The Sin Eater 24: The King is Dead

No one ever to my knowledge touched his medicine tray. We all knew where it sat. There was a kinda wide hallway that went from the front of the house to the back. Off that hallway was the tiny bathroom. Right as you entered it, to the left sat a chest of drawers. On top of it was The Tray.

The nearest funeral home was a three-minute walk from Stone’s house. He went there every year. He had enough money to plan his funeral and he picked his casket and gave the order of events so they would be exactly how he wanted them.

Every year he had a heart attack. Every year he was rushed to Rolla. By the time he died, the doctors said that one third of his heart had not been working. One third of his heart was dead. Just hanging in his chest waiting for the inevitable.

With the exception of the funeral home and the hospital, all of his time was spent in that house. I saw him out of it twice. He came to Christmas the first year we were in Waynesville. And he came to my house on the day of my graduation. It was the first time I saw him really smiling in a long time. Not the occasional chuckle or a greeting grin, but a real smile. He sat at the table with me while most of the room scowled and he kept nodding to me. The year before, he had insisted I get a class ring, and since my mother wasn’t going to buy it, he had Grandma take me and fill out an order form.

I’m at Pizza hut. It’s a Monday night. No patrons. The place is always dead on Monday nights. I look over while I was working on a crew pizza and I saw Uncle Ball standing in the waiting area. I waved.

“I’ll be right there,” I said. And I finished my work as Bubbly talked to Uncle Ball. They had been friends, and recently they had been lovers, and I saw her give him a hug.

“You gotta walk away and go to the back room. You gotta talk to Ball,” she said. Her face was doing something it hadn’t before, but I still didn’t get it.

I met him at the front of the store and he hugged me. He didnt look good.

“Grandpa passed,” was all he said. He grabbed me by the right shoulder and he looked me in the eye. “It’s gonna be okay.”

We went to the back room, the party room they called it, and we sat in the booth that the crew always sat in when they took their breaks or rolled silverware. We sat and looked at each other. Bubbly brought us soda and cheese sticks we didn’t eat, and we just sat there looking at each other.

One of us mumbled out, “He’s not suffering anymore.”

We got in his truck and drove to my apartment and I realized that Rose had sent him. That she knew it had to be him that told me. See, we are bound to one another. We always will be. For so long it was a bound of love and affection. For a while, just a bond of hope. This last week it’s been a bond of aggression. But that was his call.

We got to my apartment and he sat on the loveseat. I sat on the chair. We just looked around.

“Now what?” he said.

“We gotta find Less.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“Not really,” Shadow said. “Springfield or Milwaukee. But we have to find her.”

“She moves around so much…”

“Not an option. She has to be found. We leave tomorrow. Springfield first, then Milwaukee if we have to. If it’s there, I will know exactly where to look.”

“I’m not dealing with Char right now.”

Shadow looked at him hard and he held his hands up.

“Okay, shit. What time tomorrow?”

“Be here at ten.”

He nodded.

“We have to have you and Uncle Wrath at that funeral parlor when it opens. Grandma and Rose will try to squeeze in a little God and Jesus if you let them. I need you there and gently aggressive.”

“I’ll call Wrath,” he said.

“Tigress? Lioness?”

“They are being told by Wrath.”

“Good. Aunt?”

“She knows. She is in a car now. Fucking Savior better not be with her.”

I pointed at him. “No, if Savior shows up, you shut your mouth. Wrath will shut his, too. She has the right to bring whoever she wants for support.”

“Fine, fuck, but Stone hated him.”

“It’s not about that now. The funeral arrangements and the coffin are about Stone but the rest of this is about us grieving.” I shook my head and looked at the ceiling. “He would want that for her. He wouldn’t give a shit what shoulder she cried on as long as she had one.”

“Fine. I’ll talk to Wrath.”

“No, I will,” I said.

We went silent for a while, then after about an hour of talking about nothing, he looked at me and said, “You gonna have a fuck lined up?”

“I have a girlfriend and she is in Virginia. I’ll call her, but I doubt she will come.”

“I don’t know, man. People like to celebrate life when there has been a death. You’re—”

“I’m gonna be fine.”

At the funeral, he had his casket saying he was going home, and the only home I knew he was from was a town in West Virginia that hated him. Rose kept going around to everyone telling them it was a clear sign that her daddy had found God. And I didn’t take it away from her.

But a few years ago, Grandma died on the table and she was brought back. She said that she had been in heaven and she had seen her father, her mother, and her siblings who had died. She was groggy and was barely conscious.

“Did you see Daddy there?” Rose asked.

“No.” She said it as if it was the dumbest question she’d ever heard.

The next day we got in the truck with no address, no phone number, and no idea what city we were going to.

“Wrath said this is a waste of time,” Uncle Ball said.

“Yeah, I figured he would.”

“Said that Stone didn’t even like her.”

“Yeah, but he loved her.” I wasn’t wrong.

We got as far as Springfield and stopped at a gas station. I grabbed a map of Springfield and we drove. I had my face buried in the map when I said, “Is this Glenstone?”

“Yeah, but we have no idea,”

“Turn on…” and I named a street. “Left, take a left.”

Then I told him to take a right. Then we found ourselves in a community. A planned community that was way too rich for Less.

“This is wrong. She is not here. This is too nice for her. This is not the place.”

“Left.”

He shook his head but was willing to do as I said. A few more turns and we pulled up to a house that looked freakishly like every house around it.

Guardian looked at Ball and said. “Wait here. I’ll only be a minute.” Door and Guardian is knocking respectfully. The door opens and it is a twenty something kid with wild hair and no shirt or shoes.

“Yeah?” he said, shielding his eyes. “Shit, what time is it?”

Guardian looked at his watch. “Noon. I need to see my sister.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“Jesse Teller.”

He stared for a moment then smiled. “Shit, man, she talks about you all the time. Come on in.”

I looked back at Uncle Ball and he held his hands up quizzically. I walked in.

I would guess it was about six rooms, big kitchen, huge living room. Four people were knocked out on blankets on the floor in the four corners. As I walked into the kitchen, there were two more. Past a few bedrooms with four people in each one, until I am taken to a person wrapped up and facing the wall.

“Leave me with her, please.”

“Sure, man, no problem.”

I touched her shoulder. “Less, wake up.”

She spun in her blankets with a snarl, blinked one eye open and gasped. “Jesse?”

“Yeah.”

“How did you find me?”

Guardian looked at her with a compassionate look and said, “I always know where you are. It’s my job to know where you are. Now let’s go. This is important.”

“I can hang for a little while but I have plans today,” she moaned.

“Not anymore.”

She collapsed on the front lawn when I told her. Dropped to her knees, and Guardian grabbed her. He knelt in front of her and held her up as she wept.

See, Less is gifted with a unique and beautiful ability. She can feel her emotions the moment she has them. Her grief hit her instantly and she held to me crying. Guardian held her, murmured that it was alright and he loved her so much.

“How is this fucking possible?” Ball said when he left the truck and met us in the grass. “You had to know where we were going. You fucked with me. You had an address or a number or something.”

“She has packed a bag. Throw it in the truck.”

“Man, this is crazy.”

“I always know where she is. Always.”

In the truck on the way out of town Uncle Ball said, “Man, we went right to her. We didn’t Dilly Dally, we didn’t pussyfoot. We went straight to her. Your mom is going to flip.”

Destiny showed up at the funeral. I had borrowed a car from Arthur, and when everyone had left and I knew my Grandpa was still laying in a casket in that funeral home, I parked right out front. In her arms, I wept. I couldn’t leave yet. I just wanted to be around him for a little while longer. She held me until we were kissing. I told her I loved her because I did. She told me she loved me because she was playing me and we went to Rose and Mumble’s house.

Every one of the people from my generation was there. Tigress, Lioness, Ace, everyone. Ace rushed me and hugged me.

“Man, been a long time. You look great.”

“Great. All things considered.”

“Yeah.”

“Hey come on, we are all playing Pictionary and—” He looked at Destiny. “Holy shit.” He looked her up and down very politely. “Holy shit. Well, I’m Ace. I’m some kind of cousin of Jesse’s.”

“What is this?” Rose said in mock anger as she walked up to me and turned my chin to the side. “How long have you been sucking on my boy’s neck?”

Everyone at the table looked and they all howled. I had a fist-sized hickey on my neck. Destiny had known that Mary was coming in a few days. I didn’t know what I was going to do. Mary had already bought the nonrefundable tickets. But that didn’t matter tonight.

“Come on, Destiny, let me introduce you to everyone,” Rose said.

Ace looked at me and smiled. “Your girlfriend is hot.”

“No, she isn’t.”

“What?”

“My girlfriend is not hot. She is not in town. She is in Virginia packing her bags to be here in four days.”

He held his fist to his mouth and leaned back. “Damn. Dude, you’re fucked.”

“Destiny is mine tonight. That is all I have. I love her and we have this one night.”

“Shit, well get the fuck out of here.”

Uncle Ball pulled me aside. “Nice choice. She is hot as hell and isn’t that the preacher’s daughter?”

“It’s not like that.”

“Dude, look at your neck. It is exactly like that.” He smacked my back. “Welcome to the game. When does Mary get here?”

“Four days.”

“Shit man, tell me how that goes. If you nail her, then you will be nailing a girl while wearing another girl’s hickey. That is legend. That is some shit that comes around in my marriage.”

“Stop talking or take an ass whipping.”

He held his hands up and backed away. Zipped his lips and threw away the key.

I didn’t fuck her. We went to my apartment and made out. I cried a little. She made me laugh. Then she told me about her boyfriend. My heart hurt. I had decided I was going to break up with Mary as I was taking her to the airport, but this news stopped my heart.

We had our one night and that is that, I guess.

But this man had a heart attack every year for as long as I could remember. He had to throw away his entire life to stop everything, eat cookies, watch soap operas, read books and take naps. I realized the other day that I did not often see him smile. Did not often hear him talk.

I wish I had thought to ask him, “Grandpa Stone, do you want to be here?”

If he had answered me straight, at least he would not have been alone. Stone Mocking was found in the floor in the hall directly under The Tray.