"Are you sure you want to go to Dante's funeral?" Josie asked.

"Mom," Rain answered, "I have to go."

"I'm afraid it will be too hard for you, Sunshine."

"Maybe it will be, but no matter how hard it is for me, I still think I should be there."

Josie felt ashamed, deeply ashamed. She had not planned to go to the funeral, telling herself it would make things a bit,
just a bit, easier for Joe and Paulina if they didn't have to face her just then. She knew, now, that she had really wanted
to avoid the funeral because she was the one who couldn't face it.
She also knew, now, that she couldn't resign from the force; she would have to go back to the 2-3 once her suspension
was over. Resigning, she suddenly realized, would be the cowardly thing to do.

"Rain," Josie thought, "is much stronger, much braver, than I am."

####

The day of the funeral came. Joe, Paulina and Sofia, who had returned to Bay City as she had promised, were at breakfast, a breakfast
which was hardly touched. Eddie Carlino, Dante's grandfather, had not been able to fly in from Calabria, Italy, due to poor health.

"Almost all of Dante's classmates will be at the Mass with their parents," Joe said.

"I know. Ms. Jordan is excusing them from school."

"The only ones who can't come are Edie Garnet and her parents," Joe went on. "Her mom called last night and said they couldn't make it
because Edie has a bad cold. She told me," he added, "that Edie is very upset because she won't get to say goodbye to Dante."

"I wish we didn't have to say goodbye to Dante," Sofia said.

"I know, Bambina. This is a very hard day for all of us."

####

And then, several hours later, Dante's funeral.

The casket was in the center aisle.

Joe, Paulina, Sofia, Carl, and Rachel sat in the front.

Josie, Gary, and Rain sat in the back.

Most of the officers from the 2-3 were there; most, not all. Some of them had had to remain on duty.

Toni, by request from Joe and Paulina, sang the opening hymn, Be Not Afraid.

Fr. Austin Malone led the Introductory Rites.

Paulina walked up to the front of the church to do the First Reading. She looked out at the all the
people who had come to say goodbye to Dante. At first the sight of them... so many of them...
was comforting, consoling.

And then she saw Josie, Gary, and Rain.

She began to walk to the back of the church.