Funeral with a View Read Free Page B

hot.”
    “… see how tense Bill was
last night?”
    “… the little one doesn’t
know what to make of all of this …”
    “… wonder how much that
coffin cost. Did you see that thing? It’s nicer than some of the cars I’ve had …”
    Hey! Why shouldn’t I rate
a good coffin? I’d heard the funeral director tell my wife that it was their
‘Cadillac’ of caskets.
    “So many flowers,” Mom
says. “I haven’t seen this many since my husband’s funeral.”
    “They’re so pretty. But
I’m sure Ricky would say they’re a waste of money.”
    My wife knows me well.
    “I can’t imagine how hard
this is for you, Beth.” Catherine takes the offered tissue from my mother, dabs
away some tears. “First your husband all those years ago and now your … I just
can’t imagine what it’s like to lose your only child.”
    “No parent should ever
have to outlive their children. But this isn’t just hard on me.” She places a
veiny hand on Catherine’s. “Celeste is still so young. It’s a waste. A stupid,
horrible waste.”
    My mother is so careworn.
I’ve never seen her look this old. Well over sixty, she’s no spring chicken,
but try telling her that.
    Beth Franchitti has
always been a larger than life character to me. My dad died when I was ten and
she picked up the mantle of mother and father without missing a beat. We played
catch together, raced Matchbox cars, we even tried our hand at fishing although
we sucked at it. Never once did my mother complain or feel sorry for herself.
She mourned my father’s passing, but with a tireless energy and fury of spirit.
She held her head up high and fought to live life.
    Even nearing her twilight
years, she dances, cooks, travels. Thinking about half the things she’s been
doing makes me tired. And I’m dead. That should tell you something.
    But now? Her age clings
to her like a second skin.
    “Speaking of. Where is
the little one?”
    “She’s outside playing
with Sam and Jeff. Jude is out there with them. She’s at that age where she
understands death to a certain degree, but all this,” Catherine makes a
sweeping gesture, “is a bit too much for her.”
    Sam and Jeff, or should I
say, Samantha and Jeffrey, are my sister in law’s pre-teen twins. My wife is
right. Celeste should be outside in the sun playing, not in here amongst all
the sorrow. There will be plenty of time for that later. Let her enjoy her
cousins.
    My spritely little
daughter is the light of my life. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s the truth.
For me the sun rises and sets by Celeste. She’s at that age where she’s old
enough to be her own little person, but not too cool to still be into Mommy and
Daddy.
    I may be proud poppa now,
but there was a time when the prospect of kids scared the living shit out of
me.

CHAPTER 5
     
     
     
     
    “Richard, when are you
going to introduce me to this little friend of yours? It’s been what, six
months now?”
    Ugh. Little friend. My
mother always called any potential love interests in my life my ‘little friends.’
It started with Tammy Green in the fourth grade and it never stopped.
    “I don’t know, Mom,” I
said into the cordless phone as I paced my tiny apartment. “Maybe the Fourth of
July? We were thinking of having a little something. Burgers, dogs, a drink or
two. How about you join us?”
    The silence on the line
told me she was thinking it over. I imagined her playing with her curly,
silvering hair in deep consideration.
    “Yes, I think that would
work. That sounds like fun, actually.” She sounded excited. “I think it’s about
high time I meet the girl you’ve been sleeping with, don’t you?”
    “Mom.”
    “Oh come off it, Richard.”
My mother always called me Richard. She was one of the few who did, ever, even
though she knew I preferred Rick or Ricky. “Don’t play games with me, and quit
being such a prude. You know as well as I do your generation is always in a
rush to do the bone