(From Across the Grave)

NOW

(Evan)

I wasn’t sure Anna ever stepped foot in a church. And yet a priest stood at the head of the casket, a small bible in his hand, both arms outreached, closing the services with a prayer. I knew this was more for the respect of Beth than Anna. Poor Beth. That woman had fought a losing battle for years, never once giving up on Anna. The amount of times I met Beth and just did the cool guy teenager shrug to her. She knew I would protect Anna, but she never really knew how far I had gone to do just that. All the crazy stuff Anna did.

Shit, I kept everything safe with Anna. Even our secrets.

Part of me wished I could have had better closure and actually seen Anna one more time but I heard the chatter on the way over that the accident was so bad there was no option other than this.

The priest finished his prayers and we all blessed ourselves.

I looked forward and saw Adena standing there. I recognized all her old friends around her, comforting her. Riley and Chloe holding her arms and trying to turn her. That’s when Adena looked up at me. Our eyes locked. I gave a quick nod and she nodded back to me. I took a step forward, wanting to go talk to her. Tell her I was sorry. Give her a hug.

Anything after that, I had no idea.

I felt a hand grab my shoulder and squeeze damn tight.

“He lives,” a voice said. “Like rising from the dead.”

I turned and saw Andy standing there. Now this guy had no shame ever in his life. He could stand at a funeral and talk about the dead rising. His face was as clean cut as always with the same jagged scar just under his lip that looked like a crooked Z. That was from the time we stole two dirt bikes and went for a ride. He dared me to do a burnout and I did, throwing a rock at his face, smashing his lip.

“Andy,” I said.

“Look at you. You know, most of us put on twenty pounds of fat… but you go and put on muscle. Jesus, man, what are you eating?”

“How are you doing?”

“Just great. I’ve settled into my cliché life, just like Mike. Taking over the family businesses in town to keep this place running.”

“Could be worse,” I said and nodded to the casket.

“Yeah. Shit. Right?” Andy still had his hand on my shoulder. He leaned in. “I got the car. Holy shit.”

“What?”

“Her car. After the accident. I started a little salvage yard kind of business on the side with Scott. Remember him?”

“I remember. Does he still have that piercing above his lip?”

“No. He grew up a little. Not much. Who knew his love of collecting junk could actually turn into a business. But anyway, the car. You should come see it.”

“I don’t want to, Andy.”

“Suit yourself. I’m thinking of keeping it and using it for one of those scare the kids straight kind of things. You know when they take a mangled car to schools and show what happens when you drink and drive?”

“I don’t think we should be talking about this right now,” I said.

“Why? It’s not like she can hear us.”

I shook my head. “So you’re still an asshole.”

“The question is, are you still a magician?”

“Huh?”

Andy backed up and waved his hands across his face and whistled. “Are you going to do your disappearing act again?”

I watched as a lot of the people had already made their way to their vehicles and were leaving. That’s when I wondered what the hell I was supposed to do next.

“Are you coming to the party?” Andy asked.

“What party?”

“I don’t know what you call it… the after party? The after life party? There’s a small get together at Adena’s house.”

“Her house?”

“Well, Beth’s house,” Andy said. “Adena got the house after Beth died. Shit, that was a tough one. Walking to her car one morning and…”

“Yeah,” I said. I didn’t need to hear anymore of the shit I missed.

“Yeah, what? You’re coming?”

“No,” I said. “I wasn’t… I mean, I got word of this. So I thought I’d swing by. My uncle is too old to be running the shop by himself.”

“Ah, so you’re getting sucked into it too. We never got to choose our own lives, did we? It was all planned out for us.”

I glanced back over my shoulder. Then to Adena. Riley gave her a red rose. Then she and Chloe rubbed her back as Adena stepped toward the casket.

Shit, if Andy’s words weren’t so true right then.

We never got to choose our own lives… it was all planned out for us…

I watched the way Adena walked. Nothing about her was girlish. Hell, nothing ever was.

Except that first day I met her… but even then, I didn’t have a choice, did I?