From Filth & Mud
Page 32
John escorted the trio to the casket and stood guard over them as they knelt before it. Their pain consumed all in attendance. Their wounds were of the unhealing kind. Their cries were never to be quieted; their prayers never to be answered. After several minutes, Sarah summoned the strength to pick herself up off of the ground, and she carried her boys with her. She stroked the top of the lacquered coffin, longing for his face. She spoke to him and bargained for his return.
“I need you. The boys need you,” she pleaded as she clutched her boys tightly around her and drowned them in tearful kisses.
Nathan’s scalp was still hairless and the incision from Dr. Monte-Alban’s procedure was heavily bandaged. The doctors had cautioned against letting Nathan out of the hospital, but he would not relent. He had to see his father, for he above all wept the loudest. He had lived because of his father’s death, and he would honor the sacrifice until he returned to be laid down next to him.