I excuse myself and go kneel at Auntie Sue’s casket alone.
Auntie Sue looks serene, much more at peace than the last hundred times I’ve seen her. She doesn’t look like she’s fighting so hard anymore to just…breathe.
Good-bye Auntie Sue. God bless you.
I look at the beautiful photograph Matilda placed on top of the casket. It’s a picture of Auntie Sue when she was nineteen years old. The photo is a bit blurry and torn around the edges, but it’s been perfectly framed, and Auntie Sue’s face shines through the glass. Her eyes look so full of promise, so filled with hope and optimism.
I bow my head and thank her for holding up our family for all of these years.
“It can’t have been easy,” I say under my breath. “This is your time now.”
* * *
Vivian comes to the wake to “pay her respects to the matriarch of your family.” She runs into Dad’s second cousin, Ed, whom she worked with years ago, and they end up sitting with me on the couch.
Jenson stops by, but a second later, Dad comes over and asks if we’re doing okay.
“Fine, Dad,” I say to him. “How are you?”
He kneels down next to Jenson. “These things are always difficult, aren’t they?” he says as he pulls at his tie. “I can’t imagine working in a funeral home.”
“I’m with you on that,” Jenson says.
A noise at the door gets our attention, and we all turn our heads to witness Daphne and Todd making their grand entrance. I say grand because they practically skip into the funeral parlor. They look like they barely had time to clean up after their latest roll in the hay, and I’m not exaggerating.
Dad gets called away by Cybil, and Jenson stands up to say hi to Daphne, who gives him a big hug before going to wait in line to see Auntie Sue.
“Not to be crude, but Daphne literally looks like she has semen in her hair,” Jenson whispers as he squats down next to me.
I refuse to look in Daphne’s direction. “Do not say that sentence aloud again,” I say to him. “I forbid you.”
Not more than a minute later, Sheldon kneels down next to Jenson and says the same thing.
“God, you boys have such dirty minds,” I say just as Cara joins us.
“Did he just run right over here and tell you?” Cara says. “Don’t even answer that. I don’t need to ask.”
“Like Cara, I would rather not talk about it, or think about it, for that matter,” I say.
“No offense, Olivia,” Sheldon says. “But there’s not much else going on in the funeral parlor. Daphne’s given everyone the story of the evening.”
In fact, Sheldon and Jenson aren’t the only ones noticing Daphne and Todd. Half the guests are staring at them or whispering when they pass by.
I excuse myself and hurry over to my sister.
“Hey!” Daphne says.
“How are things with Todd?” I ask her.
“Okay,” she says. “We talked.”
“That’s good.”
“We had sex,” she continues.
“You don’t say.”
“We spent the whole night in the same bed,” she adds.
