Due Respects - A Screened Word Story

Okay. This was it. I had to get as much of this done as I could have that day, or it would’ve been over for me.

I finally drove up to the nearest grocery store in town after working my way through an obnoxious traffic jam several blocks back, and I was finally one step closer to getting the first of my tasks accomplished.

“Honey”, my husband, Bob, said to me. “I understand you're a little stressed right now, but let's just take this one step at a time, OK?”

I didn't pay attention to him. All that mattered to me, and to him, too, was that we get the groceries we needed for the service that evening. What we needed for my husband and me, and our friends, would’ve lasted us all evening.

“I'm gonna stay here in the car while I make some calls to our friends, OK, Erica?” He told me. “You go ahead. I'll be waiting here.”

All I needed to find were some fresh eggs, vegetables, carrots, green peppers, red peppers, cauliflower, grapes, celery, hummus dip, and pork tenderloin. When you have it where the pork tenderloin meat cutlets were offered fresh and at a discount, no way should I ever pass up on those.

When I was putting it together, it seemed like a walk in the park, but when I walked into the grocery store, it was a lot more complicated than I hoped it would’ve been. I did not realize until I walked in that because of a new redesign of the grocery store, that also meant that the aisles that I thought I knew every time I shopped in there had just then been rearranged. Because of this, I’d have had to study the grocery store for longer than I planned to and see which aisle was which and where I could’ve found what. I had to do it as quickly as possible, which did not help me in the slightest. I didn't want us to be late for a service that we put together or to have everything half-assed in the shuffle.

Some of the new aisles I did have to ask for help on, but the others I was able to figure out pretty easily. I could’ve told which aisle was where depending on which foods or products were arranged right next to each other. For example, the bakery was right next to the cereal. The baby products were located right next to the body care products, and so forth. As soon as I got the general rhythm down, only then did things start to click and flow much smoother for me.

At least, except for the meat and pork tenderloin.

As I continued to shop around like it was nothing, or so I wanted to tell myself, I took a closer look at whatever meat cutlets were left at the deli. The deli was down to their last three or four servings worth of pork tenderloins. I could not have allowed that opportunity to pass me by, so I decided to snag two of those just to keep us happy-ish. I felt the weight being taken off my shoulders once I got that accomplished.

Once that was over and done with, I decided to hop over next to the boutique shop. I was not looking forward to shopping in there, but what were you gonna do?

So, once I worked up the nerve to walk in, I started my shopping spree there with a handful of dandelions. Next, I got myself some nice-looking pink roses for the occasion. And finally, to top it all off, a couple lilies to offset them.

But now, onto the final test. As I carried the flowers with me to the front desk, the old grouchy lady, Mrs. Hampton, was sitting there. And with her, it was the same old story. I snagged some specific flowers, and she’d decided to be a real pill to me about whatever other occupations or activities I had going on. But I wasn’t not going to let her walk all over me. No, not this time.

“Well, how do you do?” said Hampton to me with a slight twinge of mockery in her voice. Kind of an unusual combination, if you ask me. Though what I was more concerned about was whether you’d need to even go through with this. Because of that horrific night, that was when I lost it.

“You know what? However I do my flowers or my business is none of your business. I expect you to go about yours while I expect you to let me go about mine. Do you hear me?”

Fortunately, that was enough to shut her up.

“Understood, ma'am,” she said. “It will be $44.97.”

After that was all behind me, finally, I looked over everything I had with me in the car. The flowers, the groceries, everything I meant to snag for that day. At that rate, a quick beeline for home with everything that I needed to get all set for the service was all I had to take care of.

It took me all afternoon to get it ready, but I was able to get all the groceries all cut up, cooked and ready for the occasion. Bob was sweet enough to help out as well, and my daughter, Ellie, too. She wanted to taste-test the food to make sure that it was as tasty as I expected them to be. With all those extra hands helping out, I did not expect us to do any wrong as we got everything all squared away.

Soon, it was about twenty minutes past 4:00, and fortunately for us, the preemptive service started at 5:00, before the main event at 6:00. When the very last batch of food that we had to prepare was finished, everything was all good to go. Whew!

“All set!” I yelled out. “Bob, do me a favor. Can you grab the plates? Ellie, grab the silverware. I will find a box to carry the glasses with, and we need to get some saran wrapping for the food and anything else to carry this all out with.”

“Okay, Mom,” Ellie said. “I’ll grab the boxes.”

“We don't need boxes to carry everything else out with,” I told her. “Just a couple for me to put the glasses in will be enough. And only a few bags is all we need to carry out the dishware with, honey.”

“All right,” she said.

Bob interrupted, “Just let me know if you need an extra set of hands to carry whatever else we have left, Erica.”

“Thanks, Bob, I will,” I told him.

So, after a little hustling and bustling around the house, everything, including the food and the flowers, were all put inside the car with ease. My sister, Bernice, volunteered to help carry the flowers while the food was all stashed in coolers, and all of them in the back of the car.

Next, we blazed out of our house and all the way to our destination. Sure, we had to work our way through some of the rowdy traffic along the way all over again, but as long as none of what we had to bring over were damaged in transit, then what did we have to lose?

So then, when we arrived, we got all the food prepared on the dinner tables. We got the flowers all neatly placed in the center of the tables. And that was when one of our first guests, our neighbor, Mr. Harrington, walked in.

“Good evening, ma'am,” he shouted out from across the hall. “Is this the place?”

“Yes, it is,” I told him.

“I want to offer you my condolences about your son. I can only imagine how hard this must be for you and your family.”

“Thank you, George,” I told him as I did the best I could have not to choke up. “It means a lot to me.”

The memorial service that followed went as smoothly as we wanted it to. Many of our friends showed up for the occasion, and most of us sat in silence as we listened to the speeches and tears of those were decided to share with us the memories of my son, James. He was only nine years old when he was playing by a nearby river, and he slipped in and was carried away by the swift rapids. This all occurred a couple of months ago, and we had been searching for James for a couple days before some citizens from the other end of town found his body washed up on shore. Being a churchgoer, I felt more comfortable just sitting as I bowed down and closed my eyes. I did not want to risk bawling like a baby over looking at the pictures of my baby.

After all the commemorations and the peaceful, lovely dinner we shared together, Ellie and I had only one thing left to do.

My son, James, had been buried in the Rosebush Cemetery, right beside where we held the memorial service, and what Ellie and I wanted to do was to pay him a quick visit and bring the leftover flowers from the memorial service to place on his tombstone. We had to use our flashlights and crawl our way through some scraggly bushes and the leaves that could easily have gotten into our clothes unless we were watchful of where we were stepping.

After about ten minutes, we finally made it to James’ grave. Seeing his full name on the tombstone helped. As we looked down upon it, the soil from which James' body and coffin were placed in started to show their age after being freshly dug up, yet all on the verge of sprouting out some new sprouts.

“I’m very sorry this had to happen to you, Jeevers,” Ellie said, “If it wasn't for that damn river…”

“Language, Ellie.”

“Sorry,” she said. “You would have still been alive. But now,” she told me, “he is out there somewhere doing who knows what, parting himself from us. I don't know what's happening, but I don't care.” She turned her head back to James’ grave. “I wish you were never taken away from us, or from anyone. May you continue to rest in peace, my brother,” Ellie said.

“I agree, sweetie,” I said next. “You may not be with us right now, but we will still be in your mind and heart up in Heaven. Please, never forget us.”

That's when I began to let down my defenses and I felt some tears trickling down my cheeks.

I could not have formed the thought of neglecting to do this anymore. So, I grabbed a couple of the dandelions, his favorite flowers, and slipped them in the vase on the ground beside his grave. Ellie decided to do the same thing and place her choice of flowers also onto the ground just beside my flowers in the vase.

“Rest in peace, my baby,” I said.

“Ditto, James,” said Ellie.

We bowed in silence for a good fifteen minutes. And during then, all we heard was nothing but soothing sounds of the natural surroundings. And I swear, I remembered hearing some faint voice from a distance, like it was telling us that it would’ve been all right.

So, once we were finished at James’ grave, we both agreed that was tribute enough for him. So we packed up our stuff left the cemetery.

Rest in peace, my baby boy.