Chapter 17 #3
Things moved very quickly the next few days.
Lilly started to sleep in Jack’s room again and Jack kept finding Mr. Zarin sleeping on the couch in the mornings.
Not that he could blame the man, but he also wasn’t sure Mr. Zarin had entered his bedroom since.
Neither Jack nor Mr. Zarin went to work and neither Jack nor Lilly went to school.
Other than going to the funeral home to pick out Mrs. Zarin’s casket, the three of them hadn’t left the house.
A blanket had been nailed to the kitchen wall to cover the window so none of them had to look out into the backyard.
Neighbors brought over food. Teachers from the elementary school and parents of students Mrs. Zarin had taught stopped by with words of condolences, pies, and casseroles. The ironic part was that none of them were all that hungry in the days leading up to the funeral.
Chief Cunningham stopped by a few times.
He brought with him a lady from social services, which had scared the shit out of Jack and Lilly at first. As of the present, no one had been able to track down Fiona Duncan, Jack and Lilly’s mother.
Social services agreed to leave Jack and Lilly under the guardianship of Mr. Zarin but advised that Jack get emancipated to take custody of Lilly.
Since their mom had not been a part of their lives for nearly three years, her parental rights were considered terminated by abandonment.
It was still better if Jack got custody legally. Mr. Zarin and Chief Cunningham were going to look into finding Jack a family lawyer who specialized in child custody and emancipation cases. If Jack got custody of Lilly, then he could issue guardianship to Mr. Zarin.
Neither Jack nor Lilly wanted anything to do with the burial or service of John Duncan.
It seemed no one in town did. The trailer would be cleaned out by someone else and his car could be taken to a junkyard and scrapped for all Jack cared.
Chief Cunningham said the town was paying for a grave for him.
Jack told the Chief that he didn’t want to know where and just asked that it wasn’t in the same cemetery as Mrs. Zarin.
As the days went by, Jack tried to call Jenna. He wasn’t sure if she had returned to Seattle or had stayed in Port Townsend, but she was answering neither of her phone lines. He’d left over two dozen messages apologizing and begging for her to call him back.
He had plans to drive down to Seattle after the funeral to find her.
None of them slept Friday night. Mrs. Zarin’s service was at ten the next morning, followed by the graveside burial, and then the reception.
Despite that none of them had left it, the house had an emptiness to it, a staleness.
At times it felt like there was a sound missing and the house was rebelling against the absence.
Jack knew what was missing. It was the clatter of her in the kitchen, of her laughter and her off-key singing, of her heels on the linoleum, and the soprano of her voice.
If this was how the main rooms in the house felt without her, Jack couldn’t imagine the absence Mr. Zarin felt in their bedroom. No wonder the man had been sleeping on the couch.
Jack helped Lilly with her hair the morning of the service. He was a poor substitute for Mrs. Zarin and Lilly had cried her way through him trying to put her hair up into pigtails with black ribbon.
Mrs. Cunningham had brought a black dress for Lilly and a suit for Jack.
It hadn’t even crossed Jack’s mind that they would need those things until the day before, so he was grateful for her foresight.
The Chief’s wife had also gone into Mr. and Mrs. Zarin’s bedroom to pick out a dress for Mrs. Zarin to be buried in, along with some jewelry for the viewing.
The church sanctuary was packed. Jack and Lilly sat in the front pew next to Mr. Zarin, who looked like he was a breath away from passing out. Chief Cunningham was staying close to him, as if he sensed the same thing.
Sniffles and sobs filled the high ceiling of the church. The long aisle leading up to the podium and altar was packed with people waiting patiently to pay their respects. An organist was playing softly in the background.
Mrs. Zarin was laying in her casket at the top of the predella, surrounded by hundreds of flowers. A casket spray was resting on a table beside her for when they closed the lid at the start of the service.
She could have been sleeping, she looked so peaceful. Her hair was down, flowing beautifully over her shoulders. The gold earrings and necklace matched her wedding band. The dress Mrs. Cunningham had helped pick out was a lovely lavender with a white shawl.
In her hand was a quarter, though no one but a fair few knew why.
Just before ten, the pastor came up to inform the family they were about to close the casket and now was the time to say their final goodbye.
Jack helped Lilly to her feet while Chief Cunningham aided Mr. Zarin.
The man swayed slightly before getting his feet under him.
He was in his military full dress uniform, complete with a chest full of medals.
Jack knew he would have given up every single one of them for just one more day with the woman he loved.
Lilly looked over the edge of the casket.
She leaned over but wasn’t tall enough to reach Mrs. Zarin.
Jack picked her up so she could place a kiss on her cheek.
Carefully, he lowered her back down to the maroon carpeted floor.
She walked down the narrow stairs to where Mrs. Cunningham was waiting to bring her back to the pew.
Jack stood a step back, allowing Mr. Zarin to come forward. Whatever color had been on the man’s face drained as his eyes fell on his wife’s ashen features. He bowed his head over the casket, gripping the edge with white-knuckled fingers.
After several long minutes that no one dared to interrupt, Mr. Zarin raised his head, leaned down and kissed his wife’s forehead. “I promise,” Jack swore he heard Mr. Zarin whisper.
Mr. Zarin turned and stumbled. Chief Cunningham caught one arm and Jack gripped the other. Together, they helped Mr. Zarin steady himself. At his nod, both of them let go of his arms as the man walked down the steps and away from the love of his life of his own volition.
Jack turned to face the casket. He hadn’t meant to be last, only meaning to remain at the altar to assist Mr. Zarin.
But there he was. Standing beside the casket seconds before it was closed forever more.
The finality of the moment turned his stomach.
How was he supposed to say goodbye to a woman who’d meant so much to him in such a short amount of time?
Who’d rescued him out of the goodness of her soul?
What words could he possibly say that could quantify his gratitude and appreciation for her selflessness?
How did he even begin to express how sorry he was, how he would take her place if he could?
There were over a million words in the English language and he couldn’t think of a single one to say.
A hand touched the small of his back through his suit jacket and it was like the world stilled. The spinning vortex that had been consuming him for the past few days calmed and the storm inside his head ceased.
He could breathe, taking what felt like the first full breath since discovering Mrs. Zarin inside that shed.
Jack reached forward and touched Mrs. Zarin’s wrist. “Thank you, Mom.”
Then he allowed Jenna to lead him down the narrow stairs to the front pew. Behind them echoed the creak of the casket closing.