The woman seemed younger than Carol, but not by too much. She was holding a teddy bear with a red ribbon around its neck, which Carol thought a bit odd. Something about the curve of the woman’s jawbone and the way her eyes were set actually reminded Carol of Faith. Carol smiled.
“Yes, I’m a longtime member, in fact. I adored her.”
The woman pointed at her own name tag. “I’m Heather, I adored her too. Have you ever met Faith in person?” Carol noticed that the woman had poor posture and hunched shoulders. Her voice was annoying, but Carol tried to be polite.
“No, I just saw her on TV every night. My husband, Jim, and I watch Channel 9. Have you ever met her?”
“Two times at festivals. She was amazing. Oh—you might be wondering about this bear. This is Mr. Bojangles. He’s my emotional-support bear. I take him places when I need something to hold on to. He helps me through hard times. I need him for grief.”
Before Carol could respond, another woman in yellow nearby started yelling, her hands cupped around her mouth to create a makeshift megaphone.
“FAIR-WEATHER FRIENDS FAN CLUB MEMBERS, WE ARE GOING TO GATHER UNDER THE LARGE OAK TREE OVER HERE TO HAVE OUR OWN PRIVATE MOMENT. PLEASE JOIN US.”
Carol and Heather looked at each other and shrugged in a “why not?” way. Everyone in yellow and a few not in the color started walking over. It was almost entirely women, and the few men seemed to be paired with a female partner, all except one. He stood nervously, shifting from one foot to the next. His name tag readSTEVE. The woman in charge had a name tag that readCHLOEand she had drawn little lightning bolts, clouds, and a sun next to her name. Carol realized that this was likely the organizer she had seen on the Facebook page.
“Hi, everyone, and thank you for being here on this absolutely devastating but moving day. I’m Chloe. I started the Facebook page and I’m the admin. Thank you all for wearing yellow and your special earrings today. I have twelve pairs but these are my favorite…”
She touched her earrings, happy snowmen that Faith wore for school snow days. They looked odd on such a sunny and warm afternoon.
“I thought we’d take a moment to have our own vigil since clearly no one is a bigger fan of Faith than any of us.” Chloe stopped to wipe her eyes and sniff. “She changed my life. I know more about science now than I ever did, and I got makeup and fashion tips from her too. I was absolutely gutted yesterday, gutted. It was one of, if not the, worst days of my entire life. I’m sure many of you would agree. Whoever did this…”
Her voice turned to anger, but she shook her head and continued.
“As Tom said, we will get justice. For now, all we can do now is honor her memory. So, who would like to share a thought about Faith?”
They all glanced at each other. Who was going to speak first in front of strangers?
“I guess me,” said a man’s voice somewhat shakily, and Carol saw it was “Steve.” He stepped forward, but his eyes kept darting from the grass to the crowd. He was wringing his hands. Despite his apparent unease, Carol gave him credit for being brave enough to speak before anyone else.
“Go on,” Chloe encouraged. “Please tell us your Faith memories.”
“Well, some I can’t share,” Steve said with a nervous laugh. “Because… when you say biggest fan, there was no one, not one single person on this earth, a bigger fan than me. You see, Faith was my girlfriend and we were in love. I’m heartbroken. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it, ever.”
There was a gasp in the crowd and some murmuring. Carol had a feeling a lot of people were thinking what she was thinking:This guywas Faith’s boyfriend? He just didn’t look the part. He was out of shape, his hair was kind of greasy, he had badteeth, and he was wearing cheap-looking and outdated clothing: a yellow T-shirt with the branding of a local pizza place, jean shorts that were too long, and white tennis shoes with white socks that came three-quarters of the way up his calves.
Perhaps Steve sensed disbelief in the crowd. He seemed to take a defensive tone.
“Wewerein love, madly, deeply in love. We were soulmates, we were going to get married. Here is the last picture we took together.”
He opened a string bag that was over his shoulder, took out an eight-by-ten piece of paper that looked like it came off a home color printer, and started passing it around. Carol leaned in for a look, as did many others. There was Steve and there, indeed, was Faith. She had on a green bikini, while he was wearing Hawaiian swim trunks. They were standing on a beach somewhere, arms around each other, smiling.
Carol noticed that the Steve in the picture seemed to have a better body than the Steve in real life. The picture Steve’s stomach was flatter and his arms were more muscular. It was not like he was a bodybuilder in the photo by any means, but he was definitely more fit. His teeth looked better too, but the rest of the face was definitely him, and Faith was absolutely Faith, down to her perfect figure and ironing-board-flat stomach.
“We went to Florida on vacation just a few weeks ago,” Steve said. “Didn’t you hear her talk about it in one of her videos? About finding shells on the beach? That was our trip.”
Carol remembered the video he was talking about, but in her memory Faith had said something about a sister, not a fiancé or boyfriend. Heather, the woman who had held Carol’s hand, leaned over and whispered:
“I think he photoshopped that image or had AI make it, that’s not him. Look at the height.”
Indeed, the man in the photo looked taller than Steve now. Even the way he was standing was different. The man in the photo had better posture and held his feet differently, more straight to the camera. Steve’s shoulders were rounded and he stood with his toes and knees splayed out nearly at right angles.
Others seemed to be reaching the same conclusion, and Carol could feel the energy shift to an “OK, we’re dealing with a slightly crazy person here, so let’s appease him” mode.
“That looks like an amazing trip, Steve,” Chloe said. “We’re all so sorry for your loss. Now, who’s next?”
“Wait! There’s something else. Faith was pregnant with my child!” Steve yelled, and another gasp ripped through the crowd.
“I call BS,” whispered Heather in Carol’s ear.
