COMPASSION

Chapter 10

The Viewing

Wednesday has come to an end and now begins Thursday morning the day of the viewing. Tom and Catherine are still at rest in their coffins in their bedroom. Tom is first to awaken and opens his lid and steps out of his coffin. He quickly puts on his Navy Blue Suit hanging in his closet. He then opens Catherine’s lid and wakes his wife, “ Catherine get up!”
 
“What’s wrong!” a startled Catherine replies. “Where did you get that suit?”
 
“Do you want to go to your viewing?” 
 
“Yes...we can do that?”
 
 “Yes, no one will know we are there. Why don’t you collect yourself and meet me in the Library.” Tom heads for the Library.
 
Catherine stands up and sees dirt on the floor around her coffin and decide to ask her husband how it got there. She walks downstairs and enters the Library, “Tom where did the dirt come from? It’s all around my coffin and yours.”
 
“I was out in the yard to do some work. I must have tracked it in the house. Let’s get in the car and drive over to Manions.” 
 
Catherine joins Tom in the car and asks? “When is this fog ever going to clear?”
   
Tom tells his wife soon and heads for Manions Funeral Home. They pull in the parking lot and enter the building walking straight to the Viewing Room. They are at the entrance of the room and Catherine sees for the first time her body lying in the brown casket. She is visibly shaken and has to take a seat before she falls down. She turns her head away from the casket. Tom sits next to his wife and holds her to give her strength.
 
“Catherine this is all part of life. Just take some deep breaths and relax. You will get used to seeing yourself in your coffin.” 
 
“Oh God this is too much, I think we should leave.” Catherine has seen enough.
 
“Someone is coming,”  Tom turns around and sees Tommy and Joe.
 
They enter the room and see their Mother for the first time in her coffin. Tommy tells Joe, “Go check Ma out and see if everything looks OK.”
 
Joe slowly approaches his Mother’ s body and kneels down in front of her. He makes the sign of the cross and says a short prayer then stands up and looks at his Mother.
  
“Ma you look nice. Donna bought you the dress. I hope you are with Dad now. You should rest now Ma you deserve to.”  A tearful Joe looks down at his Mother’s legs and sees they are black. He immediately wonders if the embalmer only embalmed the top half of his Mother to save money and that her legs are decaying. Joe moves to the right side of the coffin to see who sent the beautiful flowers.
 
Mike and Donna Havard enter the room with their three-year-old daughter Jennifer and approach the coffin to say goodbye to Mom. Catherine turns around and sees her older sister Sophie with her son Stanley entering the viewing room. Her younger sister Thresa enters with her son and daughter Vince and Terry. Terry stands out among the Havard women because she is extremely attractive with two young children of her own. 
 
“Tom, do you see that young woman over there? She is My sister Thresa’s daughter. She has the looks and figure to be a model,”  Catherine proudly tells her husband. We were all happy young girls my sisters and me when we were home. Then we all got married, had children, then the weight of the world falls on you when you become a Mother.” 
 
Tom sees his son Joe is really talking quite intensely to his attractive cousin Terry who Joe asked if she would sit next to him and tell him how her life is going. The last time Joe saw Terry she was a little girl and now she is a grown woman with two young children of her own.  
 
Terry updates Joe on her life, “ I work for Vince at his collection agency and train at his studio three nights a week.”
 
“What training do you do?”  Joe asks.
 
“To keep in shape I do martial arts at Vince’s studio.”
 
“I saw his photo in the local paper. He has been doing that for quite some time. The both of you are in great shape.” Joe looks again at his cousin. Right now he is just desperate to hear a female voice which has a calming effect on him. He is trying to forget the nightmare of the last two days by temporarily getting lost in his cousin’s beauty and life. 
 
Catherine leans into her husband, “ This is exactly why I wanted Tommy and Joe to find girls and get married. Men are no good at handling death. Women have a terrible time but at least we attempt to deal with our emotions. Men deal with bad times by drinking if they know how or trying to drink if they don’t.” 
 
“Why are you bringing up my drinking here? I haven’t seen you in thirty-three years now you are starting up with my drinking!”  Tom is visibly upset.
 
“Tom I don’t want Jennifer to see me in my coffin dead she will have nightmares. Can’t we do something?” 
 
“She is your granddaughter and she has your blood in her. Walk over to her. You can possess her and she won’t even know she is here.”
 
Catherine stands up and walks over to Jennifer and disappears into her. Jennifer turns to her Uncle Joe and has a strange expression on her face. She starts waving to her Uncle. She then walks to the back of the room and approaches her Grandfather. Only Jennifer can see him sitting in the chair. She smiles at the man in the chair and says, “ Hi!”
 
Tom looks at his Granddaughter and asks, “What is your name?”
 
Jennifer smiles and replies, “ Jennifer.”
 
Grandpa asks, “ How old are you?” 
 
Jennifer replies, “ Three.” 
 
Mike Havard sees his daughter staring at an empty chair and calls to her not realizing she is talking to Grandpa, “Jennifer come over here.”
 
Jennifer tells her Grandpa, “I have to go.”
 
Tom replies, “Yes go to your Father.”
 
Jennifer walks away then turns around and says, “Goodbye Grandpa.”
 
Tom Havard smiles.