Kimber Read Online Free Page B

lights out, I can’t allow it. I take hold of Luke’s arm
and nudge him back a few steps. This is my fight not his.
     “I’m
the only family you have now Kimber. Like it or not. That’s how it is.”
    I
look at my father, bewildered by what a gift he thinks his DNA is.
    “I’d
rather not have family at all then. Besides, I have an aunt remember?”
     “Lena?
The one who is locked up in a psyche ward in New York because she claims she
can see the future? That’s hardly family Kimber. You’ve never even met her?”
    He
is right. I never had the chance to meet my aunt but I will not allow him the
satisfaction of knowing it.
    “You’re
wrong to assume you know anything about me.”
    “I’m
not I just doubt Marie would bring you to that type of environment.”
    “None
of this matters. I’m done. I want you out. Go back to where you came and never
show your face to me again.”
    “I’ve
always cared, don’t think I haven’t.” My father pleads with me. His pleas fall
ten years too late.
    “I
don’t care! Get out!”
    By
now I’ve drawn the rooms attention. Even people who are not in the room could
hear me.
    “You
can’t deny me the right to say goodbye to my wife.”
    “ Ex-wife !
And you denied yourself that right when you decided that the family thing was
too much and like a chicken you turned your back on us and left!”
    He
looks at me, opens his mouth to speak but decides against it. With nothing more
to say, he storms past Luke and makes his way to the door. I inhale deeply
through my nose, close my eyes and try to forget my father’s face and our
prominent resemblance, especially in his brown eyes.
     “Are
you ok sweetie?” Amber asks. I’m so sick of that question.
    “You
shouldn’t have had to deal with that. What a jerk.” Tiffany says as she and
Amber embrace me.
     I
want to scream, yell and cry from the frustration my father has caused and
forced me to relive by his appearance but I don’t. Today my tears will fall for
no one else but my mother.
    “You
ready to get things started?” Tommy asks gesturing to the front of the room.
                It’s in
this moment I realize what this room really is. How I’ve dread the thought of
standing in it. I feel forced to realize the life I once had and enjoyed is now
all but a lost memory. Forced to see it for all it has become. All it will soon
be. I feel as though time races past me. Tomorrow could be next year and all
that will matter is this moment and the way this room looks, feels, smells.
This place will always be the ending to every memory I have of my mother. Mentally
my mind pleads with me to flee while my heart urges me to stay. Grief swells
inside of me but through the surface breaks an incomplete feeling. A feeling of
needing something more than the air I breathe. As bad as it hurts, I know it’s
not just my mother my body feels the need to hold on to. 
    I
avert my eyes back to the front of the room. A dozen wreaths made of colorful
flowers wear sashes declaring sympathy and warm regards. Their aroma is the
only comfort they truly bring. A small slender table similar to the one in the
front entrance is draped in a white lace cloth. Several pictures of my mother
throughout her life surround her white gold urn on the table. The sight of it,
of her, of what is left, could have stolen my soul it leaves me so weak. I drag
my feet down this beaten path to reality, searching for stability I will not
find.
    I
take a seat in the first row. Luke and Amber sit on either side of me. I try to
distract myself by recalling things that need to be done at home, whose
birthday is next and if I had a puppy what would I name it. I try to focus on
happy moments instead of the agonizing one I live in now. In the end, the grief
will always find me and take hold.
    My
hands and legs start trembling, my jaw falls open, breathing stops. I grab my
head as the top part of my body falls over onto my legs. “No. No.” I’m barely
able to