The sun is beaming brightly. Birds chirp outside and butterflies dance in the wind. As if fate is mocking the people gathering. A car pulls up to the building. The man inside steps out, coughing slightly as his phone buzzes. He picks it up and answers the call.
"Yeah, I'm here… how's he holding up?... Damn… yeah, I know… I… it hurts…"
The man attempts to hold back his tears as he walks inside. He sits on the right side of his father. A tired soul, withered with age and breathing erratically. A small child fidgets and mumbles, attempting to not appear bored for the family.
"Stop fidgeting so much, Terry!"
"It's alright… she's fine."
"Grandpa…"
"It's fine…"
The voices whisper and mutter. Young children run around while the older kids gossip and blabber quietly. Others smile and shake hands. A woman with glasses and slightly wrinkled skin stnds and stretches her back.
"I'm going to get some water. You want something, Dad?"
"No… no thank you… Tammy."
Tammy walks away, leaving her brother and father looking forward. They see her. The person they have shown up for. Her skin is frail and withered. Her hair has long since lost its lively red. And her pink eyes, once hypnotic and filled with warmth and love, have been closed forever. Tim Turner smiles as happier memories run through his mind, memories from when the world seemed filled with color. Moments later, a white haired lady in a wheelchair is pulled up next to Tim Turner.
"Hello?" he mumbles with a hoarse voice.
"It's me. Tootie… you should have your glasses on."
Tim Turner chuckles. His small laugh becomes a sickly cough as he punches his chest. Tootie looks at her sister. She begins to cry again.
"Dang it… I didn't want to cry."
"Just let it out." Tim says. His voice, once lively and filled with love, is without tone or inflection. He breaths deeply and heavily as the wake progresses, too quiet for Tim's liking. Everything is now too quiet. Far too noiseless without Vicky's fiery and boisterous voice. The world itself seems to have become all but mute without her mad laughter, the sort of laugh only a lunatic like Tim would love. He smiles sadly, thinking of her laughter.
"Would anyone like to say a few words?"
Tim sees his son standing by the casket, attempting not to break down yet again. The old man attempts to stand by himself, but he can't. His daughter helps him to his feet. Tim waddles over to the casket. He looks down at her face. The man, hands shaking from age, begins fumbling through his pockets. He retrieves a small pendant and sets it inside the casket, over Vicky's heart. Then he attempts to speak.
"I… I know… I… I can't… find the words… but I… I know… she would… probably be laughing… at me… crying… she… Vicky was… different. Some of you… wonder why… why I loved her… why I stayed with her… especially… these last years… when she… faded… but… the reason… reason why… the reasons… others hated… for… she was… cruel… at times… but she knew… knew when to be… be kind… and… she knew… she knew…"
Tim Turner goes silent. Thousands of words, all failing to give meaning to what he feels, are caught in his throat. Tammy walks over to her father as he begins to cry again, looking down at the remains of the fiery soul that captured his heart. Looking at what's left after her spirit has faded. Tammy helps her father down. He attempts to bend over, to give a last kiss, but his body cannot bend. He simply watches her, seeing her face for what he knows will be the last time. Tim Turner leaves the casket. He slowly descends to his seat, hissing at the pain of his old spine's protests. Tammy sits next to him, watching him. He hasn't smiled for days. Not since he woke up without her. Not since he saw her sleeping, only to never open her eyes.
"I just… I always thought… she'd last more… than me…"
"I… I'm… oh, fu… fudge…"
"It's her wake… she'd have wanted you… to say fuck…"
Tammy doesn't laugh at her father's joke, simply going silent again.
"I… I knew… it was… going to… to happen… she couldn't… remember much… not anymore… she sometimes… tried yelling… for the twerp… kept wondering… where the twerp was… but… that night… she saw me… and she cried…"
Tim Turner, once filled with life even as his body became slow with time, is silent. He remains in the funeral home for the evening, sitting next to his family as they begin dwindling, walking off into their lives. They leave for work, they leave for their spouses. And at the end, only two remain. Tammy sits by her father's side, watching their mother's face for the last time.
"I… I'm going to miss… those pink eyes… of hers."
"Me… me too, dad."
"I… I hope… it's not the end… because I can't go… knowing we're parted… forever…"
"I… I know, dad…"
They draw out the remaining minutes, the last minutes they have before the coffin is sealed shut. Then the time comes to leave. Tammy takes her father to the car. He struggles into the front passenger seat as she gets in. Tammy drives him back to her house, the house where they found Vicky days before. Tim steps slowly into the home. He passes the living room and goes down the hall. He walks into their room, now simply his room. He looks at the pictures together. He picks up one of the pictures. Vicky, hair bright and filled with flame, makes a face at the camera, along with a young Timmy, skin smooth with youth.
"That was… our first… anniversary…"
"Yeah… strange, you and her… you'd think you'd… hate her… for being with you so young."
"I… some would… I never… was able to... even when we fought… I never had… regrets."
Tammy walks in and sits down on the bed. Tim begins moving in for the night, slowly making his way onto his ailing back. Tammy attempts to leave, but she feels a hand on hers. A hand holding as tight as it can, hoping she stays.
"Please… don't go…"
"I… I won't, Dad."
"Thank you…"
Tammy sits with her father for the night. They sit in silence as the world becomes a little less warm. Eventually, the time comes for sleep. Tammy watches her father as he goes to bed. She watches him the way he watched her all those years ago. Protective of him, hoping that somehow he can find peace.
More days pass. Days where life for Tim Turner has become meaningless. He wanders through what's left of his existence in a daze, unfocused and uncaring. Tammy can see it. She can see the broken soul, the absence of light in her father's heart. The light he gave to Vicky, now snuffed out by the wheel of time. A week after the funeral, Tammy sits with Tim in the bedroom. He looks at each and every image, every reminder of his life with Vicky.
"I… it's strange… how sudden… her fire went out… these last years…"
"I… I know, Dad."
"I think… I think I'm… going to sleep now."
"I… do you need anything?"
"I… no thank you… just sleep."
Tammy sits by her father's side as he dozes off again. She waits as the hours tick by. She feels herself fading in her chair. But she refuses to leave. She refuses to abandon her father. But eventually, she finds herself falling asleep.
"I… remember when you two… used to watch us?... When you used to sing us songs… Mom hated it. She hated getting all sentimental… but she did it anyways… I miss that sometimes… goodnight, Dad."
Tammy falls asleep, drifting away from the cold world into her dreams. A place where no one can harm her heart. Here, she is at peace. She remembers her father and mother together. When they were filled with life. She dreams of days long past, or days that never were yet seem so real. She hears a sound in the night. A sound indescribable. It's like the twinkling of stars, or the gleaming of magic dust. A sound she barely remembers from many years ago. Tammy opens her eyes. A green orb shines brightly like a star in the room. It carries the beauty of the evergreen forests in its glow. Another star joins the first. Pink, radiating warmth and love like a parent's embrace. A third glow appears. It's completely unlike the first two. It's brighter than anything Tammy has ever seen before. Bright enough to light the room up with its glorious blaze, filled with fire and radiating with the beauty of an exploding star. As the entity descends, it seems to hug Timmy's old and frail body. Tammy watches as a small blue glow emanates from Timmy, coming out of his chest and joining with the three in the center of the room. The great burning flame and the chill blue light like the evening sky, both descend towards Tammy, who begins to cry, knowing exactly what is happening.
"Goodbye, Mom… Goodbye, Dad…"
The blue and red orbs move closer, causing Tammy's heart to fill with warmth, a small twinge of joy in the darkness. Come morning, Tammy wakes up at Timmy's side. She knows he's no longer with them. Through tears, Tammy calls her brother, then her kids, and then anyone else who was friends with Timmy. Within a week, Timmy is buried alongside his love. Their graves are marked with the words "Here lies Vicky and Timmy, bound together by love stronger than any other power."