. "So," he says, his tone lightening again, "That girl-"
"Dolly," Alex says, scowling at the ground.
"Dolly? That's her name. That's a lovely name." he swoons.
"She hasn't visited me since I died," Alex says, standing up.
"Well," Floyd says, standing up, "Life flows on without you." He turns to leave.
"That's all you wanted?" Alex says, walking after him.
"Yea," Floyd says, "but you can come down to my grave with me. When my friend Claude comes back you guys can talk; she's a girl." He says, continuing down the hill.
"Well, I love girls," she mumbles under her breath.
"What?"
"Nothing."