The Gift Giver by Jennifer Hawkins

Author:Jennifer Hawkins [Hawkins, Jennifer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-934572-92-4
Publisher: Emerald Book Company
Published: 2011-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

ONE WEEK

I woke up Wednesday morning and a thought ran into my head: Mark’s body.

My dad and Jeremy had done such a good job of taking care of everything that I didn’t even know what was going on with Mark. I picked up the phone and called Jeremy.

He answered on the first ring and said, “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, I wanted to make sure you got home okay.”

“Yeah, no problems… Was there something else?”

I wasn’t sure what words to use. I knew what I wanted to ask, but the syllables wouldn’t form in my mouth.

“Mark.”

“Oh… Yes. We didn’t talk with you about it much.”

I couldn’t say anything else.

“Do you want me to just tell you?” he said.

“Uh-huh.”

“Um, well, we had to wait a couple of days after the autopsy because there was not a time available for the cremation. Dad had said he would be the witness.”

I thought, “God! Someone had to witness it?”

“When he went, he took his brother with him, and it’s a good thing he did. At the last minute Dad couldn’t do it.”

I was weeping. Dad and Mark were friends; he loved Mark like a son. He laughed out loud with him like one of the guys. He cherished Mark; he had a bond with him… He couldn’t do it. I’m sure that shocked him, but it didn’t surprise me.

Jeremy said, “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” My voice cracked. “Go on.”

“We don’t have to do this right now,” he said.

“I know. But it’s been a week. I need to know.”

“Okay. Well, Dad’s going to pick up the ashes and the urn tomorrow and keep them until you’re ready to decide what you want to do with them.”

I was so relieved. I didn’t think I could handle seeing the box.

Then guilt swept over me. Shouldn’t I want him close? What was wrong with me? I just didn’t feel like it was him anymore. “He” was communicating with me. “He” didn’t have a body anymore. His body was like all of the stuff in our house: useless, really.

I thanked Jeremy and hung up.

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.