Part One
Caire Stouf leaned over and placed a blood red rose on the mahogany casket. A single tear made its way down her cheek. Her father was gone, forever. She was dressed all in black, though she thought it was a bit old-fashioned. Her mother had requested it. Carie had been too full of despair to argue.
"What a tragedy," Carie heared from behind her. "He was so young. At least he died doing what he loved."
Carie fought the urge to turn around and hit the old woman, but it was true. Her father had died flying his passenger plane, which was what he loved more than anything else. He had learned to fly when Carie had been merely a child, and she remembered the times he had taken her up in the plane with him. Of course, he had always been drunk, but that didn't matter anymore because he was dead. Lost and gone forever. Never to be seen by Carie or anybody else again.
Instead, Carie walked over to her mother. Victoria Stouf was weeping into a lace handkerchief. She too, was dressed in black, with a veil falling over her face.
"Oh Carie, what will become of me? Your father was my whole life. I don't know how I'll go on without him! And with you going away so soon..."
"Don't worry Mother, everything will be all right. And you can always come to Alexandria with me. Egypt will agree with you, it will give you a change of scenery."
"NO! I could not bear to leave without your father, I would miss the way he picked the locks on all the hotel mini-bars far too much to enjoy myself, and what would a vacation be without waking up to the smell of vodka mixed wth vomit? I just loved your father too much," then Victoria swooned and smacked her head against the coffin.
"Mother! NO!" Carie knelt at her mother's side. "Someone, call an ambulance! Quickly!"
As the ambulance sped away with her mother, Carie wondered if her family would ever be the same again.
No comments:
Post a Comment