Burying The Past Part 2

I hadn't realized how much time passed by. The activity was mind numbing, and it was exactly what I needed. Suddenly, Rowan appeared out of nowhere.

"I found Joel. He says to let you guys know he's ready. Bella, got any water?"

"Yeah sure, help yourself, she motioned to the kitchen."

I slowly came out of my mind-numbing induced brain fog to realize how late it had gotten. We had spent the entire morning, now evening weaving these baskets, well for me, it was a basket. Bella had already completed two baskets and was on to her third.

Rowan came out of the kitchen, hydrated. "Wow, you guys made that? Great job. I don't even know how that's done, I could never."

I thought that too Rowan, you'd surprised, and I thought to myself with an outward nod and smile.

"Thanks for your help, Nils," Bella said.

"No way, thanks for your help, Bella." I then looked toward Rowan. "And you too Rowan."

They enveloped me in a group hug.

"Did you get to tell Annie yet?" I asked Rowan.

"No, I came straight here first."

"Okay. Guess it's time."

I left Bella's place to go back to Rowan's place where Annie was getting the much-needed nurturing earlier, but she wasn't there. She wasn't at ours either. I went back to Old Granny, where I saw her with Bella's and Rowan's parents. They had gotten Old Granny's corpse dressed and placed in a burial basket, releasing the need for Annie to do it herself.

"Hey sis," I said.

Annie turned to me. "Hi, sweetheart."

"Hi. Joel says the burial ground is ready. So, I guess whenever we're ready?"

Joel couldn't leave the burial ground unattended since he didn't want someone to come and use it for themselves especially since he had to search for the perfect place and dig the hole himself, so he was sitting by the graveside waiting for us to get there.

"Okay, yes, we'll just go and get ready, then we'll help you carry her down there, okay?" Bella's mother said.

"Thank you, guys, so much for all that you've done today. I don't know how I would have made it this far throughout the day without your help. You do not know how much you helped me. Thank you so much." Annie cried, but gathered herself.

Rowan's mother caressed Annie's face and said, "Oh, sweetheart. That's what family is for, right?"

Annie smiled.

Bella's mother came up behind Rowan's mother, reached her hand out to squeeze Annie's hand. "And friends", she smiled.

As they were about to leave, they turned to look at me. "How about you Nils? How have you been today?" Rowan's mother asked.

"I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

I must have not looked okay as Bella's father said, "Young man, it's okay to say what you feel, even if you are a man." He smiled slightly.

I almost broke down. "Thank you. I know." My attention returned to everyone. "Thanks so much for being there for Annie when I couldn't be. I am doing alright thanks to my best friends. They really are the best. Thank you, guys, for helping me out today."

Rowan's mother struggled to hold back her tears. Bella's mother just openly cried. Then all of a sudden Annie started crying, then Bella, even Rowan, and I couldn't hold the tears back anymore, I bawled. The men in the room stood there with their hands on the respective women's shoulders, looking like they could cry themselves, but were stifling the tears so much that they looked constipated.

After our emotional deluge, everyone dispersed. Annie took her time getting ready, so had I and we all reunited at Old Granny's house once tidied. The men each grabbed an end of the basket holding Old Granny's body, while the women, Bella, and I walked on either side of the basket providing support. Rowan walked ahead of us as we followed his direction.

We made our lengthy walk toward our destination. Naturally, we attracted the attention of the village folks. Whispers traveled fast as those that saw us leaving Old Granny's house with the casket had informed the confused onlookers that Old Granny had passed.

Some of the villagers who were quite fond of Old Granny wailed as we walked past, ran back inside to tell their loved ones, threw something on really quick, and followed us to the graveside.

Some of the villagers stood several feet away from us, weary of Old Granny's dead body and my weird cursed appearance. They looked at me as though I had the plague and I was largely contagious.

When we arrived at the graveside, we saw Joel passed out next to it with his animal vest covering his face to protect him from the sun that was. Annie impulsively and frighteningly shrieked and ran toward him as though she were panicked that he too had died.

Her high shrill spooked him and he jumped out of his stupor to find her screaming in his face. Annie was hysterical.

Once he realized what was happening, he held her close to him and soothed her with shush and cheek kisses. Annie seemed to be visibly shaking. Who could have blamed her? Today was a hard day.

Joel joined us. He smelled like dirt now that I thought of it. It was horrendous. How Annie could have buried her face into his chest like that was beside me. But that horrendous odor resulted from sacrifice and it didn't go unnoticed, it was incredibly appreciated, well acknowledged.

Standing there, watching how broken everybody was, how awful I felt, it felt premonitory. As though I saw them gathered there in a couple of days doing the same thing for me. My heartfelt heavy, I felt sick to my stomach. I had to excuse myself for a bit.

I found a nearby tree, hid behind it, leaning up against it, hyperventilating, then eventually throwing up. Thank goodness no one had seen me step off, because I needed this time on my own.

I stood back there for a while trying to feel better, looking up at the sky, watching the coming night and the birds that flew by to go into hiding for the night as though life for them just carried on. I heard villagers step up one by one to say some kind words about Old Granny.