Say No More by Sasson Gemini

Author:Sasson, Gemini
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: rainbow bridge, heaven, dogs, Australian Shepherd, angels, dog novel
Publisher: Cader Idris Press
Published: 2014-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

chapter 15

Its smell was distinct: decay. But I could tell this was a place of reverence, of remembrance. A hallowed place from where souls ascended.

Cecil parked the truck beneath the shade of a maple, cut the engine, and rolled the windows down. We sat there awhile, taking in the serenity and beauty. Ribbons of asphalt cut across swaths of manicured lawn. In the gridwork of greenery, the stones were lined up as far as the eye could see, the regularity of it broken only by the occasional columnar juniper, sprawling oak, or bed of pink shrub roses. Beside some of the slabs sat bouquets of plastic flowers on small metal stands, their colors long since faded from the sun’s relentless assault.

Across Cecil’s lap lay a fresh bunch of daisies, plucked from the tiny garden beside his front door. He had wrapped their stems in newspaper, carefully broadening the protective cone so as not to crush the delicate, snowy petals. Pollen had tinged Cecil’s fingers a luminous yellow and when he brought his fingertips up to brush at the corner of his eye, he left a golden smear there.

“Come on, girl.” He sniffed and cleared his throat. The newspaper crinkled as he curled his fingers around it. “Time I introduced you to my special gal.”

We got out of the truck and went a few rows down, where we turned right. I followed close behind him, keeping my distance from the granite columns. At the eighth stone, he stopped. Next to it, very close, was a much, much smaller stone. For several minutes, he stood in silence, head bent, the flowers clasped to his chest. His lips moved and every so often I caught a few whispered words: “Yea though I walk ... shadow of death ... no evil, for you are with me ... Amen.”

He removed the flowers from their wrapping and laid them at the base of the bigger stone. Then he placed a single flower next to the smaller stone. All too soon, they would wilt and wither under the intensity of the June sun, but for now they were a colorful dash of vitality in an otherwise inert scene. His fingers traced the letters on the larger stone lovingly, as if each stroke and curve represented some long ago memory.

“This was my wife Sarah, Halo. We were together thirty-seven wonderful years. Never raised any children — not that we didn’t want them — but it just wasn’t in the cards for us. God has his own reasons for everything. Sometimes they don’t make a lick of sense, but you abide by them, just like you abide by the speed limit and parking signs. And then He saw fit to take her from me one day, seventeen years ago. Cancer, the female kind. She was only fifty-six. Still spry as the nineteen-year old knockout I married at the little white chapel down in Foxtail Hollow, up until the very end. I suppose it was a blessing she didn’t suffer long, but when she died .

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