The day of the funeral, no one from town showed up. I knew my father wasn’t liked around town, but no one showing up to his funeral really drove that fact home.

I sat in the back pew, not wanting to walk up and see his face for the last time. Lance and Daisy sat in the front row as the funeral organizer talked them through all the details about moving my father to the burial location.

My fingers tapped against the pew repeatedly. My tie was choking me. Each breath was harder than the last to take in. I loosened the tie, but the feeling of suffocation was still there as I went back to tapping my fingers.

Lance and Daisy walked toward me and sat beside me in the pew. “Are we leaving?” I asked Lance.

“They said there’s one more thing.” He placed his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it for comfort.

We stared forward as the organizer set up three microphone stands on the stage. I cocked an eyebrow. “What’s going on?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he answered.

The speakers in the room squeaked as they were turned on, and seconds later a song began to play. I knew the song the moment the first note hit the sound system. A small smile found my lips as Simon and Abigail walked out to the two further back microphones, playing the air guitar to The Black Crowes’ “She Talks To Angels.” They played the intro to the song perfectly, Abigail even taking a moment to tune her invisible strings.

I turned to see Aria walking out to the center microphone, and right on time, she started lip syncing along with the song. Her fingers gripped around the mic as she sang her heart out, her beautiful eyes locking with mine.

“Jesus,” I muttered, trying to hold back the tears that wanted to fall as she lip synced every single word. She rocked out to the song, singing with her soul as she danced with the microphone stand across the stage. Her black lace dress hugged her stomach as her black flat shoes danced around.

She gestured toward me during Simon’s air guitar solo, signaling me to join her.

Before I could consider it, Lance pulled a microphone from his suit coat and handed it to me, winking.

I stood up and wiped my eyes before I started lip syncing with Aria. I walked down the aisle, and she grabbed her mic, meeting me halfway. We silently sang our hearts out, leaving no emotion behind, losing ourselves in the song, losing ourselves together.

After the performance, I was told to sit down in the front pew and Lance and Daisy were ordered to join me. Aria said it was time for the speeches. Simon walked up to the podium and cleared his throat, tapping his finger against the microphone. “Test one, two, three, four,” he whispered into the microphone, which rocketed his voice through the room. “Good, good, good, good. Hello everybody, I’m Simon Landon and I wanted to say a few words about Kent Myers.” He cleared his throat once more. “Kent Myers was an asshole.” I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “I think it’s safe to say that we can all agree on that. He was such a freaking asshole. I remember one time I was at the grocery store to buy a pack of root beer because me and my best friend Aria were going to get wasted on root beer floats.

“Kent had a cart with ten cases inside, leaving none for me. I asked him if there was a way I could have one of the cases, and he huffed and said, ‘You should’ve showed up earlier, idiot’ before he proceeded to take all of them and leave the store. I raced home and by the time he pulled into his driveway, I was harassing him about being a jerk and taking all of the root beer, and I kept pestering him about why he needed all of them. He turned to me—you know the slow, spine-chilling, Kent Myers turn—and with a deep growl he said, ‘My boy is coming up here to visit for the week and he only drinks root beer. Now get the hell off of my property, you redheaded freak.’” Simon’s laughter faded a little, and he gave me a small smile. “Yes, Kent Myers was an asshole, but he sure did love his son.”

I pounded my fist against my mouth as I watched Abigail walk up to the podium next. She smiled my way. “Kent Myers was an asshole. We had the unfortunate pleasure of sitting across from each other at our chemotherapy appointments. Or as Kent liked to call it, ‘Fuck this bullshit in the fucking ass.’ He had a way with words. He always gave the nurses a hard time, calling them dumbasses when they missed his veins for the IVs. He called one nurse Susie, even though his name was Steven. He called me the annoyingly positive cancer girl who quoted dead people.

“It was kind of his thing, you know? To be a jerk. That’s how you knew he was going to be okay. There was only one day when he wasn’t rude. I remember walking out of the clinic and seeing him sit on the curb with his head in his hands. I sat down beside him, and he told me not to quote any damn dead people. So we just sat for a long time. Then he finally said, ‘I was supposed to have more time with him. I was supposed to have more time to fix my mistakes.’ Kent Myers was an asshole, but he sure did love his son.”

Aria walked up last for her speech. Her eyes locked in on mine and she gave me a half grin. “I spent the past two months eating lunch with Kent Myers. There are many things I could say about your father, Levi. I’d learned so many interesting things, but…” She closed her eyes and gripped the edge of the podium. “But…” Her hands were turning red from how hard she was holding onto the podium.

“Aria?” Simon asked warily.

“I’m fine, just give me a second. Crap.” She pounded her fist against the podium before she stood up tall and gave me a smile. “I had a really fantastic speech ready. It was going to be e-pic,” she stuttered. “Epic. But, well, I guess my water just broke, so I kind of need to get to the hospital.”

Holy shit.

Lance and Daisy jumped up quickly, ushering Aria to their car. Simon called Aria’s parents and his parents to meet us at the hospital. I rode in the back of the car with Aria. “I’m sorry I ruined your dad’s funeral,” she cried.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You didn’t ruin it, Art.” I kissed her forehead, combing her hair behind her ear. “You didn’t ruin anything.”

“I missed you so much.”

I kissed her forehead again.

I’d missed her so much more.

44 Aria

Mom and Dad were already at the hospital by the time I arrived. It was seven long hours of terrible contractions before the doctors decided it was time to bring Honeydew into the world.