Nicholas' Funeral
JACK
The Swamp had shimmered in the light of a thousand stars, all draped over the twisted arms of hollow logs and the moss covered branches of weeping willows who finally had a reason to cry for joy. Nicholas was finally home, and I had never seen anything more beautiful than the welcoming that awaited him.
I watched Adam embrace his brother and find the peace he had been looking for. Finally he was able to feel something other than his brothers agony. The rest of the Gray Boys followed suit, welcoming Nick with brilliant smiles on their faces and various questions that Mick answered vaguely, for now. Evelyn had draped a scarf over his shoulders that had its own strand of stars laced through it's stitches, while Rosie placed a soft kiss on his cheek before wiping away her lipstick smudged to his cheek.
The energy that wafted through the warm night air was vibrant and wild and I was drunk with it. So this is what a happy ending looks like. I felt as if I was in a dream and often had to remind myself that it was in fact real. This new sense of peace made me feel lighter in someway. I felt like the river of smoke that leaks from the tip of an incense, settled into the gathering like a thin fog. But everything was so clear once I met his eyes. When Nick finally walked to me I was as silent as a mute, unable to truely express how I felt. Everything settled itself into the right place around us and conviently enough no words were needed. This moment said it all, we felt everything that needed to be said and it was much more satisfying than anything either of us could have slipped off our tongues.
It's all a bit of a blur after that truthfully. I faintly remember elephants....but I keep questioning myself on that one. Once the fire began to rage and the liquor was spred about we all fell into a warm mass of happiness as the group danced around the fire in sync with the flames. I had kept my promise to Grady and gave him his dance. Although I suspect he cleverly had Dean loop the song that guided our bare feet across the soft moss. Not that it mattered. We danced until all of us collapsed into one another well into the night, listening to Grady tell us stories around the embers of the dying fire. The last thing I remember is looking to a droopy eyed Nicholas wondering how I had fell upon such perfection.
JOHN
Come down the early night bugs, they were falling into the bonfire and making the little popping sounds, but I was hung around Evie at the waist and Brad at the neck.
Hard to dance as three for some, but we manage.
Clyde was still as mine, in my room, and said to me not a word. It looked as though he only spoke to Rose, to say something which made her smile, and push him hard on the chest away from him. I can't say if he resisted, as they spun fast away from me.
The lawn closer to the house is still marked with the wooden animals which I've been feeding honey and water. Things have begun to grow down their backs and fill the woodvein with mites. The honey draws the smaller things.
Adam would not remove his glasses although they are filthy with a smear of pinkish something and he looked quite dry but he and Nick did kiss quite passionately. They looked the way children look when playing games in the dark. I'm sure they're going to row.
Justine I think has fallen in love with the triceratops.
A storm gathered to the South. There were storms like that when we were young, I think, and never seem to break on us now. Brad and Evie and I left early, to find our way to bed and one another.
I remember so many things which changed hands.