Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
The rows of black stretched on until the end. That was it. There was nothing else. Aly was able to comprehend nothing more than what she had. Nawat was gone. Her everything, the only reason to continue living in the Kyprin Isles and bothering with life itself.
None of her Tortollian family had been able to make it over in time to come to the funeral. She had no family aside from the little one in her arms to help her through this.
A coffin was walked forwards on the shoulders of many men. It was drapped in a cloth bearing the symbol of the past revolution, as was only proper.
Crows were waiting along the branches, silently watching. The Kungdrung were silent, the littlest one lying with its head on Aly's lap.
Dove and Winnia were sitting on Aly's right, her left side taken by the Kungdrung. Nawat's squad, rather those who remained after the massacre, were in rows behind her.
Words were said through tears and forced out to make sense. Aly refused to say anything, preferring instead to remain silent and contemplative.
As the last of the dirt was thrown on the grave, the tears that Aly had not allowed to fall, poured down her face in streams.
Dove walked over to her best friend and pulled her close. 'Are you going to go home?' she asked worried.
'I think I need to,' Aly replied. 'I have to find my feet again. I have to learn how to live.'
'Will I ever see you again?'
'Maybe. Eventually,' Aly said and looked up to see the crow dancing on the breeze.
'Just don't get yourself killed before I do,' Dove continued, hugged her friend one last time and walked off.
Aly sighed. He is gone, to never come back.
