Chapter Eight
“Memorial - Serving as a remembrance of a person or an event; commemorative.”
Piper
I got off the bus earlier than I should have and then had to walk home in the cold.
But the cold was preferable to being on the bus.
Riding on it made me feel like a traitor, like I was somehow dishonoring the man who died by sitting in the very thing that crushed him.
I could’ve taken a cab, but the fare all the way across town would’ve cost way too much.
I could barely afford to live now, and if it weren’t for Frankie’s love of sharing donuts and the fact I got free meals at the diner, I’d probably starve.
Even still, I had it better than some people, as the little card in my pocket so boldly reminded.
I couldn’t get over the fact no one claimed him. No one cared he died. Everyone should have someone. I guess his someone would be me.
The wind began to blow and with it came another strange feeling—like the one that came over me at the hospital.
I stopped and looked around, but nothing was there.
I began walking again, changing my footsteps and heading toward a small flower shop on the corner.
Inside, I bought a bunch of daisies. They were cheerful—a spot of sun in the gray winter—and the only thing in the place I could afford.
The lady wrapped them in sunny yellow paper and tied them up with a purple ribbon. As I carried them home, I guarded them against the wind and ignored the prickling at the base of my neck.
Once inside my tiny apartment, I threw the locks and let out a sigh of relief.
I pulled out the card with the picture of the beach and tucked it into the frame of the mirror hanging near the front door.
Then I placed the daisies in a vase and sat it on the chest of drawers beneath the mirror.
It was small and simple, but it was my way of honoring the man who died.
My way of acknowledging the heroic thing he did for me.
I don’t know if what I did mattered, but it made me feel better so I suppose it was worth it.
I turned when a dark shadow passed by the tiny window, momentarily darkening the room. When I looked through the glass, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky to disrupt the sun’s rays.
So where did the darkness come from?