Chapter 15

The gates to Crestview Cemetery were wide open as the black limousines and the mourners entered. The procession followed, one by one, each car tagged with the little orange flags that indicated to passersby that they were in mourning and to allow them through. Two limousines were followed by flocks of other vehicles trailing behind, escorted by two motorcycle cops, with their lights flashing red and blue. They crested the hill and drove slowly across the blacktop road that led to a mausoleum. The glass and marble structure stood stark and ominous against the blue background of the morning sky. As the vehicles parked and the mourners piled out, Jake Thomas being one of them, they all walked towards a large canopy that had been set up along with white folding chairs.

The wind blew relentlessly up there, and the trees, whose leaves had turned orange and begun to fall, swayed with the whoosh of the wind. Jake clicked lock on his key fob and the green Jeep chirped in response. His friend Tanner Drum, who had rode with him, walked beside him as he followed the line of mourners to the canopy and the awaiting priest. The families and immediate relatives all took seats underneath the white tent. Father Mark Ambry stood by, his habit billowing in the high winds. The pallbearers walked both caskets over to their separate metal braces. Both families sat together, Don Lage and his wife along with Herb and Martha, before the caskets.

Jake and Tanner waited outside in the sunlight, both of them wearing sunglasses, standing near the funeral director. Chad and Elizabeth had been their friends; Jake was the surrogate older brother to Chad, having graduated two years earlier. The four of them had been inseparable this past summer. Chad had confided in Jake about Elizabeth growing distant with him, and Jake did the best he could to give him advice. He never thought they would end up like this. Tanner had been Chad’s best friend since elementary school, and when he heard of the deaths, he had become distraught. He asked Jake if he could accompany him to the funeral.

Jake listened half-heartedly to the funeral service; he could hear someone up front sobbing. He glanced over at Tanner, whose face was stony and solemn, and put his head down when the priest offered a prayer. He mumbled the responses back, joining the crowd, and when the service was over and dismissed, he and Tanner walked to the front to say their final goodbye to their friends. The funerals had both been closed casket on account of Chad drowning. His body appeared washed up on the lake. No one really knew how Elizabeth died. The rumor was that she was found drowned in her bed, but that was impossible, and Jake brushed those things aside. She had witnessed her boyfriend’s death and died of fright, exactly what the official cause of death was said to have been.

Tanner laid one hand upon Chad’s casket and one hand upon Elizabeth’s, and Jake watched him as his stony face began to crumble and he started to cry. Jake felt his own chest tighten up as Martha Rhine, who had stopped to talk to one of the funeral directors, walked over and reached out for Tanner, pulling him in to an embrace. Elizabeth and Chad had sort of adopted Tanner when she caught his father slapping him around outside school one day. His father was an abusive alcoholic who treated Tanner, and his mother, Gale, like trash. She had interrupted the one-sided fist fight while the two boys looked on, dumbfounded, and Tanner looked astonished. Elizabeth had been a force of nature.

Tanner loved the both of them with all his heart and really soared under their watchful eye. He went from being an introvert who no one really paid attention to, to one of the most popular kids in school. He came to Jake one evening and asked Jake to start working out with him, so he could defend himself. Jake had agreed, and before too long Tanner had bulked out and the girls at school took notice. He was going to take their deaths very hard, perhaps harder that Jake had.

They let go of their embrace and talked for a little while longer as Jake waited patiently. To give them some privacy, he turned his back to them and looked out on the cemetery itself. The fall sun was high in the sky now, as noon passed slowly, but something caught his eye. Near a wizened old tree, whose gnarly thick limbs reached up to the heavens, devoid of any leaves, stood a man dressed in black. He wasn’t a mourner, or, at least, Jake hadn’t noticed him among the crowd, but he watched Tanner and Mrs. Rhine speaking to each other. Something about the way he was dressed bothered Jake. He looked like a minister of sorts, but his clothes were old-fashioned. He had a large black hat in his hands, and his head was bent, as if showing his respect. Jake was staring at him so long and so hard that when Tanner put his hand on Jake’s arm, he leapt a bit, startled back into reality.

“Hey, you all right?” Tanner asked.

Jake turned to him, regaining his composure, and nodded. “Yeah, man. I’m all right. I just noticed some guy standing by that tree over there.” He raised his hand and pointed, turning his face back towards the spot where he’d seen the preacher, and was shocked to find that he was gone. Only the tree remained.

“What man?” Tanner asked.

“I…well, never mind, then,” Jake said. He removed his sunglasses and squinted, looking around the cemetery, to see if he could see the man leaving, but spotted nobody.

“You ready to go?” Tanner asked.

Jake nodded. “Hey, let’s go get some lunch, huh? It’s on me.”

“Sure.”

He threw his arm around Tanner’s shoulder as they walked back to their vehicle, glancing one last time at the spot where the man had been. The hair on the back of his neck stood straight up and a chill went down his spine. For what it was worth, Jake knew, deep in his guts, that he had just seen a ghost.