It was a cloudy, overcast day just outside of Joliet, Illinois. Grey clouds hung low in the sky, possibly threatening to rain. The scent of ozone was strong, and settled in the air, like an invisible fog. Cars and trucks drove down the roads and around the winding buildings, each one driven by an occupant who was more or less concerned about going about their business, and paying little attention to the other drivers other than the occasional loud honk of annoyance. A light breeze was blowing over the grass and through the trees, but only the birds payed any attention to it. To them it meant rain, so they settled in the trees for shelter, and silenced their songs.
Somewhere in the outskirts of town, a long, straight road ran past a particularly lonely looking cemetery. Like most cemeteries on rainy days, the overall ambiance of the place was rather calm, and other than the whoosh of a passing car, no sound could be heard other than the occasional light whistling of wind through the bushes and trees. There were many cemeteries in Illinois, some well-known and often visited, some beautiful and well-kept, and some hidden away where only relatives of their deceased occupants came and went, but this graveyard was different. It was a prison cemetery, tucked away at the side of a road few took. Criminals from prisons all over the state were buried here, from petty crooks to hardened murderers. But they all had one thing in common. No one wanted them.
Of course, hardly anyone wants a prisoner. But still, many had families who cared about them to an extent, and gave them decent burials, sometimes in lavish graveyards alongside the good and law-abiding folk. But then there were the criminals without friends or family to mourn them. For whatever reason, whether it be because of family issues or lack of relatives in general, the dead prisoners were buried here, in a place where no one other than the occasional tourist or caretaker entered. The tombstones were plain with only a name and age etched into them, and long rows of them lined the grassy plot. There they would sit, forever with the only legacy they could leave behind; lawbreakers, the scum of the political justice system and polite society.
The darkening skies that hovered over the cemetery had begun to let loose a small but noticable drizzle of raindrops when a muddy, beat-up looking old car came to a stop at the roadside. After a few moments, the rumbling of the engine stopped, and a tall man in a black suit stepped out of the driver's side of the vehicle. He proceeded to slam the door shut, and then stood still for a few moments as he surveyed the graveyard for any signs of life. This was Elwood Blues, the cemetery's only regular visitor, making his monthly visit to his brother's final resting spot.
As soon as Elwood was confidant that no one else was in the area, he stepped forward and began to walk towards the center of the graveyard. He completely ignored the sprinkles of rain and the rapidly cooling air, and instead took a look around at the scenery.
"Grass has been cut since the last time I was here," he thought. "Didn't know anyone really gave a shit about this place anymore. Probably some city ordinance."
Elwood finally came to a halt in front of a tall, red monument that was situated in the graveyard's center; the only decoration in the place. It was old and had been worn down by the elements, though the words carved into it could still be seen, plain as day. Elwood gazed at it for some unknown reason, and he looked it over carefully as if expecting something to happen. Eventually, his eyes fell on a series of words carved into the monument's base.
THEY PAID THEIR DEBT
TO SOCIETY
MAY GOD REMIT
THEIR DEBT TO HIM.
Elwood bit his lip, and shook his head slightly.
"Yeah, right." He thought. "If God cared even a little bit, Jake would still be here..."
He frowned, then turned and began to walk, rather slowly, in a different direction, towards a row of tombstones that sat in a corner of the cemetery. As he walked, Elwood began to notice some of the stones were beginning to sink into the ground. Nothing he could do about that, though. The rain was beginning to pour harder now, but Elwood still payed no attention to it. He began to wonder how long he would stay for this visit. Last time he only stayed for around ten minutes, but that had been during better times. Now things were rough again, and Elwood began to feel that he would be there a little longer that day.
At last he came to his destination. A headstone off to the side of the row was where Elwood stopped. He stared down it it, gazing mournfully, and then slowly reached up an arm to remove his hat from his head, and then let it dangle at his hip. The stone belonged to his close friend and brother, Jake Blues. Like the other stones, it was very plain and didn't stand out at all. "Jake E. Blues", was the name etched in the stone, along with a year of birth and death. It was spattered with droplets from the rain, and was probably very cold to the touch.
Elwood could not count the amount of times he had come out to the stone, and gazed at in mourning. All he knew was that he had been coming to the same spot once a month for two or three years, and every time he came, he was alone. Elwood didn't really feel comfortable bringing anyone else to the sacred spot. Jake was really the only person he had been emotionally open with, and now that he was gone, Elwood had considerably clammed up.
The rain was falling hard now, making the ground soggy and muddy. But that did not sway Elwood from kneeling down in front of the stone. He was in a daze now. He always went into a daze when he payed a visit to Jake's spot. Elwood's thoughts began to run together, like the water that dripped across the gray stone in the hard rain. He spoke, but did not use his mouth.
"Hello, Jake. Long time no see. You look the same as ever..."
And then the sadness came. It came in a wave, and washed over Elwood as such. He did not attempt to stop it from coming.
"I hope you're happy, wherever you are."
Elwood reached a hand out to touch the stone. It was, as he suspected, freezing cold in the September air, and wet to boot. He pulled his hand away from it, and felt tears beginning to well in the corners of his eyes.
"The stones here don't seem to suit you, Jake. I wish I could have had a chance to put you somewhere else, but somehow, I can't really see you in a grave with a big ass cross or angel sticking out over your head. Or I could have gotten you a plain one, but I wouldn't really know what to put on the thing...Or maybe you prefer this one..."
"I know you better than anyone else I've ever known. I know about that one time you pulled a kid's pants down in fourth grade, I know how you once had sex with that rich guy's daughter. I know your likes and dislikes, and even when you hid stuff from me, even when you yelled at me or hit me, I knew how to fix it. You were never perfect, you sinned more than those demons in Dante's inferno, but I didn't care. You loved the blues and your passion for it was greater than all the love of those fictional couples we read about in school combined, and you brought me into it, and I went willingly. I became your brother."
"You had a dream, Jake. A dream where the two of us would be able to spend our lives doing the thing we loved the most; playing the blues. You were the one who brought the band together, and you were the one responsible for saving the orphanage. You had me and the band wrapped in a bear hug, and it was warm and wonderful while still feeling dangerous and wild. And that's the way we liked it."
"But Jake, there's one question I never had a chance to ask you before you left. You know about all the times the cops got us, you know about all the crimes we committed. But did you ever expect you would die in prison? This graveyard is for the guys the world doesn't care about. The lawbreakers."
"I know, back in the days when things were good and we were young and stupid, we felt like we could do anything. We were immortal. But ever since you died, you proved to me that I'm not immortal, and I'm going to eventually get old and die too. It sobered me, and for the first time in my life, I was terrified. I never really realized how much I relied on you for guidance, and direction in life. You always seemed to know where you were going, and even though it was often dangerous, I felt like you could get me through it. But the road you took eventually lead to your death...And now I don't know which way to go...or what to do."
"I'm afraid, Jake. Without you I'm lost and I simply exist without meaning...If you'd only stayed longer...if you'd only lasted long enough to tell me what to do when you were gone...If only I'd been there for you before you died...God dammit, Jake. I wish all that shit the penguin told us about a man in the sky who looked after us and loved us were true...but at this point I simply can't believe anything anymore..."
A sudden rustle of leaves shook Elwood from his trance, and he suddenly because conscious of the fact that he had been crying. This embarrassed him, because he'd never actually cried at Jake's grave before. He'd felt like it dozens of times, but for some reason this was the first time he'd actually done it. Maybe it was because of the cold rain or the chill in the air which was making him shiver. Laying his hat on the grass, Elwood removed his sunglasses with one hand and rubbed his eyes with another, trying to remove any traces of his outburst.
Suddenly, Elwood felt a presence. Someone was standing behind him, someone whom he had not heard approach. In a flash, he donned his hat and sunglasses and stood up, and what Elwood saw was something he never really expected to see.
An old woman was standing behind him. She appeared to be in her late fifties or early sixties, and she was wearing an off white dress and a knitted shawl. Here hair was blond with a few gray streaks in it, and she was wearing a sort of white cap on her head. Truth be told, everything about her seemed white, except for one minor detail. She was holding a black umbrella in her right hand.
Elwood was mystified. How the hell did the woman sneak up on him without him hearing her? It wasn't raining that hard, was it? Instinctively, he began to fiddle and tug at his tie, out of nervousness. Elwood opened his mouth to speak when the woman took a few steps towards him. For some reason this silenced him, and all he could do was simply stare as she smiled warmly at him and extended her umbrella out to cover him.
"Take it," she said, in a soft voice. "I don't need it."
Elwood obeyed, and took hold of the handle of the umbrella, drawing it over his head. He could hear the sharp pitter patter of rain on top of its canvas dome.
The woman seemed satisfied that Elwood had accepted her gift, and took a couple steps back. She was still smiling and Elwood was beginning to feel a bit...odd. Like he had just woken up from a long nap or something. Or a night of drinking minus the hangover.
"Don't be afraid," the woman said. "Everything will be alright."
At this point, Elwood probably would have stormed up to the woman and asked her what loony bin she escaped from, but he did not feel like it. A sense of peace had fallen over him, one that he'd never felt in his entire life. He did not feel the urge to get angry, and he wasn't scared. It was just...peaceful. He suddenly felt an intense desire to look at Jake's tombstone again, so he did. But nothing about it had changed. It was still a wet gray rectangle, buried partway in the ground, as it had always been.
Elwood turned back to look at the woman, but was absolutely shocked by what he saw, or rather, by what he didn't see. The woman had vanished completely, not a trace of her was to be seen. There were no indentations in the grass, or any sign that she had been there at all. Elwood would not have believed she was there at all if it weren't for the black umbrella that he was now holding above his head. He scanned the graveyard carefully, but nothing white caught his eye. The woman was gone, and Elwood was now very confused and cold, though slightly less wet thanks to the umbrella.
Elwood stood still for a few more second before deciding on his next move. He was tired of standing in the rain, and tired of being cold. He wanted to go home. So Elwood walked, rather quickly, with his long strides, across the graveyard and out to the road to his car. He placed the umbrella on the passenger seat of the vehicle, and started the engine to warm it up. As soon as the car was warmed enough, Elwood got in and closed the door behind him.
The rain was almost done now, and patches of blue sky began to appear in the clouds. The birds that had been sheltering in the trees started to sing, and raindrops on the lonely tombstones started to glow as a stray ray of sunlight appeared over the cemetery. The wind slowed to a stop. Everything seemed peaceful and still, and for once in a long, long while, Elwood actually felt a bit happy. He glanced down at the soggy umbrella on the seat, and then looked out through his window into the graveyard. Elwood looked directly at Jake's tombstone, which he could see in the distance. Only this time he no longer felt sad; no longer fearful.
"Until next time, brother."
He put his foot on the accelerator, and sped off into the distance.