No one wanted to be the first person to go inside and absolutely no one wanted to see Sophie in a casket. But they linked their arms with their spouses and threw an arm around the shoulders of their children and went in the door all the same.
They were greeted by the funeral director, who asked them if they would like to go inside the chapel. As they stepped inside the enormous double parlor, flowers filled the end of the room and lined the walls. Gorgeous floral arrangements were everywhere, enough for three funerals. The director directed his comments to Henry, who had the most hair and the most expensive suit.
“We have closed the casket, Mr. Hamilton. The deceased was embalmed in Florida, but unfortunately their heat added to the fact that she wasn’t found for three days before they put her in the freezer, led to tremendous swelling. I’m afraid things didn’t work out as well as one might have hoped. We did our best, of course, but I don’t think it would be wise to open it, especially if there are children expected tonight.”
“I knew that was going to happen,” Grant said. “She’s a floater, am I right?”
“Yes, that is correct.” Then the director lowered his voice. “A dry floater. We even used the trocar, and as I said, we tried our very best…”
“What’s a floater?” Henry asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Simon said. “We’re talking swelling, discoloration…all sorts of nasties. Hey, pssst.”
“What?” Henry said.
“I’ll bet this little dude squats to pee,” Simon whispered behind his hand.
Henry suppressed a laugh and nodded his head in agreement.
“Wait a minute,” Maggie said. “Are you saying we don’t get to see our sister to tell her goodbye?”
“That’s up to y’all,” the diminutive director with the shiny bald head and pursed lips said, “but I would think in this situation it would be best to remember how she looked in life.”
“Cecily’s bringing pictures,” Beth said.
“Ah geez. Is she like really gross?” Susan asked in an uncharacteristically timid voice.
“Susan!” Maggie said.
“Yeah, for Pete’s sake, Susan,” Simon said, and pinched her butt.
Susan slapped his hand away and blushed. Beth witnessed their brief interaction and felt like gagging. Truly, her mother and stepfather acted like horny teenagers, and it was embarrassing. And sometimes Simon was an ass, but everyone dealt with grief in their own way. Some wept. Others like Simon made ridiculous comments and gestures because they couldn’t deal with the finality and pain of death or the pain they witnessed in others. Typical doctor, Beth thought.
“You go look, Grant, and then you tell me if it’s going to be too traumatic for me, okay?” Everyone looked at Maggie and she said to the funeral director, “My husband’s a doctor.”
“I’ll go with you, pal,” Simon said, and they approached the casket on the other end of the large room with the funeral director hot on their heels.
“Steel yourself, gentlemen. This is going to be difficult.”
Grant gave a signal for him to raise the lid of the casket and in two seconds flat he signaled for him to lower it.
“Thank you,” Grant said.
“You’re welcome.” The director looked away from them and walked back toward the rest of the family.
“I sure could’ve lived without that,” Simon whispered to Grant.
“No shit, bubba.”
“Grant? Well?” Maggie said. “Should we all have a look?”
“No. Definitely not. You’ll be scarred for life. Is there any whiskey in our car?”
“Of course not,” Maggie said, unhappy about Grant’s call.
“I have a rather brilliant white Bordeaux in the cooler in the back of our car,” Henry said. “Does anyone have a corkscrew?”
“Swiss Army knife?” Simon pulled it from his pocket. “I love these things. So practical.”
Grant, Simon, Henry, and Timmy made their way out of the door, stopping only to avail themselves of the plastic cups from a chute attached to the side of a Poland Springs watercooler.
“They’ll be back,” Susan said, looking at the peculiar expression on Maggie’s face. “What? You’re not going to go up there and look, are you?”
“I was merely considering my options, that’s all. I just don’t like this. That’s all. We’ve never had a funeral with a closed casket, that’s all.”
“You said that’s all three times. You’re really thinking of doing this?”
“A closed casket sends a certain message, don’t you think?”
“Maggie, I love you like crazy but this wake isn’t meant to impress anyone. It’s to mourn Sophie’s death.”
“I know that, but I just don’t want people to talk. You know what I’m talking about?”
“Then you’d better plan a wide-scale massacre of all the media in Charleston County, okay? That horse left the barn a long time ago.”
“I’m going to ask Grant again if he was really serious.”
“I’m coming,” Susan said.
“I’m staying,” Beth said, and moved toward her cousins Bucky and Mike.
Susan and Maggie pushed open the heavy glass door and went from the extreme refrigeration of the chapel to the Lowcountry sauna of early evening.
“Why are funeral homes always so cold?” Maggie asked.
“Probably for some reason we don’t need to know tonight,” Susan said.
Their husbands were clustered in the parking lot, behind Henry’s SUV, engaged in an emergency tailgate wine tasting.
“Would you like a little?” Henry said. “There’s plenty. I brought a case. You know, self-defense against swill?”
“Pompous ass,” Timmy said.
“Sure!” Maggie said. “Thanks.”
“Susan? Up yours, Timmy.”
“Why not? Thanks,” Susan said.
Together, they raised their cups toward the fading sky overhead.
“To Sophie!” Henry said. “We love you, girl! Wherever you are!”
“To Sophie!” they all said.
“So Grant?” Maggie said quietly.
“Yeah, honey,” he said.
“She looks bad?”
“Maggie, that funeral director, dweeb that he might be, is right. She doesn’t even look like herself.”
“Okay,” Maggie said, and choked up.
“Hey, you okay?” Susan said.
“I don’t know why this is bothering me so much. I should let it go, right?” Maggie said.
“Yeah, baby,” Grant said in the tenderest voice anyone had ever heard him use. “Let it go.” He put his arm around her and gave her a squeeze.
They looked up to see Cecily pulling up next to their cars.
“I’ll go help her,” Maggie said.
“Me too,” Susan said.
“How’s it going?” Cecily asked when she got out of her car. “I’ve got a trunkful.”
“Do we need the men to help?” Maggie asked.
“No, I think we can handle it.”
“Did you lock up the house good? You know, that’s when the robbers come. Momma always said they read the obituaries and then watch the house,” Maggie said. “Y’all! It’s true!”
“Momma was a paranoid,” Susan said.
“I locked it from top to bottom. Don’t you worry about that. I don’t want anybody stealing my deviled eggs.”
They carried in the boxes of framed photographs of Sophie and placed them all around the room.
“She was so pretty,” Maggie said.
“Yes, she was. I hope all these pictures make you feel a little better,” Susan said.
“I can’t imagine what could make me feel better on a night like this,” Maggie said.
Susan and Maggie looked in each other’s eyes, brimming with tears, and hugged each other hard.
“Hey, we still have us, right?” Susan said.
“Thank the good Lord too.”
But there was something tha
t made them all feel better that night—the hundreds of people who stopped by the funeral home to offer their condolences. Most of them had a Sophie story to tell, many of them were old classmates, a few of them were old boyfriends.
I took her to our senior prom. Boy, she sure could dance. I’m so sorry for your loss. She was the sweetest girl I knew. Our whole family is praying for you. Once when we were in the tenth grade, she did my biology project for me! She was just so nice to everyone, you know? She made us all feel so good. Sophie’s DVDs are the reason I can wear this dress! Golly, she had a great figure, didn’t she?
On and on it went, people signing the guest book, hugging the family, checking their own flowers they sent to be sure they got their money’s worth, promising to come by the house for a drink, and all of them asking if there was anything they could do. Only a very few asked about Allison, as the news was so painful and they thought the family probably had enough adjusting to do. The facts would eventually emerge.
Mostly they said, “We’ll pray for her every day.” What else could they do?
Beth’s boss, Drew Harris, showed up and hugged Beth.
“The other guys wanted to come but they had to work,” he said.
“That’s okay,” Beth said.
“Well, here’s a card they all signed for you,” Drew said.
“Oh, gosh, thanks so much!”
“And if you need to take the week off, I get it,” he said.
Beth stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Drew.”
And at last, Beth spotted Woody in the crowd. He came to her side immediately and took her hand.
“How’s it going?” he asked.
“Gosh. I’m so glad you’re here. It’s okay. About as terrible as you would expect.”
“I’m staying with Mike and the other guys at the Way house. I’m not too far away if you need me.”
He smiled at her and she smiled at him and it occurred to both of them that they had something very special going on.
Later that night, seventy-five or so people came by just to mark the event with a little shot of O Be Joyful, which was the family euphemism for liquor, or for a glass of wine. They came to readjust their own equilibrium. There was something jarring about the death of a relatively young person that shocked everyone and left them off-balance. And by visiting the family in their time of need, especially one they had known since the sandbox, they could have a private moment to shake their heads together and ponder their own mortality.
When the last guest had gone, the family, including Woody, gathered on the dark porch to regroup.
“A lot of people practiced their Corporal Works of Mercy tonight,” Maggie said after everyone had found a place to sit or perch.
“What’s that?” Simon said. “What kind of work of mercy?”
“You know, feed the sick, starve the fever…” Henry said.
“Good grief! When’s the last time you went to church?” Maggie said. “You’d better look out for lightning tomorrow!”
“Try feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty…” Susan said.
“We sure did that tonight,” Timmy said.
“I’ve got ten bucks for whoever knows them all,” Henry said.
Maggie and Susan recited in stereo, “Shelter the homeless, visit the sick, clothe the naked, comfort the imprisoned, and bury the dead.”
“You two scare me. No, really!” Henry said. “Is this really what you do for fun? Sit around and memorize the Baltimore Catechism or something?”
“You’re a philistine, Henry,” Susan said. “That will be ten dollars, please.”
“Five of that is mine,” Maggie said.
They were doing what they always did when they got together, just as their parents and grandparents had done before them. They were ending their day in conversation together on the porch of the Island Gamble, having a nightcap, sipping a cup of decaf or a glass of water, the purpose of which was to make sure everyone could go to bed with their hearts unburdened. Beth was the one who still carried a heavy load, but this still wasn’t the time to talk about it.
“What a night,” Henry said. “Awful.”
“It’s more like we lost two siblings instead of one,” Timmy said.
“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Maggie said. “Somebody’s going to have to look after Allison and I guess that should be me.”
“I think we’ll all help, honey. I’ve about had it with California anyway,” Grant said.
“Me too,” Simon said. “I can do what I’m doing anywhere. I could wrap it up in a few weeks. I can help with Allison too.”
“Well, that’s good,” Susan said, “because as Simon and Maggie know, I resigned my job in Paris. I’m already back.”
“What? Mom! That’s so great!” Beth went over to her mother, pulled her up from her chair, and hugged her. “This is the best news ever!”
“I think so, but hey! Now you can go on to grad school!”
“Whoa! Not so sure about that. I’m thinking I want to be here with you.”
“Wow! Susan!” Timmy said. “This is news! Your lifelong dream out the window? Why’d you do this?”
“Long story. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. I guess I’m just feeling like there’s been enough change around here and with us, and I don’t know. Life’s flying by. I think you ought to be in a place that means something to you, you know? Not just running around the world for what? I want to try and hang on to as much sameness as I can. Does that make sense?”
“It makes perfect sense,” Maggie said. “What are you going to do with yourself?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? I’m buying the Island Eye News. The publisher is moving to Oak Island.”
“Good grief! Am I getting fired?” Beth said.
“No, miss. It means I get to keep a closer eye on you!” Susan said.
“Y’all want to know what I hate about California? It doesn’t matter if you drive north or south, the water’s still on the wrong side of the road,” Maggie said.
“Excellent insight,” Timmy said.
“And the Pacific is a lot different from the Atlantic,” Simon said. “It’s scary.”
“Powerful bodies of water can be enormously unnerving,” Timmy said.
“I hate change,” Beth said.
“You do?” Susan said.
“Yeah, if I didn’t learn anything else this summer, I learned this. When the world’s like this, I mean the economy and all, it doesn’t take money to make you feel rich. It takes purpose. You have to know who you are and go do what you’re supposed to be doing. You only learn that—I mean fully learn that—from people who love you. I think you can be like, I don’t know, even sixty and you can still learn. Your family shapes you when you’re really young and then holds you together when trouble comes along. Like look at all of us? We lose Aunt Sophie, which is totally breaking my heart I loved her so much…”
“And she loved you too, Beth, just like she would’ve loved her own daughter,” Susan said.
“Yeah, I know, anyway, at the end of the day, there’s nothing more important in the whole world than your family.”
Everyone was quiet for a few minutes and then Maggie spoke.
“Somebody grew up when we weren’t looking! Honey, if you learned that, there’s not much else you need to know.”
“Gimme a high-five, girl!” Simon said, and leaned over to slap her hand.
Then there began a succession of high-fives from everyone there, the cousins, the aunts, down to the last person, except Henry, who said, “Beth? Are you saying that your family is more important than money?”
“Yes sir. A lot more important.”
“Good to know.”
At first, Beth wondered what he meant, and then she realized it had to do with her trust account. He knew. Well, she thought, I have said my piece, and if he disowns me, he disowns me, and I will figure that out with my mom. And Woody. There’s a solution to almost everything and other things you just h
ave to accept.
Grant, who rarely said much when Maggie’s entire family was there, said, “Well, if there’s a speck of good news in all of this, at least Allison doesn’t have a homicide charge hanging over her.”
“It would be really good news if she knew anything was hanging over her,” Timmy said.
“She’s that bad, huh?” Grant said.
“Yeah, she’s that bad,” Timmy said.
“I’ll look in on her,” Grant said. “I think I’ve got an old friend at MUSC who’s pretty experienced with psychosis. I’ll call him after the funeral tomorrow.”
“Um, Maggie? Not that I would have any objection whatsoever,” Susan asked, “but are we talking about all of us living here in the house together?”
“No, darlin’, I found a little house on the Internet that’s downtown on Rutledge Avenue. It’s close enough to walk to the hospital. I want to be downtown to be near Allison.”
“Little house?” Grant said. “Maggie, that is not a little house!”
“But it’s got so much personality! And possibility. Anyway, in this recession there are bargains all over the place. And we still have to go see it, darlin’.”
“I think someone in this family ought to buy a house in someplace like I’on, where it’s all new, everything works, and the house doesn’t give you any sass,” Beth said.
“Oh, sweetheart! Did the house give you a hard time?” Susan said.
“Let’s just say it will be refreshing to have some company with flesh and blood, okay? Let’s just start there.”
“I’m afraid I need to turn in,” Woody said. “So, I’m going to say good night.”
“Hey, Woody,” Henry said, and stood to shake his hand, “thanks for the trip to Florida. If it wasn’t for you and Beth, our sister might still be in the Sub-Zero and the other one might be thrashing about. Y’all saved the day.”
“It was just a hunch,” Woody said. “Glad I could help.”
“Those guts and hunches are worth a lot to us, Woody,” Henry said, prolonging his handshake. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Beth walked Woody to his car when he was leaving.
“Henry was giving me some very funny looks,” he said. “He knows.”
“Hell yeah, he knows. I think he’s having a hard time hating our guts,” she said.
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