FicWad

The rain was coming down in a deluge over Fairmount cemetery four days after Darcey’s passing. The congregation at the funeral was small, and barely anyone spoke. Aleisha Talent stood a metre away from her sister’s coffin, sneaking glances at it every few minutes. She could not believe that her twin was so close, and yet so far. Shock and denial still prevailed. She simply could not believe she was here, on this day, for this reason. Aleisha shook her head as she thought of the weather. She knew Darcey had wanted an outdoor funeral and it was raining. Even on funeral day things could not go right.

Aleisha watched as two men approached her across the grass, weaving between the graves. Both of the men were tall, one with hair that stuck out from a mile away; white as snow. The other’s hair stuck out for a different reason other than its color. Although brown and inoffensive, there was just so much of it; a mane that hung down past his shoulders and curled outwardly. Both were wearing modest suits, trying to blend into the crowd, but they did anything but. When they finally reached Aleisha, Gerard extended his hand to her. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he said quietly. Aleisha looked at his hand for a moment then back to his face, before throwing herself forward into a hug. ‘You know what?’ She sniffed. ‘Not one person has hugged me today. Just said sorry, and kept walking. I know I’m not usually a hugger but... I mean, it’s my sister’s funeral, for fuck’s sake.’ Gerard was stunned but held onto Aleisha. They had never been very close, but it was evident she needed a friend right now. She let go of him and stepped back. ‘Thanks for coming,’ she said to them both. ‘Jacob, Jordan and Chris are here,’ she gestured to her fellow band members standing near a grave to her right. ‘If you want to hang with them.’
Gerard shook his head. ‘You look like you need some company. We’ll stay with you.’

The three of them stood in silence; none of them being close, they did not know what to say to each other. ‘Bob would have been here,’ Gerard said. ‘But he was visiting his family in Chicago before we went on tour so he wasn’t due to come back until the day before we left. He wanted us to tell you how sorry he is.’
‘That’s nice of him,’ Aleisha said blankly. It was evident she was torn apart from the inside out. She had lost her other half and it had crushed her. She needed more comfort than Gerard or Ray could give her. Gerard looked around the collection of family and friends. ‘Where’s Abbey?’ He asked.
‘Not here yet,’ Aleisha replied, shaking her head. As if on cue, Frank’s car appeared in the parking lot. As the car came to a stop in a parking space, Gerard, Ray and Aleisha watched as Mikey got out of the car, and Frank got out on the other side.

Frank opened the back door to the side of the car visible to the three observers and out fell Abbey. She looked terrible. Although she was well dressed for the occasion, she looked tired and worse still, drunk. She could not even stand up. Gerard watched in horror as Frank and Mikey struggled to help her up. They helped her walk up to Aleisha, Frank making an apologetic face in Aleisha’s direction. ‘Abbey,’ Gerard reached to her. ‘Are you okay?’
Abbey turned to stare at him, her eyes adjusting to recognise him. ‘Oh, I’m fucking dandy,’ she slurred, losing balance, and grabbing onto Mikey’s neck, who looked sadly down at her, his arms around her small waist to hold her up.
‘Abbey,’ Gerard tried again. ‘I just wanted to say that I’m –’
‘Fuck off, Gerard. I couldn’t care less right now.’ Abbey spat. Gerard retracted his hand and stared at her, shocked.
‘I’ll just take her to sit down, hey?’ Mikey said, trying to stop a scene from occurring. His right hand briefly left Abbey’s waist to put a hand on Aleisha’s shoulder. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Aleisha nodded and a tear ran down her cheek as she stared at her broken little sister being guided away.

~

‘I’d never thought that I’d be standing in front of you all today,’ Aleisha spoke into the microphone, holding back tears. ‘I’d always thought that it would be Darcey standing here, looking back at my coffin, saying “I told her not to eat things off the floor.”’ The small crowd laughed quietly. ‘But here I am, trying to sum my sister and best friend up in a three minute speech, and I don’t know how I’m going to do it..’ She paused and sniffed, gathering herself. ‘But here goes. Darcey was more than I could have ever hoped for as a sister. She was a very rare type of human being; the kind who was so selfless, she would have dropped anything for a friend or even for a complete stranger, just to help them. I remember when we were kids, she was always there looking over my shoulder, telling me what to do and what not to do. At the time I thought it was just bossiness, but now that I’m older I see that it was just because she only wanted to help me because loved me so much.’ Aleisha stopped for a moment to prevent herself from sobbing. ‘And I know that wherever she is now, she will be doing the very same; giving advice, helping others, and loving with every fibre of her being. And I know that someday I’ll see her again, but until then, I am content knowing that wherever she is, she is happier now.’ Aleisha stepped down from the podium, and sat back down in the front row next to Abbey.

Abbey slowly rose from her seat. It was her turn to speak. She navigated her way sloppily to the podium, grabbing it for support. She pulled out a piece of paper on which something was written, looked at it, scrunched it up in her hand, and threw it away. Gerard watched, holding his breath, praying she could keep it together for the next couple of minutes. ‘I’d planned on saying something about how much I’ll miss my sister,’ she said, looking around at the crowd with a bitter look on her face. ‘But instead, I think I’ll share a memory with you.’ She looked calmer as she began her story and Gerard exhaled; she was going to say something normal. ‘A while ago I went out with Darcey, Aleisha and my friend Frank,’ she pointed at him as she spoke. ‘And I asked Darcey for some advice, which she gave to me. Guess that links in with what Aleisha said about Darce being so helpful.’ She nodded, mostly to herself. ‘So I listened to the advice and it didn’t work, so I got really fuckin’ angry.’

Gerard looked back up and stared at Abbey. He turned to Aleisha who was also wide eyed, and saw Mikey out of the corner of his eye, who was shaking his head at Abbey with a horrified look on his face. ‘So she called a couple of weeks ago to ask how it went and I yelled at her about it, telling her how shit her advice was and to never try and help me again. And how funny’s this? Aleisha calls me this week and tells me Darcey’s gone and killed herself. Funny coincidence, hey?’ The whole crowd stared while Mikey stood up and tried to pull Abbey away from the podium. ‘Yeah!’ Abbey yelled belligerently into the microphone. ‘She’s dead because of me, how fucking great is that?’ Mikey yanked at her arm and pulled her off the podium, walking her away from the funeral as the crowd looked on. Gerard watched, his heart breaking, as he watched the girl he loved being carted away from her own sister’s funeral.

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