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A Lover's Last Respects

Through the morning mist a wailing, moaning, and sobbing procession of mourners trudged behind pallbearers like a trail of black ants winding through a green pasture with tombstone trees. The procession congregated where the earth was dug into a fresh pile of moist black soil next to a hole in the earth cut to the shape of the casket.

The first to reach the open grave waited for the others and took the opportunity to regain their composure, sniffling and shivering under a cold, dismal, cloud-filled sky. As final words were said, and they prepared his casket to slowly descended into the womb of Mother Earth, horrible cries of anguish rose up from men and women all around. In the deepest inner circle, Carmen stood in her black dress, sobbing into a handkerchief, and fought a losing battle to wipe away the tears before they trickled out underneath her veil. Everything about her radiated complete despair and heartbreak.

Everyone who knew him, knew that he loved her passionately, and even though they were never married, she was not only his lover, but truly his widow as well.

“It is a bleak morning,” she had said to herself earlier, “and it will be bleak for the rest of my life without him. He was my sunshine. Now I’m not so sure if I’ll ever see the sun again.”

But just as they began to lower the casket, the clouds, for the only time that day, parted and lit the cemetery and all its visitors in a golden shaft of light that grew brighter and brighter as the casket sank forever. Carmen stopped her tears at the sight of the miraculous sunshine and stared into the grave with a peculiar look on her bleak face. Lower and lower the box slid away, but her face slowly turned into a slight smile so that by the time the casket hit bottom, Carmen’s face was in a grin. The pallbearers let down the ropes and she spoke to herself in an emphatic voice savoring a past pleasure, “He had a great dick!”

A murmur scurried through the crowd as many were shocked and their faces popped into stunned looks by her parting words. But among them, several women perked up, drew a sly smile beneath secretive eyes, and looking around the crowd, met one another eye to eye.

END
© 2006 Christian Cloud Abraham

Posted on August 23, 2006 in
Emotion: Tender, Type: Fiction