ALIANA

Funerals are supposed to end things.

Closure, finality. A line you cross and don’t look back at yet this one feels like a beginning I didn’t ask for.

The sky is grey, Black umbrellas can be seen everywhere in the cemetery, my parents’ coffins rest side by side.

Together, the way they always insisted on being.

I stand between them with King pressed to my chest, his tiny fingers gripping the edge of my scarf like he understands that today is not a day I'd be in a good mood so he babbles and holds on extra tight and the pain I feel instantly subsides.

My mother would have...