Chapter 10

"Daphne Blake's Wake"

As planned, the mourning process for Daphne began the day after Christmas and all of our family and friends came in to say goodbye to a beautiful person whose life was cut tragically short at 31,000 feet. But, just before the wake was about to begin, I approached the opened mahogany casket and looked down at Daphne's body, clothed in her favorite purple dress with her legs clad in her favorite pink pantyhose and her purple high heels on her feet. Her neck was wrapped in her favorite green scarf and her red hair was washed nicely with the purple headband on her head.

"Well, this is it, Daphne," I whispered, placing my hand on her folded hands. "After all we have been through together; this is our last goodbye until next time. But, I have something for you to take with you up to our lord and master."

I then placed a small bouquet of baby roses in her hands, echoing what Joe DiMaggio did at Marilyn Monroe's funeral in 1962. Finally, I knew at that moment that the time had come for me to do something I should have done before Daphne left for Germany. I took the engagement ring that I had planned to use to propose to Daphne the moment she stepped off the plane. I got down on one knee and took her hand in my hand and placed the ring on her finger.

"You may not know this, Daph," I said to her, getting up and looking down at her peaceful body. "But, I was planning to make you my wife upon your return from Germany. All I wanted to do was to spend the rest of my life with you. We could have had a beautiful ceremony that was to both of our likings; we could have had our very own family to call our own and we would have lived until we were old and grey."

At that point, tears started streaming down my face as I was now trying to hide my emotions. I wanted her to wake up and climb out of that casket, showing me that she was still alive and well. I knew that was not going to be the case, however I was in denial about it.

"I hope you know that I was only trying to protect you," I cried, no longer being able to hold my emotions in. "There was a major threat that you put yourself into and I was trying to keep you from being put into it. You were always the stubborn one, were you, Daphne? Your stubbornness is what put you in this situation and you can't get out of it."

At that point I began to sob quietly as I got down on my knees and slowly started to accept the fact that Daphne was gone and there was nothing I could do about it. After a few moments, I heard the sounds of footfalls and I felt two sets of hands touch my shoulders. Looking up, I saw Shaggy and Velma standing right in back of me and I rose to my feet and hugged them tightly.

"I can't believe this is happening," cried Velma, who was dressed in a black pantsuit. "Who would want to do this to Daphne, Fred?"

"Like, this is so unfair," added Shaggy, who was carrying an urn containing Scooby Doo's ashes after he had died this past summer. "But, at least Daphne and Scoob are having a good time up in heaven."

I had to smile slightly at that, given the fact that Scooby and Daphne were together again waiting for the moment that we would all reunite one day.

"I, uh, brought Scooby's ashes to put in the casket," remarked Shaggy, holding the silver urn in his hands. "I'd figured Scooby and Daphne would be laid to rest together, if the parents don't mind."

"I'm pretty sure they wouldn't," I remarked, taking the urn from Shaggy and then placing it in the casket on Daphne's left side. "Scooby was always a favorite of theirs, wasn't he?"

"Not unless the time he urinated on one of Daphne's pantsuits," chuckled Velma, breaking the sadness for a second there. "Boy, was she furious with him for that."

The remembrance of that moment was enlightening to say the least as we saw Daphne's family walk in and stand next to the open casket. All of Daphne's surviving sisters including Delilah were present. I could see that Delilah was much like me, emotionally distraught over the loss of her sister. The Blake's were a very close family and that they had a pact that they were to stand together in moments like this.

"Hello, everyone," said Velma as she hugged Daphne's parents and sisters. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, Velma," replied Elizabeth. "We are so glad that you and Norville are here to support us in our time of need."

"I quickly came over as soon as I heard what happened," added Deliah, sighing heavily. "I just saw her only a few days ago and I knew that flying on Pan Am would be dangerous. Daphne was always the stubborn one in this family, you know."

"We were all stubborn," remarked Mr. Blake, sitting down in a chair that was provided for him and the family. "That's one of the weaknesses of our family: we are always getting into danger because we are so stubborn and our stubbornness cost us the life of our guardian angel."

All of us were silent at those words as the people started coming in to pay their respects to Daphne. Some of the people who attended were people that we had helped in the past including Luna, Dusk and Thorn along with Mayor Corey from Oakhaven; our old friend, Eric Stoffer and his professor, Robert Kaufman as well as Beau Neville, the detective from Moonscar Island who was investigating the disappearances of those who would later became Zombies.

Eventually, the calling hours came to an end and we would all go our separate ways until the next morning, where we would all come together for one last goodbye to our beloved Daphne and I would give probably the most important speech of my young life…