De Moon

chapter one

Claire was numb. She could barely make out the words of the Priest who was presiding over the funeral rites. The day was bright and the air around the cemetery was clean.The stillness of the cemetery was broken only by the monotone rendition of the old Priest and the occasional chirping of birds. On a good day Claire would have described the weather as beautiful. But today nothing was good or even beautiful. Claire stared straight ahead at the two dark holes into which her parents' coffins would disappear into. She didn't realize she had tears running down her face until Ms Ada had offered her a handkerchief. Claire took it but made no move to wipe her tears.

There were a few people she knew among the crowd of mourners that had each come to pay their respects, all people her parents had known at some point in their very short lives. There was the family attorney, Ms Ada, who had been in charge of planning and executing every detail of the funeral rites - apparently, her parents had been specific about the whole affair in their will. Claire's best friend, Jodi and her Mom, some kids from school and some well meaning neighbors were also there. The others were acquaintances of her parents, mostly people from Jeremy's company and Anna's co-workers from the preschool where she'd taught. All these people were all looking at her with pitiful gazes. Everybody was eager to help, but none could really do what she wanted desperately in the moment.

In the days succeeding her parents demise, Claire had been unable to come to terms with the reality that her parents were gone, she'd held out hope that maybe they would wake up and put an end to the nasty nightmare in which she found herself trapped; but on the morning of the funeral, when she'd gone in for the private viewing held at the funeral parlor, she had broken. Her Mom had been laid in her casket, dressed in immaculate white; looking as beautiful as always and Jeremy was...just Jeremy, but neither of them made any move to speak nor comfort her. They looked paused in space and time, not perturbed anymore about whatever went on in her own part of the universe, they were gone. The first shot of pain had been staggering and amplified by the realization that she was seeing her parents for the very last time forever. That was when the floodgates had been thrown open. She'd cried so hard her head ached and her eyes stung, but tears did not resurrect the dead.

After the internment, there was a repast at their family house. A few people had come over with foods and Jodi had helped Ms Ada lay out the dishes, and a caterer had been hired to do the other cooking. So there wasn't much Claire could do around the house but endure the pity she saw in everyone's eyes. The adults were even more extremely conscious about the things said within her hearing, One had even cut off mid sentence on a recount of a memory of Jeremy when she saw Claire approach. It had been a long day and she just wanted it all to end.

At around midnight the last of the guests had left. Jodi and her Mom were staying over to help her clean, they said but Claire knew it was actually to keep her company. She'd been staying over at their house from the time after the crash and they had all showered her with love and attention, showing her with explicit actions that they loved her and considered her family.

The three worked in the kitchen until around two, washing all the dishes, wiping and sorting them out. The main cleaning was going to be done later in the morning by the cleaners Ms Ada had employed for that. When the girls retired, Claire was very tired and it didn't take long before she slept off.