Sully was not looking forward to this anymore than he would have been looking forward to having someone stick hot needles into his corneas but he’d agreed to go with her.

They walked across the lawn side by side, Sully had his face turned down but his eyes looked over all the mourners gathered. There were so many of them. He wondered, fleetingly, if it were his own funeral, would he have even half this many people show up.

Then he spotted Rosalyn’s parents standing beside the closed casket. Her dad wept unconsolably while holding onto her mother. Her mother’s eyes were red and swollen but at the moment there were no tears. She stood stoically, gripping a red rose and a tissue.

The look she gave them should have knocked them both to the ground in writhing pain, or sudden death. Sully’s steps faltered and Rosalyn grasped his hand.

He turned to her and she nodded toward the gathering, “They’re waiting for us,” she said. They walked hand in hand to the opposite side of the casket, facing her parents.