A Funeral in Zanesville,OH Part I.
At lunchtime on Friday, Beats and Elliott met up with Flint, and they headed in the airport at Newark for the second time that week. They were not heading there to take a flight, however, but to collect a rental car. Flint had pointed out that the cost of renting a suitable car in the city was higher than at the airport and there was less choice; also they would have to pay the tunnel tolls if they left from Manhattan. That was all before they factored in the congestion that there always was there, which would be even worse on a Friday afternoon. It was already a drive of over eight hours without adding in delays in the city…
Elliott had agreed with him, and so Beats had accepted it as a fact. The car they hired was an electric one, state of the art, with enough capacity to get them all the way there without a stop. The make was the same as the electric car that the Harpers had in Zanesville, so they could easily plug it in there too. Flint had elected that he would take the wheel for the first stretch of the trip, and soon they were cruising along the interstate westward. Beats sat in the back with his husband and the conversation was muted, the radio tuned in to an easy listening station; it played songs they all knew, and in happier times they might have sung along to them…
There had been a brief discussion about whether Dante and Ty should join them on the trip, but the latter was deemed to be too young, and the former had admitted that whilst he would come if he was told to for the sake of his adopted father and grandparents, he would not do so with any respect for the woman that they were burying the next day, not knowing what she had thought of him. Beats thought that it was quite refreshing to hear such honesty from a young man, and so he had told him that he need not come. He had offered to look after Ty again, but he would be staying with Nick and Jeff instead. When they had heard of the reason for the trip, they had said it was the least they could do for their friend…
Flint drove on with ample care but also a good speed through New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, keeping a steady pace as they reached the turnpike. They had initially considered making a stop at the McDonalds in Middlesex to eat, but none of them were hungry or needing a restroom as they approached, so he kept going as the light began to fade as the short February day drew to a close. They would eventually stop in New Stanton, where the need for a bathroom break became evident, and they could pull in at a Cracker Barrel. They decided to have something to eat whilst they were there, the menu of old fashioned Southern foods giving them all something to satisfy their hunger. Beats found himself smiling momentarily when he saw Elliott giving the staff the once over, then doing the same with the décor and the food, as only someone that worked in the industry would…
On returning to the car, Elliott insisted on taking over the driving from Flint, and the latter joined Beats in the back as they headed back on the road west, through the top corner of West Virginia and finally into Ohio. As they grew nearer to the town that Beats still thought of as his home, even if he had not lived there full-time for nearly two decades, he broke his silence and began to talk more. "I have to admit that I am not looking forward to this one bit," he said quietly to Flint. "I know that Mom and Dad are in bits, because however badly she might have treated them over the years, she was still their eldest child and the mother of their grandchildren. They will be just as hard to handle, because even if she barely had time for them and she caused them so much hurt and upset, she was still their mom…"
"We love our mothers regardless of what they do; it is part of our nature," Elliott said from the front seat.
"I still have no idea how to deal with them, what to say or do."
"I think you just have to play it by ear; see how the land lies and handle every moment as it unfolds. It is all that you can do," Flint said kindly.
"Then there's the funeral; a lot of people will turn up out of curiosity rather than sympathy. The few friends that my sister still had will be there too, and there will be some of them that share the attitudes and opinions that she had. They will look down on me, her brother that has married a man, and on the man he married too…"
"I've handled that before, my love."
"And they will give voice to their anti-semitic views as well, just like she did to you Flint from the very moment that she found out you were Jewish." Beats paused and turned to face his friend. "I always knew; she was the reason that you stopped coming home with me on those weekends and stayed at Dalton instead. I am just sorry that I didn't confront it and speak up about it at the time…"
Flint looked at his best friend and the sad expression on his face, and leaned over to take his hand. He smiled, and replied, "I always thought that you had no idea what she was saying to me the minute you left the room. Your mom knew, and she apologised to me for her daughter's behaviour all the time. I didn't want to cause trouble in your family, so it was easier to stay away. I always thought that I had hidden the truth from you…"
"When it was happening, I had no idea," said Beats with a sigh. "I was naïve then; I just thought that you wanted to do things on your own. It was only once we were in college that I began to think about it, and then it hit me that you had to have had a good reason to keep on declining my invitations to come home with me to Zanesville for a weekend. At Dalton, there was good food and other close friends; that wasn't the case at Princeton at first, so for you to decline home cooking over the canteen stuff... It was the second time I went back, and I had gone up to bed, then realised I had left my phone downstairs. I went back to fetch it, and that was when I heard my sister saying something that I will not deign to repeat about another person of your faith, a certain Bernie Sanders…"
"You might as well tell me," said Flint calmly. "I've heard enough to be able to imagine what it might have been."
Beats lowered his gaze, and replied with a sigh, "She said that it would be a good idea if something akin to what happened in Germany in the 1930s happened in our nation now…"
He stopped as the car swerved violently, horns sounding as Elliott momentarily lost control as his anger overtook him, and then he cursed loudly and vehemently. "I swear that if it wasn't for the sake of your parents and the kids, I would be turning this car around right now and driving us back to New York!" hissed Elliott. "I cannot believe that the two of you are even related!"
"Oh, that is quite normal – see Jeff and Hunter for example, biological brothers and polar opposites," said Flint in a wry tone.
"She fell in with the wrong crowd at school, just as Hunter was manipulated by his father. I will tell you something else that nobody else knows now, not even my parents; she used to let her friends bully me when I was in middle school. However, that had a positive outcome for me in the end; that is the main reason that I ended up at Dalton rather than Zanesville High. I will always be grateful that one of my teachers in middle school saw what was happening, knew it would only get worse, and decided that she would stage an intervention of a sort…"
"I didn't know that," said Flint.
"Nobody other than Wes ever did amongst the students at Dalton, and he only found out because he overheard a conversation between me and Mrs Carmichael in my freshman year. It wasn't that I was ashamed, I just did not want to stand out or be treated differently. I might as well be totally honest; the intervention wasn't just a teacher visiting my parents, telling them all about Dalton Academy and my parents thinking it sounded perfect and writing the necessary cheques. She found me sitting in a classroom one day during lunch break, and rather than just sending me out as most of the other staff would, she sat down and asked me why I was spending the break in a classroom. Because she showed that interest, I actually told her the truth. She sympathised, and she knew that it would escalate once I got to high school…"
Beats paused, recalling the kind words of the wise teacher that had been on the verge of retirement. "I think that she had seen the same thing before, and had noticed that my test scores, which had always been so good, had started to drop as the stress got to me. She told me that I could come to her classroom for the next three lunch breaks; I did, and when I was there she had me sit down and do three test papers as she timed me. She checked my results, and only then did she come and visit my parents one Saturday afternoon when my sister was out. It was only then that I found out that the three test papers she had made me sit were not random, but the standard ones for a scholarship to Dalton."
"It turned out that I had aced all three of them, and that all that stood between me and a free place at the Academy was an interview and my parents' consent. My mom was not keen on the idea at all, at least at first, but then the teacher asked if she could have a word with her in private whilst I had a chat to my dad about the idea. My dad was not exactly keen, but he was proud of the idea that I could get into a prestigious school. Then my mom came back and she had done a complete one-eighty; I think she had been told about the bullying and how bad it was getting. Of course, when they heard that going to Dalton would improve my chances of getting into a premier college, my parents decided it couldn't do any harm to try."
"My interview was with Principal Carmichael himself and two of the other teachers; I had to sit another timed test, and then they asked me questions about myself and my hobbies. I think sometimes that the fact that I loved to sing and could beatbox even then might have swung it for me, because we all know how much Principal Carmichael rates the Warblers. I got the full scholarship and escaped the bullies before things really deteriorated. It gave me my best friend and indirectly lead me to my husband. I suppose you could say that my sister did one good thing for me; she caused the bullying. That was what got me out of Zanesville and to my happy life at Dalton…"
"I know that some of the people that attended Dalton alongside us looked down on those that they thought might be there on a scholarship, but I never did," said Flint in a low voice. "If you are being honest, then I should be too; I was at Dalton on a partial scholarship, not that my mom will ever admit to that fact. There was no way that my parents could have afforded the fees at Dalton on my father's wages alone, but I did not know that at the time. I sat those three tests as well, and had an interview, but mine was with the then Deputy Principal, but my mom told me it was just standard for all boys at Dalton. I didn't actually find out the truth until Aaron's first birthday, when they came to visit, and the conversation had somehow got round to schooling, and I mentioned that I had access to free places at Dalton or Crawford for my children. That made my dad smile, and then he jokingly said that he wished that my scholarship had been a full ride one…"
Beats chuckled then, and responded, "Let me guess; there then followed a long, pointed silence in which he realised what he had done…"
"Yeah, and then, because it was only the two of us talking alone, he told me to never mention what he had just said to my mom, because she really did think all boys got the interview before they attended Dalton. He had asked them not to tell her it was for a scholarship, and they had agreed not to. As far as she was concerned, they got a reduction because of their religion…" Flint paused as Beats laughed again, something he had not done since he had found out about his sister. "I swear that one day my mom will discover all of the little things that all of us have kept from her, and there will be carnage…"
"Well, I think you know that what you just said will remain between the three of us, just as what I said will naturally," Beats said. "I know that none of our friends would be bothered by it, or treat us differently, but there is no need for it to become public knowledge now."
"I agree, and you can count on me to say nothing," replied Flint. "I would bet that some of our friends also were at Dalton on scholarships – in fact, I would say it was a certainty. What I always thought was a pity about the scholarships we all knew existed at Dalton was that they all had to apply for an entire academic year, and they had to be applied for and be granted before the start of the school year. Had they been available for part of a year, or mid-term, then a certain angel might have been able to obtain one on his academics alone. Would Kurt have gone back to McKinley so happily and away from the boy he loved had there been a free ride with his name on it?"
"Probably not, but would his dad have accepted it? Burt Hummel is a good man, but like so many, he has his pride…" replied Beats. "Of course, had he stayed, then we would have faced a Senior year with Kurt, Blaine and Sebastian in the same room, all members of the Warblers at the same time…"
"From what I have heard from Kurt himself, and other people around them, the nature of the relationship between the three of them at that time would have made for an interesting situation…" said Elliott from the front seat; then he saw the expression on Flint's face as he contemplated the notion, and he burst out laughing. Once he stopped, he went on, "Anyway, we have just entered Zanesville, so I will need directions from now on as to how we get to your folks place, my love."
Beats nodded and the conversation came to an end, as he now had to focus on directing his husband through the streets of the town that he had once called home. Like so many places, it all looked exactly as it had done two decades before, albeit with the occasional shine of fresh new paint, or the flaking kind from places that were less well maintained. For a Friday night, the streets were unusually quiet, the only place that seemed to be drawing anyone towards it being the supermarkets. Then they were turning into the street that was the most familiar to him and drawing up outside his parents' house.
The engine off, they sat there for a moment, waiting for somebody to move. In the end, Flint turned to Beats and said, "You go and see your folks; we can get the bags and follow you."
Elliott nodded in agreement; almost as soon as he opened the car door, the house door opened and Beats saw his mom at the doorway. He hurried up the path then, up the steps and pulled her into his arms. No words were said as they stood and hugged, united in the grief they both felt…
Elliott and Flint continued to watch as Mr Harper then appeared, and his son embraced him in turn. Elliott stepped forward then, to be welcomed warmly by his mother-in-law, before he went with his husband and his dad into the house to greet the children. Mrs Harper remained on the porch however, and took a seat on the bench by the door. She motioned to Flint to come and join her, and he made his way up the path with his own luggage and Beats' case, Elliott having taken in his husband's suitbag and his own case. Flint took a seat by his friend's mother, and waited for her to speak.
"It was good of you to come all of this way, particularly given the circumstances and how she used to treat you. She never welcomed you into our lives and it still pains me to think that I could have raised such an intolerant bigoted child."
Flint nodded, then replied, "As I have told you before, Marge, it was hurtful but in the end it was like water off a duck's back. It wasn't the first time that such words had been said about me, and I doubt that it will be the last, unfortunately."
Mrs Harper smiled at him then, and said, "That is the first time that you have ever called me Marge without being prompted, despite the fact that you were 15 the first time I said you should call me that! I'm impressed. I suppose that what you say is true and she was surrounded at school by people that shared those terrible prejudiced beliefs. I sincerely hope that the majority of them will stay away from the funeral tomorrow."
"Well, I will cope if they are there… I should warn you, he actually knows what she did when we were kids. I know we both thought he didn't, but apparently he worked it out for himself once we got to college. He came out with it in the car just before we got to Zanesville, and as we had solemnly promised not to lie to each other after the whole stripper affair, I couldn't deny it had happened. I also told him that you had apologised to me for it…"
"I always knew that the truth would come out in the end, and I am glad that it has this way. Now, it is chilly out here, we'd best get inside before people begin to wonder where we are."
They headed inside, and it warmed Flint's heart to see Beats and Elliott with the three children, the youngest girl between them on the sofa, and the older two flanking them; they were chatting and smiling, an indication that the prejudices of their mother had not been passed on. Mrs Harper headed to the kitchen, where she had supper cooking; by the smell Flint guessed that it was her Mac and Cheese, one of those simple classics that Beats adored. He also knew that there would be a separate portion set aside for him without bacon. Then he recalled how the same dish had been the spark that had raised that first diatribe of vile hatred towards him from his best friend's sister; when he had announced he couldn't eat bacon at the same table he would soon be sitting at because of his faith…
Flint frowned at the thought now, knowing that some would say that it was in part Beats' fault for not asking him about his religion, and in part his own fault for not telling him or his mother before they came to the dinner table that he was Jewish. That was true, but they had just been two teenage boys at Dalton together, and the subject of religion never really came up in conversation; there chat was about their shared love of music and not faith….
He suddenly realised that Mr Harper was speaking to him, and he apologised for his inattention to his host. The man laughed, and said, "It's okay, you have had a long day, and Elliott tells me that you drove for most of the journey here. I just wanted to say thank you, not only for coming here today, but for stepping up to break the news to my boy on Monday. He really lucked out when he went to Dalton; not only did he get a good education, but he got a supportive best friend, the sort every man needs but so rarely gets. I mean, there wouldn't be many young men that would step completely out of their comfort zone and take up stripping to help out their friend, particularly knowing the trouble that later caused you… How are your folks by the way?"
Flint smiled, and replied, "Mom is fine, sir; exactly the same as ever, which is both a curse and a blessing for my dad. As for becoming a Preppy Boy alongside my best buddy, well it ended up being fun, and it did let my wife see me in a good light before we had even been formally introduced…"
It was Mr Harper's turn to chuckle then, and he said, "Well, I guess that much is also true. What is also true is that had he not gone to Dalton he would never have met you and we would have been denied the presence in our lives of a young man that we both see as another son. There are so many small decisions that make or break our lives…"
After supper, with the children up in bed, the plans for the following day were gone over. It all seemed quite standard to Beats, and would be the bare minimum that the community would expect for the funeral of a daughter. The man that had caused her death was locked up in prison; he had requested permission to attend the funeral nonetheless, a request that the Harpers had denied instantly, stating it was for the sake of her children. Mr Harper freely admitted that his grandson was angry with his mother for getting herself killed, but just as angry with the man whose driving had caused it; the last thing anyone wanted at the funeral was a scene…
There had still not been any contact from the father of the three children, which saddened Beats to hear, but as his mother said, that did not mean that he would not make an appearance the following day. "I haven't raised the subject of their father with the kids, or hinted that he might turn up, as I would not wish to raise their hopes that he will do the decent thing and then have to dash them when he doesn't show," Mr Harper said. "I am torn about it in all honesty; there is a part of me that hopes he shows for the sake of the children, but I have no idea how they will react if he does. I would hope that it would be with happiness, but I suspect that it might be with rage with the elder two."
"It would be perfectly understandable if it was," his son responded. "I must admit that I would struggle against the urge to punch him for what he has put them through by walking out of their lives…"
"We need to avoid that kind of scene, because it will only make matters worse," replied Elliott sagely. "At the same time though, we need to ensure that he knows that we do not condone or approve of his actions, however trying the situation was."
The day of the funeral dawned as grey and cold as any other in Ohio in early February; it wasn't snowing, however, which was a bonus. The reality of the situation had hit home for the children that morning, and as Flint woke up on the couch in the formal lounge, he could hear tears from upstairs. He got up, dressed and then helped Mrs Harper prepare breakfast. He could see that she was also more emotional that morning, so he deliberately steered their conversation away from her daughter and the events of the day, telling her instead how his cousin Leo was doing. She knew him of course from when he had worked with Beats at the City Council, but having obtained his qualifications, he had been offered a position with more money and responsibility at the transport authority in Atlanta, and that was where he was now settled, and thinking of starting a family of his own…
"Of course, she isn't Jewish, but that doesn't matter to his mother, who just wants him to be happy. Of course, we didn't tell my mother that; she thought that they got married at City Hall in New York because they hadn't the money for the synagogue, but if she ever found out that she was a gentile…"
"I'm not sure that I approve of your mother and her insistence that everything in life must be based on faith, but at the same time, I suppose that there is something to be said for having a strong influence in the background to guide your children's lives…" Mrs Harper replied.
Cursing himself a little, Flint went on, "Trust me, it can work too much the other way as well. If I hadn't met Izzy when I did, and she hadn't been a Jewish student doctor at the time, then my mother would have forced me to marry the daughter of one of the best connected people at her synagogue in Kansas, and I would have had no say in the matter. Trust me, Berniece Rubens is not a woman I'd have wanted to marry. Those sort of marriages can be unfortunate as well; look at the first marriage of the current King of England, which came about after a conversation between his grandmother and the grandmother of the young woman he would marry with great ceremony in 1981…"
"I will grant you that, but if I had been more forceful with my daughter then perhaps we would not be in the situation that we are in now; my son would not have had to sacrifice so much and my grandchildren would still have two parents."
"Yes, Beats had to give up on some of his dreams, but he went on to be wonderfully happy with Elliott. As for her marriage, well there must have been some fault on his side too. As a parent you can only do your best with what you know at the time; that is what you did, and you cannot blame yourself for her mistakes," replied Flint. Mrs Harper nodded, and then the room was full, and the topic was shelved…
Flint would make his way to the church where the funeral was to be held on his own, following the directions that Mr Harper had written down for him. Elliott had initially intended to come with him in the rental car, but it transpired that there was a spare seat in the funeral car, and Mrs Harper had insisted that Elliott should occupy it, as he was part of the family. That left Flint to proceed on his own through the streets of the small town. His route brought him past the town's High School, and he slowed down as he passed the building across the street, which he recalled had once been the town's synagogue, but was now used by the High School itself. The Jewish population of the town had declined to the point that a decade before, it could no longer sustain a synagogue and a rabbi of their own, but at least the building had a use that the community could support.
He stopped at the side of the road outside the building for a moment, closed his eyes and said a prayer, having already said several of his own that morning before he left the Harper home; it was the Sabbath after all. He smiled a little at how proud his mother would be of him, when only a decade before he rarely even thought about his faith; but then she would still be disappointed that he was not actually at temple, even if he was going to be at a religious service later. She tolerated other faiths, of course, but she did not see them as a suitable replacement for her own.
As he pulled into the parking lot at the church, Flint thought that he recognised a car already there, and when he stepped into the lobby of the building, he was surprised to see that he had been right in doing so. Thad was standing there, and alongside him stood Skylar. The Head Warbler saw the look of surprise on Flint's face, and said, "I knew that I should be here; Beats was a very good friend to me when we were at Dalton, and as our beatboxer, he was the key to our success. Wes once told me that in his opinion we would never have been in time as a group without him to keep us on track with the beat…"
"When he told me that he was coming, I thought that he should have company for the trip," added Skylar, "and what he said is still true when we sing together now."
Flint nodded, then conscious that there were other people around them, added in a low voice to Thad, "Has your husband by chance mentioned whether a certain someone has arrived in the heavenly realms?"
"He has, but only to say that she hasn't."
Flint nodded again, and replied, "I suspected that would be the case somehow, given all that she did in her life."
"That isn't to say that she has definitely gone in the other direction either; sometimes when the death is of a person that has erred in life, but their mistakes have not been too terrible, then they can be held in limbo for a bit whilst decisions are made one way or another. She didn't kill anyone, so that's probably where she is. Those held there usually have their souls sent back to earth with all memory of the past erased with no ceremony."
"I don't think that Beats will want to know either way in any case," responded Flint.
"Oh, I agree, and if by chance he does ask me, I will tell him that he needs to ask one of the angels himself…"
The funeral was reasonably well attended, a lot of the mourners being friends of her parents rather than of the deceased. She had managed to alienate the majority of the other mothers at her children's schools with her behaviour for one thing, and the people that she had associated with most often in recent times had by and large heeded the call to stay away for the sake of her children and her parents. The pastor that was performing the service had known the Harper family for decades, and when Beats walked in, he welcomed him warmly, the same effusive greeting being given to Elliott, before he moved on to the grieving children and parents.
There was no time for lengthy conversation between Beats and the other two Warblers that he was not expecting to see there, although his parents did take a moment on their way to their seats to greet them. The casket was brought in once everyone was in their place, and the ceremony was about to begin…
At that moment the doors to the church were flung open, and Flint was reminded of the moment at Seth's funeral when his estranged parents had barged in. As on that day, every head in the room turned to see who had just come in, and Flint saw the flicker or recognition on his friend's face…
"I hope that isn't the guy that was driving the car," whispered Skylar as there was a murmur of conversation around the room.
"No, it isn't and I am going to hazard a guess from the way that there is the low chatter going on around the room that the man that has just walked in is Beats' absentee brother-in-law," Flint whispered back.
Thad nodded, and said sotto voce, "Well, that is a turn up; I expect that things will be a little lively after the service now…"