Chapter 5: The Funeral

Two days later, Ellie learned that her and her family would be leaving a day early for the funeral. The funeral was being held at 11:00am in Bedford, where Ellie's aunt and uncle lived. Her parents thought it would be best if they spent the night at a local hotel instead of waking up early for the long drive. Ellie later learned that the real reason they would be leaving a day early was because her aunt and uncle had planed a viewing of Nicole's body at the local funeral parlor, the night before the funeral ceremony.

The day of the viewing arrived, and the Richards's car slowly pulled into the parking lot of the funeral home. Once inside, there were two rooms reserved for Nicole's family and friends. Ellie was surprised at the number of people who came to pay their last respects to Nicole. It seemed as if everyone who ever knew her was there. Ellie entered the first of the two rooms and glanced around. It was quite crowded with people. There were only about a dozen chairs, so most of them were standing in groups, consoling one another. The walls were covered in a bland beige wallpaper, and didn't have any paintings for decoration. There were a couple of ferns sparsely around the room for colour. Small, round mahogany tables were place at every corner of the room, each with a tissue box on top.

A small newspaper clipping on top of the table closest to Ellie caught her eye. She picked it up and saw that it was Nicole's obituary.

Nicole Wright, wife of Kenneth Wright, only child of Simon and Linda Payne, was tragically killed on Wednesday, February 6th in the most recent bombing in downtown London. Nicole was a graduate from Oxford, and had been working for Bloomsbury Inc. in their Marketing Department for over three years. She will be sadly missed by her family and friends. Mr. and Mrs. Payne request anyone with information about the bombing to please contact Scotland Yard immediately.

Ellie slowly placed the newspaper clipping back on the table, and wiped the tear from her eye. She began to make her way into the second, adjoining room, where her parents had gone. This room was covered with the same boring wallpaper as the last, but the decorations were a bit different. Two large wreaths of flowers flanked each end of the long ebony coffin that was open at the side of the room. Fewer people were gathered here. Ellie noticed her aunt Linda surrounded by a circle of six women, all of them weeping. Her parents were standing at the opposite side of the room, talking to her father's cousin Greg. Ellie just barely noticed her uncle Simon sitting in the furthest corner of the room, by himself, with a half glass of amber liquid in his hand. He was looking very depressed and alone, and to make matters worse, no one was attempting to comfort him.

"When are people going to get over it?! It happened over two years ago for God's sake!" Ellie thought to herself.

It was the most bizarre incident to ever happen in Ellie's family, but it seemed that nobody would forget about it.

Two August's ago uncle Simon's close friend from school, Mr. Roberts who was a camp site manager, called him up looking for some extra assistance. Mr. Roberts had been flooded with hundreds of pre-bookings for his camp site, which was extremely unusual, and couldn't handle the large number of campers on his own. Uncle Simon, who had been recently laid off from his job (downsizing), agreed to help without hesitation. He was only suppose to be gone for the evening, but aunt Linda became very worried when he didn't arrive home the next morning. Uncle Simon hadn't even phoned to say he would be late. A neighborhood search party was dispatched immediately, but had ended in a matter of minutes. Uncle Simon had been found only two streets over from his own house. The reason he was late was because he couldn't remember exactly where he lived. He was very disoriented and incoherent, mumbling strange words like "Quiddich", "Quaffle", and "Sickle". Aunt Linda was horrified at her husbands state of mind, and he was taken to the hospital right away. The hospital psychiatrist couldn't determine the cause of uncle Simon's memory loss or insanity. Somehow, after a week, the problem corrected its self, and uncle Simon was back to normal... for the most part. He still has no recollection of the night he went to help Mr. Roberts, and occasionally says odd things in his sleep like "coins the size of hubcaps" and "strange foreigner rally". Neither Mr. Roberts or his family have any memory of that night either. It was as if it had been completely erased from their minds.

Even though uncle Simon was now fully sound of mind, everyone still treated him as if he was about to loose his sanity at any moment.

"We don't know what caused it in the first place, so what's to say it won't come back." Ellie had overheard her aunt Linda say the following Christmas.

Ellie had always felt sorry for her uncle Simon, but now she felt worse. In two years he had lost his job, his mind (temporally), and now he had lost his only daughter.

Ellie glanced back at the opened coffin. She never did feel comfortable around dead bodies (then again, who did?). Ellie could remember going to her grandmother's viewing when she was six. The sight of her grandmother's dead body gave her nightmares for a month.

After standing in the same spot for several minutes, Ellie gathered up her courage, took a deep breath, and slowly walked towards the open coffin. She could feel her stomach start to squirm as she got closer and closer.

Nicole's skin was a pale grey. Her cheeks looked as if they had been touched up by a soft rose coloured blush, and her lips were painted in a coral lipstick. Her deep brown eyes were closed, and a light mauve eyeshadow covered her eyelids. The dark curly locks of hair rested on her shoulders. But there was something about Nicole's appearance that struck Ellie as being very odd.

"She was always very found of you." A raspy voice spoke behind Ellie's left shoulder.

Ellie turned to look at her aunt Linda, who's eyes were very red and puffy.

"She always thought of you as a younger sister."

Ellie wasn't quite sure how to respond to her aunts words, and just gave a weak smile.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Aunt Linda asked as she gazed down at her daughter.

Ellie gave a small nod as she glanced back at Nicole's body, but that's was the thing that was troubling her. Usually when people die in an explosion there isn't much left of them, and if there are body remains, they're usually badly damaged. Nicole, however, didn't have a mark on her, not even a bruise on her arm. She looked completely unharmed. Her face was as flawless as a wax figure at Madam Tussauds.

"Aunt Linda," Ellie began gently, "I was just wondering how far Nicole was from the actual explosion?"

Aunt Linda continued to stare down gravely at her daughter's body.

"Scotland Yard estimated that she had been standing ten feet away from the epicenter of the blast." She replied softly without lifting her eyes. "I should go see your father. I haven't talked to him yet."

Ellie watched her aunt slowly cross the room to where her parents were standing.

Suddenly Ellie wasn't feeling as depressed and grief stricken as she did when she first arrived. An unsettling feeling was gnawing away at her insides. Something wasn't adding up. There was no way Nicole could have been ten feet away from the explosion and not have a single scratch on her face or arms. Especially a blast that killed a total of thirteen people. Ellie was now convinced that her cousin wasn't killed by a bomb at all.