Chapter 8: Peace and Quiet
Faith and I went back to the hotel to gather our things. We could have handled matters at the hospital first, but we both needed to get away from it as soon as possible. I hoped that this would be our last visit, at least for awhile.
At the hotel, we had no more encounters with spirits. Mom warned us that our abilities would intensify after she died, but we had been lucky up to that point. Maybe the spirits could sense that it was the wrong time to start bothering us. I, for one, was definitely not in the mood.
I was not angry or upset although maybe I should have been. Mom's letter reminded me of the things that she was going through. She was much better off not having to suffer.
Before leaving the hotel, I decided to take the time to do something important. I needed to call Aunt Carol. She was always willing to lend a helping hand whenever we needed her. I dialed her number.
"Hello?" her voice had a touch of anxiety. I could tell that she had been waiting for my call.
"Aunt Carol, it's me," I said.
"Christian, it is so nice to finally hear from you again," I could hear the sarcasm in her voice.
"I was going to call earlier, but I didn't want to wake you and Uncle Chuck up."
"You should not have let that stop you from calling. It is an excuse. Any new developments with Madeline, and I should be the first to know."
She was such a feisty person when she wanted to be. She was a year older than mom and determined not to let her age catch up to her. I remember her dying her hair for the first time. She was forty-eight years old with red hair and a short, modern haircut. To my surprise, mom approved of it.
"There aren't going to be any more developments, I'm afraid."
For the next few moments, I could have heard a pin drop. She understood that I meant mom was gone. It was as if I was transferred from Aunt Carol to a ghost or something. The silence worried me for a moment, but I gave my words time to sink in.
"Oh, dear," she spoke again. Her voice faltered like she did not believe me.
I was picturing her falling into her old rocking chair. Her eyes were probably flooded with tears. It was a depressing thought, but I was unable to pull it from my mind.
Mom was Aunt Carol's only sibling. They spent the better of fifty years together. Of course she would be devastated to hear of mom's passing.
I could hear the sound of her crying on the other line. I expected it, but I was hoping that she would be able to wait until we were finished talking. I listened for a moment giving her time to let all of her emotions out.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Aunt Carol spoke after she was calm.
"It's fine," I tried to sound warm and comforting, "that sounded almost like the way I felt after I found out."
She choked up a laugh, or what she could make of one.
"I called to break the bad news to you, but I had something else to ask you about as well."
"What is it? I will help out in any way that I can."
That was exactly the answer that I was hoping for.
"Well, obviously we don't want this death and burial thing hanging over our heads. I have thought about it, and I am sure that Faith agrees with me. We want you to manage the funeral service."
She waited for a moment to answer.
"Madeline told me that this would happen. She knew that you would not want to be responsible for burying her. I will take care of it for you. Don't worry."
I breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad that mom had already talked to her about it.
"Thank you. I will dig into mom's reserves to pay for everything. I just wasn't sure how to handle the actual service."
"I understand, dear. Give me the phone number to the hospital, and I will have her transferred here."
I gave her the number and told her that we were on our way home.
"It's all set," I told Faith after I got off of the phone. She gave me a nod of approval and a smile. It was nice to see her smile again.
We left the hotel with our things and began our journey home.
"Why don't you let me drive?" Faith asked as we got into the car.
I thought for a moment. I had almost let myself forget that she was fifteen.
"You have your permit?"
"Yes, but I was joking about the driving thing. I memorized the book, but mom and I hadn't gotten in much practice before -" her voice trailed off.
I searched for a distraction.
"Hey, I'll teach you the rest before summer is over." I extended my hand to her.
"It's a deal." She shook my hand.
The ride home was much more pleasant than the ride to the hospital had been. Faith and I turned the volume up on the radio and enjoyed some real music for a change.
Faith had a different taste in music than I did. I listened mostly to forms of rock, keeping very particular about what I deemed "worthy." Faith, on the other hand, enjoyed everything from rap to country to gospel. I was fine with it as long as her diversity included my music as well.
Seeing our house for the first time in two days was nice. Although it was messy and the grass was wild and unsightly, I recognized it as the place that I wanted to be.
We made our way to the front door, and we were met by a familiar face. Jack popped his head out of the dog door and smiled at us. Upon reaching the porch, he was completely out of the door, wagging his tail.
"Hi there, my friend," I said as I patted him on the head.
I let him lick my hand, and he switched from me to Faith. He tackled her to the ground; and surprisingly, she let him. Ever since she was little, Faith had avoided spending very much time with him. She was scared of him because he was so much bigger than her. She must have warmed up to him while I was away.
Jack licked Faith's face until she gently pushed him off of her. I started to unlock the door with my key, but it opened before I was finished.
"There you are!" Aunt Carol was standing at the door, arms wide. She was waiting for a hug, no doubt.
I hugged her first, and Faith followed suit. Uncle Chuck was sitting in the living room watching television. He gave me a wave as I walked through the room. I returned it.
"We came here after you called this morning," Aunt Carol continued talking as I crossed the room towards the stairs. "We wanted to give you a nice welcome home."
"Thank you," I said. Faith nodded in agreement with me.
"After you put your things away, come into the kitchen. I baked you a cake."
I looked at her in surprise. "You didn't have to do all that."
"I told her that already," Chuck chimed in.
"Oh, Chuck, stop being such a brat," Aunt Carol scolded him.
We went upstairs, and Aunt Carol followed us all the way to the top. She kept talking about how glad she was that we were home and things like that. I thought that she was going overboard, but she was glad to see us so I let her be. She tried not to sound upset about mom, but we could see it beyond her smiles.
I went into my room and dropped my things on the bed. Faith continued down the hall. Luckily, Aunt Carol followed her. Not trying to sound mean, but I was not in the mood for more greetings. I felt bad that Faith had to endure it a bit longer.
I had just sat down for a breath when they joined me.
"Ready for cake?"
I would not be able to escape that big goofy grin on Aunt Carol's face. Uncle Chuck would have complained about not getting to eat on account of me. He was the eater of the family.
"Sure," I said, and we went downstairs.
The cake was really more than I expected, but I made it out to be the best thing ever. Aunt Carol ate up every compliment that I fed her. She was extremely proud of her "welcome home" cake.
"Did you get up with the hospital already?" I had to get her attention off of the cake.
"I did actually," she replied, "they are transporting Madeline to Memories tomorrow."
Memories was a local funeral home. Our family, in particular, used it often. Talking about it now was a mood changer for sure, but it was going to come up eventually.
"She wanted to be buried here," she continued, "in our little family cemetery."
I nodded my head as she spoke. Faith kept quiet across the table. She lost interest in her cake all of a sudden.
"So who wants seconds?" Chuck fixed the issue. I could always count on him to make me smile.
He got another piece, but Faith and I decided against it. Aunt Carol put the rest of it in the refrigerator for later. I put my hand under the table so Jack could lick some of the icing. Mom hated it when I did that. It was one of our little secrets.
I remembered something important at that moment. When dinner was over, I went upstairs to mom's room. It looked empty without her in it. I searched under her pillow for her diary and was successful in my search.
Her diary was an old-looking notebook. A regular notebook with regular notebook paper. Definitely sounded like mom to me. I took it with me to my room and dropped it on the dresser.
I opened my dresser and found another useful piece of information. All of my old clothes were still there. Aside from a little dust, they were in good condition. Thank goodness mom kept them for me. That saved me a trip back to the apartment to get clothes.
I figured that I might as well wait until night to read in the diary. I left it on my dresser and joined everyone else in the living room.
"The grass is really getting out of hand," I mentioned, "I could cut it tomorrow."
"Don't bother yourself with that," Aunt Carol replied, "you two just got back. There are more important things to do."
"The boy's got a point," Uncle Chuck said. This was the quality that I did not like much about him - his laziness. He was definitely not going to do any work around there.
"Chuck, leave them alone tonight," Aunt Carol took up for us again. "Let them rest before you start giving them jobs."
I mouthed her a thank-you, and she winked at me. We sat together, quietly staring at the fire.
When I went back upstairs to my room, I found Faith sitting on my bed. She was reading the diary. I joined her.
"It's really interesting," she said, "it has things about mom's life as well as spiritualistic people in general."
"And what part have you been studying, if I may ask?"
"Mom's life. I left the complicated stuff for you. I am not interested in it anyway."
"You are the scholar. You should have memorized all of the complicated stuff by now," I gave her a smile.
"I'm not a scholar," she laughed and shoved me.
I replied by wrapping my arms around her and squeezing her.
"You are so unfair," she said with a smile, "you think that you can bully me because you are bigger."
"I can," I laughed.
She handed the diary to me and started out of my door.
"Don't get too wrapped up in it," she said, "try to sleep some. We have a big week ahead of us."
"I know," I replied, "goodnight, Faith."
"Goodnight."
I was alone once again.