MARIBLE'S PROMISE

CHAPTER THREE: A DOUBLE LOSS

The next few day unraveled like thread slipping through trembling fingers, they were all preparing for the funeral, Maribel moved through it all like a ghost, her body functioning on autopilot while her mind flickered with fragmented memories and worries that never rested.

She did everything.

Every call, every arrangement, every form.

Her father who had once been the one who knew how to navigate the world, the one who handled logistics while she and her mother decorated cupcakes or folded laundry together while humming old songs. But now, he barely spoke. He spent most of his time sitting in the recliner in the living room, staring at nothing, his hands limp in his lap, mouth slightly open as if still trying to remember how to form words

His once-warm presence, his voice that had told bedtime stories in silly voices, his arms that lifted her in swirling dances across the kitchen floor was fading in just three days.

Maribel would pass him on the way to the kitchen, her footsteps soft, her eyes flicking toward him, always checking.

Still breathing.

Still here.

But only barely.

When she wasn’t hovering over him, she was making phone calls. Her voice, raw from overuse, cracked on every third word. She wrote down funeral arrangements on the back of old grocery receipts, scribbling notes with shaking hands, Her mother's name, over and over, in cold ink.

The silence in the house pressed into her ribs like invisible hands, suffocating and inescapable. The walls didn’t echo; they absorbed every sound like they, too, were mourning.

Sometimes the silence would be broken by a cough from her father, or the wheeze of his breath, or the creak of the floorboards beneath her feet as she tiptoed from one duty to the next. The refrigerator buzzed, the clock ticked, but nothing felt alive.

And then the day came, it was today, the day her mother would be laid to rest.

Maribel dressed herself in slow, robotic motions. She slipped into her black dress like a soldier pulling on armor, except this one wasn’t for protection, it was for mourning. It clung to her like grief itself. Her hands fumbled over the zipper. Her hair, still slightly damp from the rushed shower, clung to her forehead in messy strands. She didn’t have the energy to care, she just removed the hair band and repacked it into a neat ponytail, she sat at her mother’s dressing room for a moment, staring into the mirror. Her reflection looked back hollow-eyed and pale, lips pressed into a line. She reached for her mother’s favorite necklace, in the jewelry box, she looked at it and couldn’t stop the drop of tears that escaped from her eye because this necklace was her mother’s favorite, and it help reflections and memories of her mom.

Her father had already dressed himself, but barely. His tie was crooked, his jacket hung off his thinning frame. Maribel had to help him down the stairs, his feet shuffled slowly, knees trembling with each step. He didn’t speak. Just nodded when she asked if he needed water. He blinked a little slower than normal, as though each one took extra effort to complete.

The funeral home smelled of lilies and faint candle smoke. A soft organ played as people filed into the pews, murmuring to one another in hushed tones. Maribel barely registered their faces some were people she hadn't seen in years, others were neighbors, church friends, distant co-workers. And, to her surprise, her classmates.

Ms. Grennan’s her English professor was present too, Her arms were folded tightly over her chest, expression unreadable. A few others from school stood behind her, eyes darting anywhere but at Maribel. She didn’t speak to them. She didn’t care why they came. Guilt. Curiosity. It didn’t matter.

Only Kira approached.

“You look beautiful,” Kira whispered, adjusting a loose strand of hair behind Maribel’s ear. “Your mom would be proud.”

Maribel didn’t respond. Her throat was too tight.

The ceremony passed in a fog. Words were spoken, scripture, eulogies, kind memories but they rolled over Maribel like wind through trees. She watched her mother’s casket like it was a stranger’s, detached and surreal. Her hand remained on her father’s arm, trying to ground him. He didn’t cry. His eyes stayed open, dry, but so deeply hollow that Maribel thought maybe he had already left in some invisible way.

And then it happened, another tragedy, on that Maribel might not recover in a hurry.

As the final hymn began and the soft sound of hums filled the chapel, her father swayed, and staggered

At first, Maribel thought he was simply tired or dizzy, so she reached to steady him. But his suddenly his knees buckled.

“Dad?”

She gripped his arm but His body slumped forward.

“Dad?!......... she screamed out her lungs

He collapsed to the floor, with a sickening thud.

The music stopped. A gasp rippled through the room. Voices shouted and some concerned people rushed forward to help

“Call 911!”

“Someone help me, please……helpp!”

Maribel dropped to her knees, grabbing his shoulders, shaking him gently.

“No. No no no no no,” she whispered, each word a panicked breath. “Dad, wake up. Please. Don’t do this.”

His skin was pale, his lips tinged with blue, he managed to lift his eyelid slowly, and plastered a sad smile on his pale lips “I am so sorry honey, for….give……me, I ….love….you” the words struggled to come out, he managed to place his hands on her cheeks.

“I love you too dad but please, please, don’t leave me. Not now. Not again. Not today,” she choked out, pressing her forehead to his chest.

But his chest no longer rose.

“Nooooo……… Daddy Pleaseeee, someone please save my daddy” At this point she didn’t care about our classmates, she didn’t care about anything she only felt cheated on. “Life’s not fair…………..why take all my parents at once, Why, why” She stood up screaming as she asked no one in particular.

Everything after that blurred. Someone was pulling her away. She was screaming at least, she thought she was. Her own voice was distant, muffled like she was underwater. The walls tilted, she thought she was going to fall but at that moment She felt Kira’s arms wrapping around her.

“I can’t—he’s gone—I can’t—” she sobbed, her whole body shaking.

Her classmates stood frozen nearby, eyes wide, mouths agape. Ms. Grennan looked pale, she didn’t know how to comfort Maribel so she stood still watching in shock, and looking at Maribel with pity.

Someone called an ambulance, but Maribel already knew. She had known the moment her father's hand slipped from hers that the funeral would become another tragedy within a tragedy.

Paramedics arrived. Lights flashed. Questions were asked. Maribel didn’t answer any of them. She couldn’t.

Kira guided her to the car, one hand on her shoulder, the other around her waist as if afraid she’d collapse too.

“Come on pookie, let’s get you to the hospital” Kira said to her but she was against that idea. “don’t take me there, I don’t want to, I can’t afford it please” she whispered sadly.

Kira’s mom noticed her protesting, she rushed over to them and held Maribel’s hands, “come here my darling, let get you there, I am here for you so don’t be scared, you are not paying for anything, Kira’s dad and I would take responsibility for the hospital bills, okay?” Maribel nodded at her words like a two year.

On their way to the hospital Maribel kept whispering, over and over, like a mantra that could rewrite reality. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be real, it is only a bad dream, my dad is alive, he is alive.” Kira and her parent could only look at her with pity.

When they reached the hospital, the sharp chemical smell hit her like a wall. Harsh white lights stung her eyes. The beeping of machines, the sterile whir of air vents, it all pressed into her senses, cold and cruel.

A nurse tried to talk to her, but Maribel just stared at her without uttering any words other than the ones she said repeatedly in the car. The nurse guided her to a small room off the hallway, it was ward, the nurse tried helping her get on the bed but she protested and suddenly said “I don’t have the money for this,” she said suddenly, her voice hoarse and bitter. “You shouldn’t have brought me here. I can’t pay for this. I can’t pay for anything.”

It was the first word she has said since the left the funeral home. Kira crouched in front of her, gripping her hands.

“You’re not alone,” she said firmly. “I don’t care about the cost. My parents said that they would handle the bills, okay? There’s no way I am letting you go through all of this alone, you are not going through this by yourself.”

Maribel wanted to believe her. She really did.

But as she stared at the tiled floor and felt the gaping hole that had opened inside her chest, she wasn’t sure if anything or anyone could help her now, no even Kira. At first she thought since it’s just her mom who left, with time she would recover and she would be her father’s pillar of strength, she and her dad would live a happily life together but right now, all her hopes were shattered, no one was left.

It was just she against the world.

Her Mother was gone and her father was gone.