Debbie told Liz how her horoscope suggested she would be coming home this weekend, but she did not believe it, at the time. She wondered if Liz believed her.
Liz is coming up. I'm not going anywhere! she had said.
"I'm going to the cafe car. Want anything?"
Liz said no. She had her eyes closed sleepily, but it looked like she had been crying.
They got off the Boston bound train. The fresh air of the small New England port greeted them. She walked sadly alongside Liz, along the boat filled harbor, lugging her suitcase. They walked to Liz' car but Debbie's parents were right there!
"Ooh," she groaned as she climbed into her parents' car.
"When did you find out?" her father had asked her on the phone.
"About three o'clock."
"Where were you?"
"I tried to call an old friend. I called the office to get his number," Debbie explained on the phone while the car waited outside.
"Who told you? When did you call the office?"
"Daddy! The car is waiting outside to take me to Penn Station!"
"Where are you?"
"In Manhattan. Packing! I'll see you at ten o'clock."
"So I called Stash and he said, I'm coming down now!" she continued. Her parents looked at each other but did not say anything.
"I don't want to go," she said to her friend Amanda on the phone.
"But you have to," Amanda said. How like Amanda to say that. Amanda had lost her father four years ago, so she knew.
"Mom, I don't want to go."
"Neither do I. All those people I haven't seen in so long," her mother said. "Uncle William is crying. Darlene is hysterical."
And then came the phone calls. Her sisters, Nicole and Sherri and Kimberly, the youngest, their friends and her friends, who offered to attend the funeral.
"I would never expect this from a friend," Debbie said to Liz.
"Well, I remember how I felt when it was my father. Familiar faces helped."
Would I do the same for a friend? Debbie did not know the answer.
Nicole's boyfriend sat at the table.
"Did you meet Sean?" she asked.
"I think so," Debbie said.
"No," Sean said.
"Didn't we? Well, we're meeting now. Nice to meet you. Sorry it's under such unfortunate circumstances." She kept her voice under control. She paged through the newspaper. Her mother tried to sew a button on her father's shirt. When the needle did not catch the thread, she started to cry.
"Stupid thing," she said.
Debbie rode in the back seat of her sister's car. Sherri and Nicole sat in front. Kimberly, the youngest, had gone with their parents.
"They need to talk," Nicole said.
"Let's play Anita Baker," Sherri said.
"No. It's depressing. How about Jody Watley? Does anyone mind?"
The trees along the highway were green in the haze. Debbie's hair caught the breeze from both open windows.
"She was so happy when we saw her. She had just gotten a perm and it looked good. She was about to cry," Sherri said. "I went to see her all the time. Now, there's a gap."
They got out of the car. Green trees and misty meadows surrounded them. A rolling hill dropped gently down to a calm lake. An empty swingset stood on the bank. A raft floated quietly in the dark water. Debbie's stomach ached at this sight of pastoral beauty. The green earth, to which her grandmother's body would soon return.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness
for His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death,
I will fear no evil:
for thou art with me,
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou annointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy
Shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
(Psalm 23)
The Psalm instantly touched her. Can death be beautiful? she thought. Nobody would believe her, so she did not say it.
(The more things change; the more they remain the same!!!...* * * :)
