Pearly Gates by Owen Marshall

Author:Owen Marshall [Marshall, Owen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143773160
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

Rob Prendergast died. It wasn’t unexpected, but Pearly’s sadness was tinged with guilt because he’d meant to call round and see him again. The Prendergasts had sent a card when Pearly was re-elected, and he had responded personally. The Prendergasts were the sort of citizens he wished to see proliferate rather than decline. He held no grudge against them for the attack by their dog. He wondered how Jill would cope without the company and support of such a good husband.

The 10 a.m. funeral service was held at an undertaker’s parlour insufficiently spacious to contain the mourners. Latecomers stood crowded together at the back behind the seating, some even outside, surrounding the gleaming black body of the hearse. Members of the family spoke or read Rob’s favourite poetry. The head librarian gave a solemn eulogy, but Barry Harte came closer to true commemoration through personal anecdotes. He remembered Rob’s dismay at nudging another car in the golf club’s vehicle park, and Rob coming to his office to arrange an anonymous donation of $5000 to a solo mother with a Down syndrome son.

Pearly was pleased there was no open invitation to speak. At too many funerals he’d been exasperated by speakers motivated by the desire to be the centre of attention rather than a wish to pay tribute to the deceased. The undertaker told Pearly of an elderly couple in town who came to many of the funerals purely for the food on offer: they ate heartily and in an inconspicuous manner squirrelled more away. Pearly passed much of the service in perusal of the crowd to see if he could spot the pair. Bludgers, his father would have called them. His father had a nose for bludgers. It could have been so many of those present. How few people are virtuous in physical appearance; how many have a demeanour suggestive of evasion, corruption and deceit, whether deserved or not. On facial characteristics alone, Pearly identified several serial murderers and fraudsters.

He and Helen didn’t go to the graveside but found an opportunity to talk briefly to Jill before the hearse left. She wasn’t incapacitated by grief. ‘He was so pleased you were re-elected,’ she told Pearly. ‘He talked about you often. He remembered going to see you play umpteen years ago. We both felt awful about Buster biting your leg when you visited that time. It’s never happened with anyone else.’

‘I’d forgotten all about it,’ lied Pearly. ‘Rob will be greatly missed — always so generous with his time and talents.’

‘He just wanted to go at the end, He’d had enough. It was cruel really.’

‘The turnout showed how people respected him,’ said Pearly.

‘He gave so much time to good causes,’ said Helen.

‘Thank you. He was a lovely man to live with.’ Pearly thought that the best thing said all day about Rob. What finer epitaph could there be, and from someone best able to judge. He remembered talking to Rob about the harbour development and Rob saying that once as a boy when he was fishing there a seagull swooped down, took his bait and got hooked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.