Jamie tugged at the shirt collar squeezing a little too tightly around his neck. He stood quietly in the corner of the dimly lit room, the morning sun blocked out by the drawn shades. He scrunched his nose, choking a bit on the sweet air filled with the smell of flowers and strong perfume. The quiet hum of people's condolences was interrupted every once in a while by the doorbell ringing. The coffee tables were covered with photo albums, flower arrangements, and "thinking of you" cards.
Jamie left his dark corner of the room and returned to his mother's side, standing awkwardly by her sobbing figure. He shifted his feet, trying to ease the pain of the uncomfortable blisters forming from his tight leather shoes. They were much too small, something that only momentarily fit his feet when he was in 6th grade and his grandmother passed away.
Each time his mother began recovering from a fit of sobs, another family member would approach her or another photo of her daughter would catch her attention. Jamie was worried she'd cry so much that she'd get dehydrated. Surely the human body only has so many tears to cry.
The boy tried his best to avoid looking at the empty wooden box beside him. Technically, it was filled with stuffed animals, toys, and cards. Yet every time he glanced at it, it was like staring into a black hole. If he looked too long, the emptiness would leave him with an echoing void of his thoughts. He wished someone would close it, or at least put it in the ground already so he didn't have to keep looking at it. The woody smell that it offered was beginning to make him nauseous.
Jamie looked away from it again, finding Henry and William standing next in line. "Ms. Karim...I can't imagine what you're going through," Henry began, offering a hug to his mother. William, behind his coworker, kept an uninterrupted stare on Jamie, who glared right back. He was too emotionally numb to yell at the man or even begin to express the contempt that was boiling inside of him.
William stepped forward, holding a yellow stuffed animal out for Nabila to see. It was a rabbit.
"I was wondering if I could put this in her casket...it was with her jacket."
"I never even knew she had one...maybe I forgot about it...go ahead, if you think it was important to her, put it in."
Bullsh*t. "What? I've never seen her with that before," Jamie spoke up, trying to figure out what William was up to.
"Well maybe you just weren't paying attention." Afton spat each word out.
He placed the bowtie-bearing plushie in the casket and returned his attention to Nabila. His voice changed to an almost dramatic one, "We are truly so sorry for your loss. If there's anything, anything we can do to help you and your family right now, just ask."
Henry joined in. "Yeah, we could even help cover the funeral costs, I know this stuff isn't cheap."
As the words left Henry's mouth, William's kind facade dropped for a moment, as he gave his business partner a look of bewilderment.
"Oh I wouldn't want to do that to you gentlemen, I'm sure we can manage…" the woman replied.
"I'm serious, think of it as a favor, you have enough stress to worry about. Let us at least take care of this."
"...henry" William spoke quietly, trying to interupt the two.
Henry ignored him, insisting, "Please."
"Henry."
"If you're so determined, I won't turn down your offer." Henry smiled warmly at Jamie's mother, before being dragged away by William with a quick "Just a moment."
After the two men stepped out into the hall, Jamie approached the empty tomb for the first time. What kind of bullsh*t was that? 'Maybe you just weren't paying attention?' Why the hell would William lie about such a stupid little thing?
Jamie picked up the rabbit, feeling around it and flipping it over, inspecting every inch, every loose string, every buldge of cotton filling. He squeezed the soft plushie, to be met with a solid rectangular object laying in the cotton. He tried to feel around the bunny to figure out what it was. Based on the thinner, flat part of the object, he guessed it was a blade of some sorts.
So why the hell would William be hiding a knife in a stuffed animal?
"How could you offer something like that?!" William hushedly exclaimed. "Did you forget that we have our own financial issues to worry about? Hell, I've had to take up a job at the highschool! You know how much I hate working with teenagers, Henry."
"And I've had to become an auto-mechanic's assistant! Everyone's got sh*t they're dealing with, Will. We owe it to that poor woman and her son to help out!"
"God you really are pathetic."
Henry's voice dropped to a deeper tone, "What did you ju-"
"Even in financial danger you still can't give up that stupid moral code of yours! Wake up Henry! The world is shitty to people, when you're ahead, you can't keep stopping to help everyone else. It's every damn man for themselves."
Henry shouted now, losing his composure, "That girl was murdered in our restaurant, Will!"
"Henry, quiet! Jesus chris-"
"Sorry that my 'stupid moral code' makes me think about others too much, but at least I don't constantly only think about myself!"
"I do not! You're just lashing out at me because you feel guilty. You couldn't stop a murder from happening in your own restaurant."
"I-wait how did you know I was there that night? I told you I didn't plan on working, I was supposed to be at home."
"You called me from the restaurant, Hen."
"I did? I don't remember-"
"Jesus, you really gotta start getting sleep, it's f*cking up your memory."
Henry ran a nervous hand through his hair. Wait, how did we even get on the topic of this again?
"Listen, why don't we just head in there okay. Sorry I mentioned the whole sleep issue thing."
William started walking towards the doorway but paused when he realized that Henry hadn't moved. "Will, I'm not taking back my promise. We're paying the funeral costs, whether you like it or not."
William took a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose then followed Henry back in the room.
"Jamie, what are you doing?"
"This isn't Emmy's."
"James, put that stuffed animal down right now."
"But-"
"I don't want to hear it! Put it down!"
"I'm not-"
"Get out!"
The room fell silent at his mother's last command. Jamie stomped out of the room, bumping into William on his way to the front door.
William prepared for another glare from the brat, but the boy kept walking, slamming the door behind himself.
"No you don't understand, there's something in that!"
"Jamie."
"Amanda I thought you were on my side!"
"I am, but that doesn't mean you should torture your mom like that."
Amanda had pulled Jamie off to the side. He was trying to stop them from burying the casket, and in doing so caused a bit of a scene.
"I think William hid a knife in there!" Jamie defended, the words bursting out excitedly.
"Woah, calm down, what are you talking about?"
"William brought that stuffed animal. He said it was with her jacket but...Emmy doesn't have a stuffed rabbit. And when I found her jacket, that thing definitley wasn't with it."
"So how do you know he hid a knife in it?"
"I felt it, there's something in the cotton filling."
"But that doesn't make any sense, why would he do that?"
"Because he's trying to hide the murder weapon."
Jamie rushed back to the crowd of black suits and dresses, pushing his way to the front where the casket was.
But they had been too late.
Where the wooden box once laid, there was now a fresh patch of dirt on the ground.
