June 22, 2016
It's a beautiful summer day. Birds chirped and sang, a light breeze came and went, the sky is a bright blue with a few white, fluffy clouds floating around. Everything looks and seems perfect. Yes, perfect it looks and seems, but it is the complete opposite.
Long black limos lined the perimeter of Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. People all dressed in black or dark grey stood at the entrance either holding hands of children, tissues, or flowers. Both sexes of female and male mourned in grief either with or without tears.
Finally, a hearse came around a corner and pulled into the cemetery. A funeral was present.
Once the crowd outside of the cemetery fill all the seats at the burial site, the funeral started with a greeting from a man in all priest robes with grey hair and warm green eyes standing at a podium, the minister.
"Hello, my name is Minister Howard Austin. I've known Atem Novellvs since he got married to Moyra Nicole at the age twenty three." He looked at a beautiful topaz brown colored woman with curly, dark brown hair pulled back in a professional bun. He gave her a sympathetic look as she cried silently. A widow at such a young age of thirty four.
"He told me personally that if he were to die, he wanted me to be the minister. He's even left me a poem he's written for his daughters, Adonia Novellvs,whom's currently 18, and Añastasia Novellvs, whom currently is 16. It reads the following:
My hyper, beautiful darlings
Whom's smile brightens my day
Whom's eagerness of wanting to play
Forces me to stay
.
I feel as if y'all do not know
How much I love y'all so
I'll leave y'all all my treasures
I'll leave y'all all my gold
.
When it's time for me to go
.
If the time is a day too soon
If for whatever reason
My promise to y'all is still the same
Even if I die the second I close my eyes tonight
.
The minister looked up from the podium he stood at and scanned the crowed finding the two daughters of Atem Novellvs sitting next to each other crying heavily. He continued the poem he was reading after taking a deep breath.
.
My picky, little darlings
Whom's eyes are like stars
That twinkle and sparkles so bright
I see them through the dark of my night
.
I feel as though I've let yall down
Much too many times
I'll waver to forgive myself
Even once I die
.
And that fact only makes me want to cry
.
I've tried the hardest I could
To become and grow better than what I am
But my efforts failed with strength of wood
Weak
.
The crowd remained deadly silent waiting for the minister to continue. The minister heard the daughters and wife of Atem Novellvs still weeping.
.
My talented, precious darlings
Whom I'd kiss goodnight
Whom's face is peaceful while dreaming
Whom gives me all my might
.
I know that I am terribly ill
I know that I've committed so many great wrongs
Nothing can save me from me
Not even my prescribed drugs in shape of a pill
.
While around you two, I'm at peace
.
As long as I live,
I will commit more wrongs
Just to keep y'all safe
Away from any peril
.
My sweetest, remarkable darlings
I'm happy when with y'all
Y'all innocent hugs and kisses cure my pain
You two may not know this, but I depend on y'all
.
So young as yall are
I fail to see yall as a mistake
Y'all are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me
Simply put, y'all are too good for me
.
Y'all are the only reason I've made it this far in life
.
I miss y'all both
I love y'all so
Y'all are always the first in my eyes
I never wanted to leave
But I must conclude goodbye...
.
...my darlings
.
Minister Howard Austin finished the poem and looked at the crowd once again. "Atem Novellvs was a great, great man. If you did not notice, his daughters, Adonia and Añastaisa, are the greatest thing to him. I remember him telling me that when he had Adonia at the age sixteen, people told him he made a great mistake for he was at a very young age. When he had Añastaisa at the age eighteen, people criticized him again because Atem started out his life in a difficult situation and having a child during the time was very dumb and foolish of him. Those people were wrong. These children made him who he was.
"Unfortunately, at the age twenty six, five years after Atem became very famous and wealthy for writing and making music,he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, and it completely destroyed him. The only ones who were there for him were his children, not any pill his doctors gave him or mental help a therapist provided for him, his darlings.
"His darlings saved him from many things, but the two girls could not save him from himself. Dying at the age thirty four, a very young age, surprised all of up greatly, and we're here today to say farewell to his soul and wish him a safe trip up to our lord's palace. Thank you." Minister Howard Austin stepped down from the podium as everyone clapped. He made his way to the back if the crowd to find a seat to watch the casket of Atem Novellvs, the famous musical artist and entrepreneur of Novellvs Enterprises, be set into the ground.
"Goodbye, Atem." He mumbled to himself and inhaled deeply as tears welled up in his own eyes.
Three Month's Later: September 18, 2016
Two girls the age of eighteen and sixteen sat in front of a tombstone speaking to no one in particular. They went on about their day, what happened at work (Adonia now owned Novellvs Enterprises), how Atem would be so upset if he saw how some of his employees were acting, how their step mother (Moyra Nicole) was doing, and how they and their step mother missed him so much. The tombstone didn't reply back of course. The tombstone just sat there with words engraved into it.
The writing on the tombstone red:
A Beloved Father, Husband, Friend, and Man
Atem W. Novellvs
Feb. 9, 1982 - Jun. 20, 2016
"Not Even My Greatest Fear
Can End My Greatest Smile
My Happiness Will Remain Right Here"
One of the golden honey colored girls, Añastasia, started speaking again of another topic.
"Remember I told you I wanted to be a model like Moyra, Daddy?" She asked while playing with some grass. "Well, Moyra said she'll allow me to be a model for her fashion line." The younger girl smiled looking up at the sky. "You always told me I'd be such a beautiful model. I can't wait. If only you were here…"
Her happiness instantly disappeared and turned into a horror stricken depression.
"Why did you do what you did, Daddy?" She asked in a slightly raised voice. "Why did you have to do this to yourself, and you knew you have children! You knew you have a wife! You knew that we all love you!" Her hands flew to her face covering her tears.
Meanwhile, her sister, Adonia, just sat there staring at the grass below her and remembering coming home to visit her family from college. How her happy mood to be home went away so quickly on the day her father was found dead.
"I'm home!" Adonia announced after opening the front door. She dropped her bag, ran up the long spiral stairs, and stopped at her younger sister's room to see her doing homework and listening to Bruno Mars.
"Uh, hello! Aña, older sister is home!" She spoke after snatching Añastasia's beats by Dre headphones from her head.
"Cool." Añastasia mumbled reaching for her headphones.
"Did you miss me?" Adonia asked holding the headphones away from her younger sister.
"Yeah. As much as I miss having my period which I just finished having this month. Now give me my beats!"
Adonia scrunched her nose up in disgust and handed her sisters beats back to her. "Where's Dad?"
"Probably in his room. He's been quite moody today. Going through some depression I think." Her sister mumbled before putting her headphones around her neck. "I went to talk with him and gave him some of his prescription medicine, but I don't think he was paying me any attention, so I left him alone."
Adonia nodded. "I'll go check up on him." She turned to leave but then stopped at her sister's door. "Where's Moyra by the way? She's usually home when Dad is like this."
"She had an important meeting and told me she'll take him to Psychologist Savannah when she comes home." Añastasia answered while typing into her laptop.
Adonia nodded and left the room to make way to her father's master bedroom. "Daddy! I'm home!" she called and knocked on the door twice before opening it.
She looked towards the large king sized bed to see a figure under golden covers. "Daddy, I'm home." She spoke gently and advanced towards the bed thinking her father was sleeping.
Once she got around the bed, she gasped.
Her father laid in bed with a skin of white she's never seen on his tanned skin before. His veins were basically visible. His medication pills were all scattered all around him, and glass shattered was on the floor with water around it.
"Dad?" Adonia called out waiting for a response before panicking. She reached up to her father's head and felt he was dangerously cold.
"Oh my god." She mumbled to herself and pulled her phone out her pocket quickly dialing 911.
"911. What's your emergency?"
"I need an ambulance."
Adonia silently stood up from her tombstone and began to walk away back to the black limousine parked at the entrance of the cemetery. The driver, Darwin, spoke once Adonia closed the car door and buckled her seatbelt.
"Mr. Novellvs wouldn't like to see you like this." His voice held concern and depression.
"And I didn't want to come home from college to see him dead in bed." Adonia countered looking out of the tinted window seeing her sister still at the tombstone sobbing. "I don't wish to see my sister and step-mom crying. I didn't' wish to see his body in a casket." Adonia's voice trailed off and tears gathered in her eyes, but she blinked them back willing herself not to cry.
Darwin nodded and opened the front door to retrieve Añastasia to go home.
