Dying to leave

Sandra Diaz thought this was a very nice service, considering the circumstances.

A church with stained glass windows, pews decorated with plastic black roses, a young man with a blue afro—at least she thinks it’s blue, it could be purple from the awkward view she had—playing absolutely wonderful organ music. Everyone was dressed nice, with their shoelaces tied properly and about forty nine different shades of black fabric. 

Of course, there were downsides; the pastor was a scoundrel, her ex husband was here along with his dourly dressed beagle, and the entire room smelled of roadkill and cheap perfume.

Though, to be fair, the smell might be just her.

“Thank the lord the old biddy’s dead,”Dee, Sandra’s best friend, whispered to Don Diaz, who was currently not wearing the wedding ring Sandra had given him ten years ago. “That little house should be worth an arm and a leg now that the highway’s going through it.”

Don nodded, looking both miserable and noble as he said, “I’ve tried to get her to sell it for years. Wouldn’t budge for nothin’.”

Dee opened her mouth to say more, but Sandra had decided to stop listening. Her only grandchild was sobbing into her daddy’s brand new suit and she wanted nothing more in the world than to scoop her up and hold her. Just one last time. 

“Ma’am, you realize it is time for you to leave, don’t you?”A tall, dark-haired young man said, business-like and professional. 

“Give me a few more minutes,”Sandra sighed. 

“I have a schedule. If no one sticks to the schedule, nothing gets done,”he stood over her expectantly, offering a deeply tattooed arm.

“Young man, I will go when I’m ready and only then,”she sniffed, “And are those Maori tattoos you have? I went to New Zealand once, to document the Chatham Island Tãiko. A remarkable bird, the Tãiko, rarest seabird-”

“Ma’am, you are stalling,”the Maori gentleman said politely. “It is time.”

Sandra closed her mouth with a click. She looked out at the crowd one last time, seeing her Don’s hand on Dee’s knee, her children’s eyes welling with tears. “I love my home, young man. I love it still, and they are going to destroy it.”

She thought she saw sympathy in the man’s eyes. He placed a hand on her shoulder—she expected it to be chilled, but it was really quite warm. Good for her cold skin.

“All things are destroyed with time. Nature, stone, an old woman’s house filled with the wonders of the world,”he paused, looking her in the eye, “You.”

Sandra laughed, gesturing grandly at her wrinkled skin, busted veins, all of the lost youth that will never return. “You are full of truth, aren’t you?”Not waiting for an answer, she continued, “Well, then, since you are so honest, tell me where I am going.”

He shrugged. “That is up to you, ma’am. I am simply the escort.”

Sandra rolled his words over in her mind. She didn’t know where she was going either, so it will be a surprise. That was well and good—she liked surprises.

With a strength that surprised both of them, she hauled herself out of her deathbed of wood and reached, straining to cup her granddaughter’s cheek. For a moment, she thought she could feel the child’s still-warm skin, soft and round with unused years.

“Righty-o then, young man, I do believe I am ready.”She stood with the help of the man, who she patted fondly on the shoulder, “Thank you dear. Even in the grave my old bones pop.”

“You aren’t in the grave, ma’am,”he said, wrapping his arm securely around hers, “At least, not yet.”

A joke. Never had she thought she would hear a joke while standing over her own corpse. 

“Don’t be rude, dear, you are a businessman—a reputation is a delicate thing,”Sandra chided, fixing her good blue skirt (after all, you never know who you might run into and it is important to look your best during these sorts of happenings). 

“Ready?”He checked his watch, though somehow, he looked less impatient than he had a few moments ago.

Sandra patted away one last strand of hair. “Oh, yes. Quite.”

This one is short…and I haven’t published anything new in months. I have zero excuses, but enjoy anyway.