Pulse

by David Lisenby

  “We all have heavy hearts as we say goodbye to these fine people today,” Clifford said. “I never planned to come to this home for the funeral of one of my good friends; a man that I’ve known probably all my life. I certainly didn’t plan to take part in the funeral of so many people that I know at one time; even in these days and times.

  “Only God knows what plans he has for us. Every one of us. We’re reminded of this in Jeremiah 29:11. ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Amen. God plans to give you hope and a future.

  “Although evil has touched this place and the lives of good, honest, hard-working people were taken, God tells us that there is hope and there is a future. Through Him, you will prosper. You will carry on and there is hope. Don’t lose sight of that. I know Harold never did. He prepared for an uncertain future. He helped lay down a foundation for you to build on. This community has prospered and can continue to do so. There is hope.”

  Ashlyn and Phil each took a couple of minutes to talk about Bea and the good person she was. About how blessed they were to have known her and loved her. About how she loved teaching and how her spirit would always be a guiding light as they reopened the school and continue teaching in her honor. They would never let her son, Patch, be forgotten. The new school building would be named after him.

  Shiela Mae spoke next, telling a couple of stories about her friends Dewey and Melisa. She had dated Dewey before, long before marrying Rickey, and was so happy when he and Melisa found each other. The couple had both had previous marriages, but everyone could tell that when they did find one another, they both found their soulmate. They had only been together a relatively short time, but it was clear that they were so much in love and truly, deeply and genuinely happy.

  David, who was ordinarily a shy, reserved guy, stood and talked about his brother, Wade. People had wondered about the American flag draped over his coffin and were surprised to learn that the big man had served two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He had been a hero in war, being awarded three Purple Hearts and a Medal of Valor.

  Chief Whiteside and Det. Allen removed the flag and stood at attention as David pulled out a bugle. Nobody knew he had the instrument. As David played Taps, the lawmen folded the flag. Nobody knew David could play the bugle. There was not a dry eye in the crowd as the lonely melody ended. It was a beautiful rendition. The lawmen presented David with the flag, which he tucked under one arm. He tucked the bugle under the other, turned and walked away.

  After several minutes of silence, Clifford asked if there was anyone else who would like to say anything. Kay sat upright in her chair. When she did a soft “PHHHHHHRRRUUUMPH,” grew into a downright impressive clap of rolling thunder. Yes, methane filled the air in a most inopportune moment.

  Oh. Emm. Gee.

  Really?

  The translucent green mist had almost started to dissipate and the bright red on Kay’s face started fading when Ryder broke the silence. “MawMaw,” he asked loudly, “Did you fart again?”

  The somber event, which had been very solemn up until that instant, immediately devolved into uproarious laughter. The tense air was filled with contagious laughing. Even Clifford, who had presided over hundreds of funerals in a professional manner, couldn’t help but join in.

  After a couple of minutes, Roxie finally broke the silence. “Now that’s true love,” she said. “Harold would love it.”

  “You’re right,” Kay said breathlessly. “I don’t think I can top that.”

  “Please don’t try,” Whisper said, eliciting another round of laughter.

  It took another minute for everyone to contain themselves. Clifford finally spoke up again in his brilliant baritone voice. “Thank you for clearing the air for us, Whisper,” he said. “Is there anything anyone else would like to … say?”

  All eyes turned toward Kay.

  “I think I’ve said enough already,” She said sheepishly.

  You could hear snickers in the crowd.

  “Hon,” a meek voice rang out. The attention suddenly focused on Sierra as all eyes turned her way. Beneath the pregnant woman’s chair was a puddle.

  Chapter 10

  Planting people

  Things got a little crazy for a few minutes after Sierra’s water broke. Abe, Jake, Tommy and John carried the expected mother to her house with Arlene rushing ahead of them to get the bed ready for a child birth. Allie walked alongside the small group, holding Sierra’s hand and saying soothing things.

  Once they were settled in the small bedroom, the men (with the exception of Abe) returned to the graveyard to take part in laying the deceased to rest. Allie stayed at the house to offer her assistance in any way she could. She had never helped birth a child, but she had given birth to a couple and knew what the young mother was about to go through.

  Once things settled down a bit, Clifford offered a final prayer and the impromptu services came to an end. The volunteers paraded by the families of the victims and offered their condolences one last time before retreating to the backyard for a glass of tea (iced tea, no less). Several of them loaded up in the vehicles they had come in and made their way back to their communities.

  The people of the Landing gathered for one last moment with their loved ones. Slowly they made their way to where the others were gathered. As Kay sat and watched, the coffins were each lowered into the graves as gently as possible. She remained stoic until the body of the man she loved was lowered into the dark hole. A single tear rolled down her cheek as the coffin bottomed out and the ropes went slack.

  The single yellow rose, which she had held throughout the service, was tossed into the pit and landed on top of the coffin. The rose was a symbol of the blood, sweat and tears Harold had put into the property as he had grown the rose bush from a seed he had purchased online a couple of years ago. Now he was being planted in that same dirt, returning to the earth that he loved so much.

  The lawmen and the volunteers then shoveled dirt into the graves and dressed up the graveyard, giving the area an eerily peaceful appearance.

  And then it was done.

  Chapter 11

  Wasted time

  One the victims of the invasion were laid to rest; Sheriff Mavis found his way over to Kay and had a little heart-to-heart with her. He asked if she wanted his men to dig up the root cellar and remove the bodies of the men who had perished in the explosion, to which she answered a simple “no.”

  David and Jerry had actually gathered up the splinters of wood that had once been the door of the cellar and were busy fashioning them into crosses to use as markers for the graves until more appropriate headstones could be made.

  “From the debris of war, we will create a monument to honor our fallen,” David said, more to himself than anyone else. “We’ll never forget them or this day. God be with us and help us learn to forgive and to heal.”

  “Yea,” Jerry said as he twisted the wire on the wooden cross, “forgiveness isn’t such an easy thing to get these days.”

  “Oh, I disagree, my friend,” David answered. “All we have to do is to ask and we are forgiven. The hard part is forgiving someone else. I don’t understand why it is so easy to fall short of the glory of God and still be forgiven by just asking but we, as mere humans, hold onto anger and hatred and let ourselves become terrible people instead of simply offering forgiveness and letting go of all the bitterness that consumes us.”

  “Someone told me once that the first step is to forgive ourselves,” Jerry said.

  “That was very good advice,” David said. “If we forgive ourselves then forgiving others should fall right into place.”

  Jerry nodded his head but didn’t say anything else. The two men continued working on their project in silence.

  Bruce and Bobby came back a bit earlier than normal. It had been a busy day on the water wagons and people hadn’t wanted to take the water for free but did since there was no trailer
to carry the bartered items back to the Landing with. Once the water started flowing, it flowed freely, and both wagons were emptied in a relatively short time.

  Most everyone went about their routine, albeit in a more abbreviated version than normal. The atmosphere was … well … blah. Shiela Mae and Rickey moved several wheelbarrows of topsoil to where the root cellar had been. They then transplanted a few stems from the yellow rose bush in the center of the dirt. The idea was to create beauty from the ugliness of the location.

  Sierra held tightly onto Abe’s hand as she experienced the contractions of labor. She wasn’t dilated enough to indicate the birth was imminent, so Arlene took a break and walked outside for some fresh air. Allie stayed with the young couple, assuring her nurse friend that she would come get her if things progressed to the point where she was needed.

  Kay was sitting on the walkway that led to the elevator, chatting with the sheriff. When he walked away, Arlene strolled over to the mourning lady in the wheelchair. She didn’t know what to say, but she knew that sometimes just having someone near was enough to provide comfort.

  “Is that granddaughter of mine being stubborn?” Kay asked as the nurse walked up to her.

  “Of course,” Arlene answered. “She is a girl, after all.”

  The two women sat and gazed toward the back of the property, where rays of sunshine peeked through the cloudy skies. A cow mooed in the distance.

  “How do you do it?” Kay asked, continuing to look off into the distance.

  “Do what?” Arlene asked in response.

  “Keep on living after you lose the love of your life,” Kay said.

  Momentary silence.

  “You just do,” Arlene finally said. “Sometimes you don’t want to. You just want to die. There have been days when all I could do was curl up in a ball and cry. But sooner or later you just stop crying. You just live.”

  “Why?” Kay asked softly, with a fresh tear rolling down her cheek.

  “Because you have to,” Arlene said. She bent over and hugged the lonely lady. “You have to live for him. You have to live for your kids. You have to live for your grandkids. You have to live for you.”

  She wept.

  “It’s so hard,” Kay finally said through her tears.

  “I know, Sweetheart,” Arlene replied. “Nobody ever said life was going to be easy. Anyone that thinks that has never truly lived. They have never truly loved. You’ve got to be strong and keep this place going. Ya’ll have put way too much work into making this place what it is to just give up on it now. There are far too many people counting on you. I’m counting on you.”

  “But I don’t know if I can do it,” Kay said. “We were a team. I can’t do what he did. I don’t know what all he did. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Just follow your heart,” Arlene offered. “Harold will always be there. You can count on him to lead you in the right direction. That’s what true love does. It lives on. You’re going to be just fine.”

  “Do you really believe that?” Kay asked.

  “Of course, I do,” Arlene answered.

  There was another pause in the conversation.

  “Do you think Harold would want me to do this alone?” Kay asked, breaking the silence.

  “Oh, Sweetheart, you’re not alone,” Arlene said, trying to comfort her friend. “You have so many people here who love you. We’re all here to help you with anything you need us for. And think about it; there’s about to be another young life in this world who is going to love you unconditionally.”

  “I know that,” Kay said. “And I love them as well. But I’ll still be alone every night. I’ll still be alone when I wake up each morning to find an empty pillow next to me. You know what I mean.”

  Arlene sat and thought about how she should respond. “Would Harold want you to stay by yourself?” she asked. “Would he want you to face each day alone?”

  “Would your husband?” Kay asked, turning to face Arlene for the first time. “How long would he have wanted you to mourn?”

  Arlene was shocked. How did this conversation turn around where it was about her? She stared at Kay with her mouth hanging open. Before either of the women could say anything else, Allie walked around the corner and made eye contact with Arlene.

  “It’s time,” she said. Arlene rose and started walking toward where the pregnant woman was. As she rounded the corner of the alcove, she passed Roxie, who was in search of Kay.

  “Would you mind pushing me over to the store?” Kay asked her best friend.

  “Not a problem,” Roxie answered. She unlocked the wheels on the chair and started pushing Kay along the pathway.

  “I was thinkin’ we should reheat that stew from last night and have that for supper,” Roxie said. “It’d be a shame to see it go to waste.”

  “That sounds fine,” Kay said. Roxie rambled on about everything that was left over of the food the people from town had brought. Kay really didn’t hear much of it, nodding her head when there was a pause in the conversation.

  A couple of minutes later she was sitting in the store and Roxie was on her way to the Grub Hut to start gathering the things she’d need to prepare the leftovers. Kay rolled herself into an empty room at the back of the store. The room had been used to store the Schott’s things in for a couple of weeks, but in the past couple of days Harold and Jake had emptied it out so they could expand the store.

  It was a cold and empty room. That was just how she felt at the moment.

  Cold and empty.

  Kay sat there.

  Thinking.

  She wondered if Lindsey Landing would be able to go on, considering all that had happened in the past couple of days. Everything was going so well, and this had become a haven for a group of people that were willing to put forth extra effort to keep it safe and prosperous.

  She wondered if everyone would want to stay around and continue working together to make life easier for all of them, and for the others who depended on them for fresh water and supplies. Harold was the one who oversaw the daily operation of the Landing and kept everybody on track. Without his leadership, would people have the motivation to hang around?

  She wondered if the store would be able to carry on. She thrived in the store. This was the one thing that she had complete control over and she hated to imagine losing it. If everyone went their separate ways, though, there would be no way she could operate the store the way it needed to be.

  She wondered how she would face the future without the man she had counted on to be there for her for the rest of her life. She had never imagined life without him. She knew, the moment they met, that they were meant for each other. He was older than her, but age is just a number. They were so much alike. They even had the same taste in music.

  “Baby, there you stand with your little head down in your hands,” the lyrics to the Eagles song popped into her head. “Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s happenin’ again. You’re Baby’s gone and you’re all alone and it looks like the end …”

  She could still see the surprised look on Harold’s face the first time they heard the song together and started singing it, neither of them missing a note.

  “I can’t believe you know that song,” Harold has said. “That’s my favorite Eagle’s song and almost nobody seems to know it. You knew every word. Impressive.”

  It wasn’t her favorite by the legendary group, but certainly was on her “Top 5” list. They had even gone to an Eagle’s concert in Houston a couple of years ago and heard the song performed live; a first for both of them.

  Oh, the memories. There were so many, and she cherished each and every one of them. But they wouldn’t be making any more together. Their life together was definitely not wasted time.

  “So, you live from day to day, and you dream about tomorrow,” the lyrics echoed in the chambers of her mind. What would tomorrow hold in store?

  Hours went by like minutes and the shadows came to stay.

  Chapter 12


  If you want to capture someone’s attention, Whisper

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” Whisper said sharply. She usually dealt with her emotions by herself, so having someone else trying to make her talk about her feelings was something she wasn’t about to do. Not right now.

  Will was just trying to comfort his girlfriend. He couldn’t understand why she was snapping at him. She had just lost her dad and her loving baby. Emma was much more than just a pet; she was like a child. Their child. And she was gone.

  “Babe,” Will said, “Emma was a good dog. I’m gonna’ miss her, too. She gave her life trying to protect you, so we need to give her a proper burial.”

  “I know,” Whisper answered, a lot less belligerent than before. She took hold of the pipe that River was offering her. “We can bury her in the field behind the warehouse. She loved to play back there.”

  She flicked her Bic and fired up the pipe, filling her lungs with the aromatic herb before passing it to her man. She knew that Will was just trying to help, but she was crushed by the death of her dad much more than that of her puppy.

  Her lungs expanded from the smoke that filled it, causing her to cough. That was unusual. She normally didn’t cough from smoking weed.

  The trio sat in silence as they each passed the pipe and took one more hit.

  “If you’ll come show me where you want to bury her, I’ll dig the grave,” River offered after exhaling her last draw from the pipe. “Maybe I can get some of the guys to help me.”

  “I’ll dig it,” Will interjected. “She was my dog and it’s up to me to do this.” He looked into Whisper’s sad eyes. “She was our dog. You choose the spot and I’ll do the digging.”

  “Then I’ll help,” said River. “I loved that mangy mutt, too.”