Funeral Voices
09 Oct 2020Aeryn Airstryder
The little boy awoke to the sound of a vehicle coming to a halt on the street below his window.He knew it was late, and that mummy would be mad at him for getting out of bed, but he liked cars, so he got up, and as quietly as a five year old could, tip toed over to the window.
He pulled back the curtain and clambered up onto his toy chest to get a view of the street below.
Outside was a big black boxy car with four doors, and big knobbly tyres that he knew were to make cars drive better on mud and stuff.
It was raining so it was kind of hard to see, but in the flickering light of the street lamp he could make out a pair of yellow eyes seemingly staring up at him from the door of the car.
There was a bright flash followed by a loud boom of thunder, the the car was briefly cast into light.
The eyes belonged to the big angry dog on a blue shield painted onto the car.
He of course recognised the dog, it was on his Daddy's uniform.
He didn't know much about his Daddy's job, just that he worked on a starship in the same room as the captain, and that his Daddy was in charge of making sure messages were sent and delivered to the right people.
But if there was a car with the dog on...DADDY WAS HOME!
He heared footsteps approaching the house, two people, one seemed to have a funny walk like they had something in their shoe, but he couldn't see them.
There was a knock at the door.
Mummy was in the living room, she hadn't been herself for a few hours before bed time, Daddy's ship had got back earlier that day but Daddy hadn't come home yet.
He could hear hushed voices, one was a man, one was Mummy, the other was another lady, but he couldn't hear Daddy's voice.
He tip toed over to his bedroom door, trying not to fall over in the low light from his night light and went out onto the landing.
At the top of the stairs was Mike, his big brother.
Mike was much older than him, Mike was a big boy, fifteen today!
He toddled over and tugged Mike's sleeve.
"Mikey, is daddy home yet? I saw the car with the big dog like daddy wears"
Mike turned around to look at his brother, knelt down and hugged him...mike was shaking...and muttered something;
"Those voices...they are funeral voices"
Almost the second mike finished speaking, downstairs the little boy heard his mother wail and a thump sound like someone had fallen over.
"Mikey...I...I can't breath!"
Mike was hugging him so tight it hurt.
He wiggled free and ignoring Mike's attempts to hush him and stop him going down the stairs, he took hold of the banister like a good boy, making sure to concentrate on one step at a time, went down the stairs calling out;
"Mummy Mummy! I saw a car with a big dog! Is daddy home?!"
He stopped halfway...Daddy wasn't there.
Mummy was kneeling on the floor holding onto the man in the doorway's long blue coat, crying.
Next to the man was a pretty lady, who was kneeling next to Mummy rubbing her back and whispering something to her.
The man looked up at him.
He was holding a walking stick like Nanny and Grandad's in his left hand, leaning on it heavily, and in the gap between his white gloves and sleeves, his skin looked all weird, it was all wrinkled and looked sore.
Mummy turned around and looked at him rubbing her eyes.
"Hey baby, you should be in bed"
She came over, picked him up and rested his head on her shoulder before turning back to the man and the woman;
"Did He suffer?"
The lady shook her head;
"It was quick, his actions in his last few moments saved alot of lives, mine included...I'm...I'm sorry, I couldn't do anything to help him...
The man spoke this time;
"He was a good officer, a good man...and a good friend, if there is anything you need, anything at all, please just ask."
Mummy shook her head.
"Thank you Captain, Commander. But...but we'll be ok...I know you'll need my permission for BWSF ceremony, he loved what he did, and we always joked that one day the job would get him but...but...You have my permission, he loved the BWSF, helping people, it's what he would have wanted...can we please continue this conversation tomorrow via a vid? I...I need to see to the children"
The man nodded, and with great difficulty, the lady holding his right arm to help him balance, went back out into the storm...