Jenny

Jenny

The arias of the dead are the sorrows of the living.
So thought Jenny as she stared down through crestfallen eyes at the deep trench that was now the home of her best friend. A home for ever more. It was hard to imagine life without Daniela. A life she did not want to face just yet. She turned away from the casket; she had no more tears left to cry, no more emotions left to feel. She was numbed. The world slumbered on at its own pace while Jenny stood in the middle of it, lonely and lost. Jenny shivered as her breath turned white in the brisk February morning. The overcast sky spread its depression like some unwanted infection among the mourners at the funeral. The melancholy of it all merged into some dark illusion that Jenny did not want to acknowledge. Yet the truth could not be denied. Daniela was gone. Forever. A bird started singing a sedated song in the faraway distance.
“Jenny, let’s go.”
She turned her head towards the voice and saw the tear adorned face of her mother. Jenny sighed and closed her eyes, wishing somehow she could block out the rest of the world.
“Well, come now.”
Slowly and hypnotically, as if some invisible force was directing her body, she moved towards the gates that led out of the cemetery, feeling as if she was leaving half of her life behind.
~ ~ ~
A blinding flash of light…then…
“Honey, wake up. Don't want to be late for school now.”
Jenny groaned under her blanket. She pulled the quilt down and squinted at the intruder who had stolen her restful sleep by opening her bedroom’s curtains. It did not surprise her to find the plump woman that was her mother with her hands on her hips staring back at her with a distressed glint in her eye. Jenny tugged the covers back over her head. Jenny was in no mood to deal with school, even though more than two weeks had passed since the accident that threatened to shatter her whole esprit apart. She closed her eyes and pretended she did not notice the intruder at her...