The Funeral

A blank face with no expression stared back at the curious young man. His face was pale and his body lay motionless in the oak casket with a dark red finish. He wore a suit that was a tan white like the sandy grave that lay before him and sunglasses that hid the eyes like the man wearing them. His dark brown hair lay curled over his forehead hiding what was Jacob’s father. He left when he was four and never returned. A week ago he was found dead in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Jacob flew down from New York to give him a proper death. One that was final and left everyone with no doubt he was gone. Egypt was nice but as he didn’t have much money he ended up staying in some low end motel in Cairo. It was a very hot day as temperatures were in the high nineties. The only fresh air was from the slight breeze that shifted the sand like a broom over ancient dust. The heat was getting to Jacob and he could already feel himself slowly drifting off. Luckily the tent he and everyone else were under helped provide shade and kept the body from heating up and beginning to smell. It was not your traditional ceremony in fact it wasn’t really a ceremony at all. There was no priest and no grave yard. Just an empty and dry dessert that ate up and wasted the fertile grounds it was bestowed on. In a way it was like an empty void. The exact thing that haunted Jacob was the final resting place of his father. Everywhere Jacob looked all he could see was endless sand that seemed to stretch on forever. As he looked into the sunset it felt like he could almost see a reflection of himself standing there looking back at him; judging his actions and thoughts. He wanted to run away and leave behind the funeral and all the problems he would have to face. But everywhere he could run would only lead him to more desert and more sand. Everyone had now gathered around the empty hole where the empty man was to be laid by his empty son. His father’s casket was closed and with it the rest of what he thought was his loss. But he felt worse as he stared at the strange man’s face disappearing into the darkness of the container that beholds the dead. A container that would take away the life he would miss the least but would have needed the most. Finally it was done and the casket was closed with a final snap of the latches that sealed his final resting place. The whole funeral was dead silent. A silence Jacob hated but was inclined to listen to. The only sound that could be heard was his mother weeping. He tried to cry. He wanted to cry. But as much as he tried he just couldn’t. His mother was a good parent. She had worked five jobs when he was young so Jacob barely ever saw her but later in his childhood understood why she was so distant. Jacobs’s mother was about 5’11 with long black hair. Her face had aged over the years from stress and hard work. She was fifty six now and luckily Jacob was able to pay for her retirement. Today she wore a white dress that seemed to battle the dark nature of her hair. She had on large hoop earrings and black high heels she constantly tripped over on the sandy terrain. Jacob was 6 feet tall with longish black wavy hair. He kept it combed back like a wave over the ocean shore. His face looked young but slightly tired and depressed. He did not dress up for this occasion and simply wore a white t-shirt and jeans. Jacob was twenty five now and his father had been gone twenty one years. The only memories he had of him were the ones he had created himself. As a boy he would make up stories about his father; some appealing and others not. Sometimes he was a brave hero or just an average guy trying to get back to his family. Other times he was a criminal on the run or a man who abandoned his family for his own interests. Every night as a child Jacob would wait for him in front of the house he and his mother lived in. He waited and waited in the cold afraid that maybe his father was too afraid or intimidated to approach the house. After all it had been so long and perhaps him sitting there would make him more likely to approach but nobody ever came. Over all Jacob didn’t like his child hood and it angered him it felt like a giant waste of his time. He never did anything outstandingly great and came home to nothing but an empty house. The emptiness did not bother him at first as he did not need anything to stay entertained. As a boy he would sit in the middle of his empty house and let his imagination run wild. His mother could not afford toys or for that matter anything in the house but it didn’t matter. He could imagine lands far beyond this one and the stories that wondered their open plains. It was his own life beyond this one and he was the director. Then one day it all stopped. This boy grew up and the loneliness began to haunt him; at first with tears and then with anger. Eventually he could not even linger around his own home. The house became a monstrosity among all others and made his body tremble at the sight of it. This was no longer a home; it was a monster. The only way he could cope with his feelings was by writing. His mother discouraged it though and told him he would never become a writer. He didn’t know why but whenever he brought up any idea that was somewhat out of the box she told him it was a terrible idea and it would never work. With his imagination constantly being doubted and pushed back eventually he stopped being creative and stopped writing. In recent years he tried to write something but the page remained blank and so did he. Now his father’s casket was to be lowered into his grave. Jacob was assisted by three strangers from the small crowd. Everyone in the crowd was wearing the exact same formal apparel with the same gloomy looks on their faces. His father did not have any family that he knew of and his mother’s family was distant and had actually never met Jacobs’s father. In fact all of the people at the funeral were supposedly old friends of his father. Only his mother and him were actually family. In fact he hadn’t seen any of these people in his life.  Even Jacob’s father’s job and name was a mystery to him and as he and his mother never talked about him it stayed that way. The casket was surprisingly light and oddly cold to the touch. He noticed an odd symbol on the side of it. It was in the shape of a key with an eye at the center and large wings protruding from the sides. It had many intricate details and seemed to have designs that weaved in and out of the others. It looked as if someone took a thousand different stories and sculpted them into one design. It was beautiful but the eye in the center sent chills down Jacobs’s spine. It felt like it was watching your every move like a predator does its prey. As if it wanted something it just couldn’t get but continued to search for through the eyes of society. Jacob stood there surprised how long he had dosed off. Everyone watched as he stood puzzled in front of his father’s grave. It was the first time in a while he had actually dozed off like that. During his childhood it would happen often but he had convinced himself long ago he was being foolish by wasting his time in a false reality. He determined the symbol meant nothing and continued helping the three lower his father into his shallow grave. Next it was time for the speeches. Adofo, a small Egyptian man about 5’8, was the host. He had a shaved head and wore a suit with an ocean blue tie. He looked like he was in his mid-forties and probably didn’t get much business as not many want their loved ones buried in the desert. As much as Jacob hated the idea of abandoning his father here it was the only thing he could provide. The abandoner had become the abandoned. “Hello everyone, I am Adofo and I will be you’re…” There was a long awkward pause. Adofo normally hosted parties and events but this was no celebration. The only reason Jacob was here was because he was paid to let them bury the body in the desert. It was a side business in which nobody came to except the family with nothing. “Well that’s start with the goodbyes shall we.” He said interrupting the silence. Jacobs’s mother was still crying and couldn’t get a single word out her mouth and no one else would volunteer to speak. A long while went by and Adofo spoke once more. “How bout we start with the son.” He said. All eyes went on Jacob and a flush of anger and humiliation flowed through his body like lava through a paper mountain. He stepped in the center by his father’s grave with nothing to say. He stood there in silence in front of the same boring crowd with the same boring people. Each and every one of them pitied him. They stared at him as if he was some broken piece of pottery. One that you can keep on trying to fix but no matter how hard you try the pieces never will go back together. Even if he was somehow put back together he would still be the same empty pot that sits on the same empty shelf as the rest. He looked through the crowd. All were whispering and thinking the same exact thing; viewing him the same exact way. He looked around until he saw someone who stood out. A beautiful young woman in her early twenties stood in the mid second row of the crowd. Her hair was a rich shade of mahogany. It flowed in waves to adorn her glowing, porcelain-like skin. Her eyes, framed by long lashes, were a bright, emerald-green. Her lush lips were like the bright red dress she wore; perfect and always gleaming. Her heels matched her glamorous dress and her earrings matched her diamond like eyes. She seemed the picture of perfection. Had she smiled, the world would sigh with contentment. Had she laughed, the world would laugh with her. And had she wept, the whole world would want to comfort her. But it wasn’t just her looks that made her different from the rest. She did not pity him like the others in fact she didn’t seem to give a single thought as to why she was here. Their eyes met and at that moment something just clicked. It was as if he was being exposed for what he really was; all the fake layers peeling off. Eventually it felt like it was just the two of them, waiting for time to pass them by. Jacob stood their expressionless in the extravagant sun letting the world’s judgement fall upon him. That’s when he heard death speak his name with a loud click. As Jacob spun around he heard three distinctive thuds. There was a short second where he almost felt at bliss; as if a giant weight had just been lifted off his shoulders. But as he looked down he saw it. His white shirt was now dark red and his heart turned blue. As he looked up he saw a man unlike the rest; a man with elegance and posture. A man who knew where his life was headed and exactly what he was meant to do. A man who took what he wanted and never looked back. It was everything that Jacob lacked. But before he could see who it was he collapsed. His head hit the hot desert sand along with the rest of the world. He felt a slight burning sensation and then a large amount of pain as his blood boiled him inside and out. The cold metal imbedded inside him felt like multiple blades of ice melting in the hot sun. Jacob could hear the people screaming and the echo of the shots across the blunt desert. He could see the people running and the figure of a mysterious man walking away in the distance. He could feel every second of time wasting upon him like a month does a year. Slowly his vision began to evaporate and the pain began to slowly slip away. He saw the beautiful women from earlier crouch down next to him. She took his hand and whispered something in his ear. He could not hear what she was saying but her voice seemed to make excepting his fate that much easier. It was soft and delicate like the sound of a violin; inclining the listener to listen to every note until the end. Her hands were soft but oddly cold like the coffin. A dark shadow was moving in that rolled over Jacob like a blanket over its sleeper. He wanted to shut his eyes and be done with it. Rest and forget about all his troubles. But every time he tried he could only think of what life would be like without him. The part that scared Jacob was nothing would change. He had no effect on the world and everything he had done simply did nothing. His friends would be sad for a few months but would forget about him like most tragedies. His girlfriend would weep and weep only to find someone else to fill the job he once did. His mother on the other hand wouldn’t be able to take another death in the family. The truth was he hadn’t done enough to earn death. Jacob would leave behind nothing leaving his unknown legacy lost. He even questioned if he knew himself. What did he want? What were his plans for the future? But as darkness approached he succumbed to it. Jacob lay there judging the world as the world judged him. He lay there at the final resting place of two men Jacob didn’t know.