New Death at The New Life

“Are you ready to walk to the Church now”

Mary shared her “This is not something I want to go to” look.  She added in her thoughts where noone could see “but he joins me at my places and-“.  She did support the New Life Church but it was lower on her priorities list, lower than canine, feline and fowl, lower than housal or spousal, the guest room preparation encompassing both, and even some personal, if there was still a person she could prepare for…

Mary remembered the final time she saw Valentine at NLC, though she did not know then that it would be the final time she would see her.  She had a memory that Ted looked at her with that old man longing (he would call it middle age lust but whatever) but eh! he would never cheat on her because he was already tooo busy to create yet another life.  Mary wondered how many lives two people could have should have. Mary wondered if there was a line between these three lives; hers, his and theirs.  And who should draw this line.

Though Ted often used (overused) the Mark Twain (was it) epigram of “Only one Funeral I have to attend”, he felt duty, honor, and every other blank way bound to attend the “Life Tributal Ceremony”, as one way to try and hold town gown relations together, especially at this time when some members of the town wanted to set the gown aflame. And, it had been endlessly remembered, the notice and details of Valentine’s passing had been, to put it as charitably as possible, had been underreported by the College. Whether it was that she came from a “Limey” household, working class but not the “right” working class nor the right minority, whether it was that she embraced religion at a school where it was seen as “the opiate of your parents”, whether it was that she was “say it loud, I’m chunky and proud”, or that her women’s Soccer team was besmirching the loser’s reputation of DM athletics, or whether it was an unknown whether……