1 Dress, 27 Funerals

Brittany Bain

June 29th, 2016

Summary

Saturday had finally come and it was time for her 25th funeral. Yes, 25 funerals. This one, was a friend she had met in college through another friend. You know one of those situations where you grow closer with the person who you are introduced to than the person who did the introduction. This was one of those. She had plenty memories from college to cherish because they loved to go clubbing together.

On this same morning, she remembered one Friday night in particular where she wanted to stay in to get ahead in some of her work, but this friend, Sherry, wanted to go check out the club for a while because she heard that there was a drink special this night.

Jane thought in her head, "Why not? I can easily just get a few drink and hang out for 2 hours." So she went to go look for one of her good ol' black clubbing dresses in her closet. This one dress that she had worn to too many clubs. The one dress that she wanted to wear was a little tattered so she had to settle for some jeans and a shirt.

Now, as Jane is looking through her closet for a black dress to wear to her friend's funeral, she goes to look at this one dress. This one dress that she had worn to too many friends' funerals.

"Have I worn this dress too much?" She sadly asked herself.

Asking herself this question itself had drowned her in sadness because all that she could think about is how much death that she has seen. The thought of anyone else experiencing this much death in life seemed saddening. To think of it, she was only 38 years old. However, she wondered if there was something she had done wrong in her life to go through this so often.

"Sure, most people at this age has experienced losing a friend or two for many different reasons, but I am an expert at this." She thought. She is not sure why this one friend has seriously made her think about her life. What was it about this one friend that made her think so deeply about her relation to death?

Jane was very sociable so she always had a large friend group. Therefore, in her situation, she thought it could be a pro and a con that she had a lot of friends. She always thought that she could have more friends as they died, but having more friends increased the chances of a greater amount dying. It's strange to think of death in this way, but it sometimes provided comfort.

She arrived to the funeral in her "funeral dress," sat down in the pew and who does she see? Her boss that she has been pining over for years. She sat with her legs crossed the ankles, hands gently resting in her lap, but head periodically turning left in his direction. For a few seconds, she almost forgot why she was to church.

"The world is truly small." She thought. "But not that small. This was my friend from college!" She shook it off as the funeral continued because there were a few portions that had her emotional.

At the end of the funeral while walking out, Jane looked around for her boss to ask him how he had known her friend. While mid-head-turn, she felt two taps on her left shoulder. It broke it out her zone so she quickly looked back. The guy standing behind her said, "I've seen you to a few funerals before this one. Is this a normal thing for you?" He said while looking at this awfully familiar dress she had on.

Perplexed by the question, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I guess." He figured that she was not in the mood for conversation so he did not say anything else.

Meanwhile, while looking for her boss, George, she spots her sister, Tess, outside of the church who came to pick her up because she was in town for a while using her car. However, while going to meet her sister, Jane watched her sister's eyes catch her boss's eyes. In the midst of the crowd, they slowly sauntered toward each other.

Jane looked at Tess, then at George. She made two steps toward Tess. She then looked at George, then at Tess again. After continuing this for about 30 seconds, they all meet up. Everything had stopped.

"Uhhh George this is Tess. Tess this is my George. I mean… my boss, George!" She said nervously as her voice quivered. At this point, Jane did not even wonder how George knew her friend, she just didn't want him to know her sister. She had been around the blocks a bit. Through short conversation, George and Tess had decided to go to the funeral after eats together while Jane decided to go home.

Although Jane had seen many deaths in her life, she still stood strong and stayed organized in her life. However, this last one took a toll on her outlook. She began to get cynical. Plus, her sister was about to take away someone who she loved for years.

While out to one of her coworker's bridal showers that she organized, the same fellow who spoke to her at the funeral, Kevin, made an appearance. He saw her, approached her, and said,

"Hey, do you remember me from the funeral?" She nodded. Kevin, content that she remembered, said, "Ok great. Would you like a drink from the bar?" She thought why the hell not and said, "Sure."

With the drinks flowing, she got to telling Kevin about how so many of her friends are dying and she keeps wearing this one black dress to all of the funerals because it's too much to buy a new dress for every funeral.

Kevin was very intrigued by her story because he had never met anyone that experienced so much death. It may have also been intriguing because, little did she know, he wrote in the obituaries section in the newspaper.

The next day to work, he was sitting at his desk thinking of a way to get advance himself in the office. He was not sure how he was going go about it, until he thought about how intrigues he was talking to Jane last night. Then, he thought to himself, "I should make this into an interesting story." He thought on it for a bit, and decided to give the idea a try to his boss.

Her response was "Nah, I'm not into it. Plenty people experience death often." But he replied,

"25 funerals?" His boss's eyebrows raised in shock. She decided to give him a shot at writing a rough draft.

Since that night of the bridal shower/party, Kevin and Jane have been hanging out a lot ever since. He wanted to get as much information out of her as he could. However, he was also starting to enjoy just having someone to spend the time with. Jane was also enjoying having someone else to spend time with rather than listening to her sister's annoying sexcapades with her boss and thinking about the fact that her cousin and his wife just died in a car accident.

It had been three weeks since Jane and Kevin were hanging out. While at work, his boss surprised him by saying, "Kevin, let me see the story on that girl." He paused.

"It's not done yet, please give me more time." She said, "NOW!" Although he was not ready to send in the piece, he reluctantly did so. Besides, she only wanted to read it- as so we think. After reading it, she called him to the office and said, "It's good. I'm interested. We're running it. Sunday, front page of the section." Kevin originally wanted this, but he needed more time to shift things around "She's more than just a sad person, you know. I just want to make sure it's right before we print this at any time. Just give me a week." His boss agreed.

Jane was having a lunch meeting at a popular restaurant with her boss, George, to help pick out food for his and Tess's wedding. They already had a good working relationship but she found herself flirting with him during lunch. Kevin, who also coincidentally decided to have lunch there that same time saw her from a distance. He did not know who the guy was that she was having lunch with, but he wanted to find out. As he ate, he glanced at her in between bites. Jane played with her necklace the whole time talking with George. He legs were crossed at the ankles while tapped her right foot up and down.

Kevin approached. "Hey Jane!" He startled her. "H-heyy" she said while still playing with her necklace (nervously this time). Jane introduced the two and it all became clear to Kevin in that exact moment – she loves him.

Riding together to pick up an arrangement for her sister's wedding, Kevin says,

"It's like a light bulb! Of course you're not happy about the wedding. The moment I saw you mooning over him at the restaurant it made sense! You're planning your sister's wedding for the man you love! Your sadness isn't all about just losing these people. You're going to lose your boss too."

"I'm excited to be planning my sister's wedding! I'm happy for her. But you can't seem to understand that!" as Jane attempts to defend her lies.

They went back and forth which made Jane's angry driving even worse. The car spun off of the side of the road and into a mud patch. They were stuck in it. They had no service so they had to walk to the nearest place which was a bar.

Upon arrival and in the midst of the frustration, Kevin takes off his jacket. "It's been a long day. I'm gonna have a drink." They both decided to have more than a few drinks. The conversation came back up.

"Here I am thinking that we were feeling each other, but you were so busy feeling your boss."

"Anyway, I'm not gonna talk about this Mr. Jealous." But she enjoyed his jealousy.

After a drunken night of singing, dancing, and sex, they found a diner that next morning and ate breakfast. A customer approached and said, "You're that girl from last night!" Jane stared blankly at him. "That girl who sang Benny and the Jets!" It all became clear to her as she smiled.

They continued talking as their waitress approached her and said, "Hey, you're that girl!"

Jane confidently said, "Yeahhhh Benny and the Jets." Their waitress said "No, from the newspaper article" as she showed Jane the article. Jane awkwardly looked at the newspaper, not expecting to see an article titled, "The Sad, Sad Life" with a picture in her typical funeral dress at the top.

Jane was angered. She stormed away from the table and rushed out of the diner. Kevin rushed behind her saying, "Jane, I'm sorry but it was not supposed to be published yet! I tried to hold it off."

She quickly turned around and slapped him. "But yet you couldn't tell me that you were writing a story about me?" He felt horrible, and she was humiliated. She never wanted to see him again. She went home, and bought a new black dress for her sister's wedding. She did not see Kevin anymore for the next three weeks, and even if she did, she did not speak to him.