Author's Note
This story contains themes of incest. It is loosely based on events I experienced in the 1980s - things which I continue to benefit from today [and probably explains my sexually twisted nature]. Naturally, the names and some of the circumstances have been changed or altered for the sake of creativity and a sense of anonymity, while the Dallas area and businesses in that vicinity are factual. I hope you enjoy as we go back to a time of Ronald Reagan and the Cold War, Michael Jackson as the King of Pop, Yuppies, AIDS, and MTV! But first...
Prologue
A line of mourners filled the room to pay their respects to the woman lying inside a mahogany casket. Off to the right, three siblings stood in line shaking hands, receiving hugs and words of condolence from an assembled lot of grievers. Many of the faces that greeted them were familiar, reflections from a long-ago time and a world that no longer existed. Others were complete strangers.
During a brief gap between bereaved guests, Bobby Peterson turned to his immediate left and whispered to his stepsister Sarah, "Christ - this can't end soon enough."
"I know," she whispered back quickly as the next person headed over to express themselves.
And so it went for three hours during an afternoon in May, which just happens to be a damn fine month in Texas. The sun is always shining in a sky of clear blue, the color Crayola labels periwinkle, with the heat merely providing a foretaste of what's to come during the summer months.
But inside the Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home in Dallas, the contrast couldn't have been starker and the smell coming from the assortment of flowers was suffocating. Not to mention the fragrances of cologne and perfume that mingled with the floral arrangements. It was all so nauseating, leaving Bobby lightheaded and feeling ready to vomit.
Finally, though, it was over. The last of the mourners made their exit, leaving only the three siblings. They stood together looking down at their mother, each offering a silent prayer before the casket was closed for good.
The funeral director, a man who looked to be in his late sixties, sauntered over. He displayed the customary sad and solemn expression, and Bobby couldn't help but wonder if these people practice that look. Is it something they teach you when you go into the funeral home business?
In a voice that was barely audible he confirmed the details of the next day's proceedings and assured the trio they could stay as long as they needed. In that instant Bobby wanted to shout at the top of his lungs, just for the hell of it. He wasn't concerned about waking his dead mother, but it would have been fun to scare the shit out of this undertaker.
Christ
, he thought,
I can't imagine what their lives must be like. Do they act like this all the time, or is it part of the performance they're expected to play?
Instead, Bobby and his stepsiblings each murmured their thanks before sitting down in the first row of chairs. "Just the funeral tomorrow morning and it'll all be over," Ella spoke to nobody in particular.
She was the youngest of them at 51 years old. She had cropped hair in a shade resembling caramel with piercing green eyes that belied her shyness. Her partner of many years, Chrissy, had conveniently stayed away from this somber occasion since Ella's mother had never accepted their lifestyle or their decision to live together.
"How can I explain that to my friends?" and "What would the people at the country club or church say?" were their mother's ready remarks when confronted with the reality that one of her daughters was gay. She had always maintained that Ella was just "going through a phase," despite her daughter's very lengthy and committed relationship with Chrissy.
However, Bobby's wife and Sarah's husband were also noticeably absent, preferring to pay their respects in private. There had never been any genuine affection between any of them and their mother either, especially as she never expressed any interest in anything or anyone outside her immediate orbit. If anyone inside the funeral home had noticed these obvious absences they kept silent about it, although in Highland Park that was the customary way of handling things anyway.
It had been a similar experience several years before when their father passed away and, truthfully, that had been more painful for all of them. None of the siblings technically loved their mother less, it was just that she had always been remote and removed from their day to day lives, engaged and involved in anything that wasn't her immediate family. Predominantly, however, she had always been more concerned with her station in life and keeping up appearances than the happiness of her children. It was such a contrast to how their father had acted and treated them.
His funeral had been a difficult one to endure for them due to the genuine love and affection they each had for him. Conversely, their mother's funeral was more like a formal procedure they all needed to get through - like a root canal - rather than any honest display of sadness or bereavement. That difference hadn't escaped any of the children and, truthfully, it only added to the somber reality of the situation.
"Shall we go?" Bobby asked at last. He was looking straight ahead at the closed casket and desired to be any place other than where he was.