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Because they drowned last Saturday.
Drowned was a new word for me, and it was hard to understand, but it still made me super sad. Because when you drowned you went in a box.
“Drowned.” Brows furrowed in concentration, I tried to spell out the word. “D-R…”
“Shh, Claire.”
Nope, it was too big for me.
Folding and unfolding my hands, I looked around and waved when I spotted Hugh and Gerard’s teacher across the row.
“Stop it, Claire,” Mammy warned, snatching my hand out of the air and placing it on my lap. “Be good.”
I thought I was being good.
Trying my best to be good for Mammy, I sat on my hands and didn’t swing my legs anymore.
Not until the music started and everybody stood up.
“Oasis, Daddy,” I squealed, barely able to contain my excitement. I knew this song. It was my daddy and Joe’s favorite band. The song playing was called “Stop Crying Your Heart Out.”
Daddy didn’t smile. He was too sad. Joe was his bestest friend in the whole world, and he was in the brown coffin, but Gerard was my bestest friend in the whole wide world, and I was happy because he didn’t get drowned with Joe and Bethany.
My daddy got Gerard out of the water. He jumped in and rescued him. With his suit and shoes on. And his socks. My daddy was a hero. That’s what the neighbors said.
When Father Murphy walked down the aisle sprinkling that stinky smoke, I pegged my nose and squirmed in discomfort, but I quickly forgot about the smell when my gaze landed on the coffins. They were being carried down the aisle.
The big brown one first.
Then the little white one.
The crying got louder and louder then, making me super sad. When the white coffin passed by our pew, my brother burst into tears, crying loud and hard into my mother’s chest.
“Shh, Hugh,” I scolded. “Be good.”
“Shh, Claire,” both Mammy and Daddy said at the same time.
I didn’t get it.
People started to follow the coffin.
Gerard’s nana and granddad, his aunties and uncles, and cousins. His mammy, Sadhbh, who was being held up by her boyfriend, Keith, and his stinky son, Mark.
I didn’t like Mark. I didn’t like his mean eyes, or his big hands, or how he was always scowling at us.
Shuffling along behind him, with his aunty Jacqui, was my bestest friend in the whole world.
Gerard.
Excitement bubbled inside of me at the sight of him, and I could hardly stop myself from bouncing on the spot. Wide-eyed, I watched as the blond-haired boy, with the curls that matched mine, used the sleeve of his white shirt to wipe his nose before locking his gaze on me.
“Hi,” I mouthed, waving at him.
His eyes looked so sad, and his cheeks were streaked with tears, but he raised his hand and waved back at me. “Hi.”
My heart started to beat superfast, like I had been running a race, and my belly flip-flopped like a pancake in a frying pan.
“Don’t move,” Mammy began to say, but I couldn’t help it. I was already slipping out of the pew and racing down the aisle. “Peter, stop her!”
