The Smallest Part by Amy Harmon

Author:Amy Harmon [Harmon, Amy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Smallest Part
Publisher: Amy Harmon
Published: 2018-02-13T08:00:00+00:00

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Two weeks after the first anniversary of her death, Mercedes accompanied Noah to Cora’s grave. Heather had gone on April fifth, and Mercedes told Noah she would stay with Gia whenever he wanted to go, but he shook his head and said nothing more. He was quiet. Reflective. And for a while he seemed resistant to going at all. Whenever Mercedes brought it up, his lips would tighten and his head would bow, as if to say, “There is something I need to say but won’t.” And he wouldn’t. Mercedes didn’t even bother trying to wheedle it out of him.

There was a new awareness between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It didn’t rub in all the wrong places or cause them to constantly check their feet to see how they looked as they walked, like a kid with a new pair of sneakers. It was simply another layer, and it was almost frightening that it didn’t feel strange. Maybe it was because they didn’t change. They still teased each other and bickered like they were twelve. They still behaved exactly the same way. Except for the times Mercedes caught Noah gazing at her with an expression that heated the skin of her throat and tightened the muscles of her lower belly. When she caught that look she remembered how it felt to kiss him, and she desperately wanted to do it again. But they didn’t. She didn’t. The shower scene, as he’d called it in the salon, had not come up again. Not in innuendo or in real life. It was not forgotten, but it wasn’t discussed.

On the eighteenth of April, a Monday, Noah came home from work and suggested they go to the cemetery together. They bundled Gia against the threat of rain and climbed in Noah’s car, stopping at the store to purchase flowers. They had several graves to visit. They bought yellow roses—her favorite—for Cora and a sprig of evergreen mixed with baby’s breath and a few red roses for Papi. Maybe it was too Christmas-y for April, but Christmas made Mercedes think of ever-faithful, ever-loving Papi. Noah bought a spray of daffodils for his mother. The woman who was afraid of the light deserved a little sunshine. Finally, they bought a small, mixed bouquet to lay on Sergeant Mike McKinney’s grave. He wasn’t buried near the rest, but in the Veteran’s section at the top of the rise. Through the years they’d never forgotten him, though Noah and Mercedes had never really known him. Sergeant McKinney and his missing parts had made a lasting impression. Sadly, not the impression he would have liked, they were sure.

They wove their way to the best access point for the graves they needed to visit, and parked the car. By some unspoken agreement, Cora would be last. They visited the oldest loss first, trekking to Sergeant McKinney’s grave and laying the flowers beneath his name. Heather had already been to his grave too. There was a picture of

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