~ 29 ~
FuneralHis body is actually in there, Cassie thinks. Inside the coffin at the front of the church. The klutzy, living, breathing boy who was her brother is inside that box. Not breathing. Not breathing because she didn’t save him. Tears prick her eyes like needles. She presses her fingertips into her sinuses and breathes deeply. She doesn’t want to cry while people are still coming up to them in their front row pew. They come and kiss her mother’s cheek, shake her father’s and Poppy’s hands. Some of them lay a hand on her shoulder and tut to her in sympathy, you poor girl. Most of them pay no attention to her at all.
The organ music drones above the whispers as people enter behind them. The wooden arches of the church skim gracefully under the ceiling. Light bounces cheerfully off
