Reunion Read Free Page A

leave. Then he turned to Mike. “Did you bring them?”
    Mike thought of the roses lying in the back seat of his car and nodded. “Yes, all twelve dozen.”
    Gabriel seemed to relax, but Mike was still bothered by Gabriel’s earlier request.
    “I’m not certain this is the right moment to make a visit to the cemetery. This is your first day out. The flowers will certainly keep a couple of days if you’d rather wait.”
    “I’ve already waited too long,” Gabriel said.
    There was a stillness about Gabriel’s expression that made the old man nervous. As a child, Gabriel had been exuberant to the point of aggravation. As an adult, the wild streak in him had matured to a strong, dependable man who had a tendency toward playing practical jokes. This quiet rage was unlike the real Gabriel. More than once during the past few days, Mike had felt as if the Gabriel of old had died along with his parents in that wreck, and that this man was little more than a skilled imposter.
    A few minutes later, they were on their way out of the hospital. Within the hour, Mike was pulling off the highway and through the main gates of Rosemound Cemetery. It was the first week in June, and already the Oklahoma days were miserably hot, although the grass around the headstones was still green and well-clipped.
    “We’re here,” Mike said, parking beneath a spreading oak to avail himself of the shade.
    Gabriel’s mind blanked as he gazed out across the rows and rows of tombstones. It seemed impossible to think he would never see his parents again. The fact that they were buried beneath six feet of Oklahoma soil was more than he could take.
    His voice was shaking as he wiped a hand across his eyes. “This is so damned obscene.”
    Mike reached across the seat, gripping Gabriel’s arm and giving him an understanding squeeze.
    “I know, boy, I know. Sometimes life is just plain unfair.”
    Gabriel reached for the flowers in the back seat and got out without answering, intent on what he’d come to do.
    “Let me help,” Mike said, handing Gabriel three of the wrapped bundles, before gathering the remaining three up for himself.
    He started across the grounds, leading the way for Gabriel to follow. “When I called in this order, I cleaned out the florist,” Mike said. “They put these in bunches of two dozen each. I assume that’s all right with you?”
    The sweet scent of the bloodred roses was rich beneath Gabriel’s nostrils as he followed Mike across the grounds. He lowered his head, slowly inhaling their essence and remembering his mother’s love for the blooms. Tears were thick in his throat, but they stayed, refusing to fall.
    “It’s fine,” he said.
    Moments later, Mike paused.
    Only then did Gabriel think to look down. When he did, reality hit. The physical evidence of his parents’ deaths was staring him in the face. The tall marble edifice bearing both their names was right before him, and it was all he could do to keep breathing.
    “Can I help?” Mike asked.
    “No.”
    Gabriel’s answer was stark and filled with pain. Mike’s heart went out to him, but this was something Gabriel needed to do all on his own.
    “I’ll wait for you at the car. If you feel weak, or need help in any way, just call. I’ll be watching,” Mike said.
    Then he laid down his flowers and walked away, leaving Gabriel alone with his sorrow.
    The sun was warm on Gabriel’s face as he dropped to his knees. A robin swooped from a nearby tree, landing a few feet away before hopping across the ground. He rocked back on his knees to watch and, just for a moment, could almost believe he was at home helping his mother tend her garden of roses and not kneeling at her grave. But then a pushy little breeze rattled the papers in which the roses were wrapped, and he was reminded of why he’d come.
    With a heavy heart, he unwrapped the first three bundles of roses and laid them on his father’s side of the grave, spreading them as he went, until the