Hearts of Grey

by Earl E. Gobel

  “Oh, Daddy, you’re getting a bit carried away, aren’t you? I didn’t slap you that hard,” she told him.

  “Hey, it was my cheek. I should know, right?” he answered.

  “Well, if you ever scare the hell out of me like that ever again, you’ll be rubbing a lot more than just a cheek. And by the way, I do love ya, you know?” she asked as she went back to the morning paper.

  “Yeah, I know. Ya sure have a funny way of showing your affections though. I feel sorry for Michael,” he told her.

  “I’m sure he’ll get his just as you got yours. Might take a little time, but he’ll get the message sure enough,” she answered back as she turned to the next page of the paper.

  “Should I warn him?” he asked.

  “And what? Take all of the fun out of it? Naw, I like surprises,” she answered.

  “Hey, speakin’ of surprises. I had some pretty bad dreams last night, and there’s something to be said about dreams. Don’t you think it’s odd that both Jack and your mom may have died within weeks of each other? Maybe even days,” he asked.

  “What? And where did you come up with this brainstorm. You don’t even know when Jack got killed. Quit trying to find someone or something to put the blame on. It was nothing more than a tragic accident and leave it at that,” she insisted.

  “May 10, 1945,” he told her as if he knew the date like his own birthday.

  Katie just looked at him. “May 10? How did you come up with that exact date?” she asked.

  “In my dream last night. That date kept flashing as I relived the night of the fire,” he told her.

  “Really? That’s only a week before the fire. This is creepy. Are you sure it doesn’t mean something else? After all, the chances of the two somehow being tied to each other is a stretch to the imagination, to say the least,” she said as she closed the newspaper and looked at him.

  “What else could it mean? Come on, Katie, think about it,” he told her.

  “I am. But what possible connection could the two deaths have in common, and why her?” she asked.

  “Hell, I don’t know. This might be a dead end, but then again, it could be the answer that we’ve both been looking for. At least you can do is agree to check it out,” he told her.

  “No, you check it out. You can call Mr. King and see if he has a date of Jack’s murder. And then we’ll start diggin’, but only if what you say is true. Okay? You make the call, and you ask the questions. I have Jack’s services to set up. Okay?” she asked.

  “Okay, fair enough,” he told her. “But I do need your help, you know, with that whatchamacallit,” he told her.

  “You mean the telephone, right? Look, just pick up the part that goes against your ear, crank the dial a few turns, and when the operator comes on, just give her the number that you want her to connect you with. I can’t see it ever getting easier than that,” she explained.

  “Yeah, the new age of wonderful inventions. I’m still hooked on the Pony Express concept myself,” he explained.

  “You’re living in yesterday. The world is changing. And either you change with it or you’ll get left behind,” she told him.

  “Yeah, I know. Hell, I’m not even used to inside toilets yet. I can still remember the smell of those outhouses back in the summertime. You either had to go real bad or you had to be a man and go in there and get the job done. Like a man,” he told her.

  “Eeewww! Daddy, that’s sick. Just plain sick. Outhouses are nasty, dirty, and downright disgusting,” she explained.

  “Hey, when you’ve got to go, you go,” he told her.

  “Can we talk about something else please? Even your vomit stories are better than your tales of the outhouse,” she explained.

  “Hey, when you have as few memories of your upbringing as I do, you go with what you’ve got. That’s the way that I figure it anyways,” he told her.

  “Great, your only memories of your childhood are vomiting and outhouses. God, I hate to hear the stories that you’ll be telling your grandkids. Lord, have mercy,” she said.

  “Yeah, I could tell them that I got drunk, went to vomit in the outhouse, but I was too damn drunk to realize that they moved it. So I fell in this hole, you see. And I was up to here in—” Katie cut him off.

  “You hadn’t better be telling your grandkids stories like that. Daddy, you’ll be giving them nightmares fer sure,” she told him.

  “Yeah, well then, I guess I’ll just have to lie to them and make some shit up then,” he said jokingly.

  “You’re not going to be lyin’ to your grandkids either. God, Daddy, what kind of grandfather do you expect to be anyways?” she asked.

  “Just one that loves his family, that’s all,” he finally confessed.

  “Well, that’s more like it. I can deal with that. Now go get dressed. We have to go and make arrangements for Jack,” she told.

  “Yeah, I’ve better hurry too. You might start slapping me again,” he said and stood up. Katie threw the newspaper at him. “See? Resorting to violence already,” he said half laughing as he left the dining room and headed for the stairs.

  “You’re darn lucky I didn’t have a skillet or a rolling pin in my hand!” she yelled back at him.

  Getting dressed was the easy part. Knowing that he was going to go and sign for his brother’s remains sure as hell wasn’t going to be easy at all. Not for him and especially not for Katie. She would most certainly take it hard.

  Neither of them spoke much as they drove to the funeral home, a quiet little red brick building that did what? Nothing really, just got those dearly departed loved ones all prettied up with cheap makeup and shove them into a nice cushioned, overpriced coffin and arrange to have them buried at the cemetery of your choosing. That would leave the remaining family members free to bicker and fight over the dearly departed’s estate. Nice business, but not too many return customers, Grady figured. And that awful music. That alone could drive you into going out and killing some poor unsuspecting son of bitch. But maybe, just maybe, it was to draw in more customers? Yeah, maybe, he thought to himself. But then again, maybe not.

  As Grady and Katie walked into the waiting room, they both looked at each other.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” Katie said in a low whisper.

  “I know. Me too. Let’s do what we came here to do and get out of here,” he told her.

  Katie simply shook her head in agreement. Grady went over and started looking at the coffins that were on display.

  “I kind of like this one, but there’s no place for my pipe,” he said laughing.

  But Katie hadn’t heard him. She was going through a folder of floral arrangements that were being offered by some local florist. She studied several pictures of some really rather spectacular floral designs when she turned to see what her dad was doing. He was nowhere to be seen.

  “Daddy, where are you?” she said as quietly as she could.

  But there was no response. She walked over to where she had last seen him. He wasn’t there.

  “Daddy, come on . . . here are you?” she asked again.

  “Ya know this is rather nice. I could lay here just like this for all eternity,” Grady said.

  Katie turned in the direction of his voice only to find him lying in an open casket with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed. At first, Katie was shocked to see him like that. Then her compulsive instincts took over.

  “Get your butt out of there!” she looked around to see if anyone was coming. “You can’t do that! Get up,” she told him.

  “What? Why can’t I try it out? You try on shoes before you buy them, don’t ya? Same thing. But this is mighty comfy, I do have to admit that,” he told her, still lying in the open casket.

  “Daddy, do you remember what I told you I’d do if you ever played dead again? Well, you’re doing it now. Get up,” she told him as a man walked into the room. Grady just lay there.

  “Excuse me, miss, may I help you?” he asked as h
e walked across the floor to meet her. Katie rushed over to meet him.

  “Yes, sir, I’m here to sign for my uncle’s body. His name is Jack Windslow,” she told him as she tried to keep him from seeing Grady in the coffin.

  “Oh, yes, Mr. King told me to expect you. I’m so sorry for your loss, miss. Your name is Katie, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Why, yes, I am. Did Mr. King tell you that, or did you just guess?” she asked, trying to give her dad enough time to get out of the coffin without being seen.

  “Actually, your uncle told me,” he told her.

  Katie turned all of her attention back to the man standing before her. “Excuse me, but did you say that my uncle told you my name?” she asked.

  “Yes, I did, but I should explain. I guess your uncle has been dead a long time, and I don’t want to get too graphic as to the details, but honestly, there’s not much left of him, considering the time in the ground and all. But in his wallet, what was left of it anyways, there’s this picture. A picture of you with your name written on the back of it. And surprisingly, it’s the only thing that came through this and can still be read. It’s like someone put your picture in his wallet maybe a month or so ago. It’s really bizarre, the condition of your picture I mean. You’re much younger in that picture, but it’s you. There’s not much doubt about it,” he explained to her.

  “My picture? That’s all that there is?” she asked.

  “Well, you have to understand what happens when a body is buried. It’s not real pretty,” he told her.

  “Well, you can spare me the details if you don’t mind,” she told him.

  “Of course, I’m sorry. And there is his other personal effects. Like some jewelry and rings,” he told her.

  “Rings? May I see them?” she asked.

  “Certainly, just follow me into the office, and I’ll get them for ya,” he told her. As Katie followed him, she waved to her dad to get out of the coffin.

  Katie took a seat in the office and waited as the man went to retrieve Jack’s effects. Still there was no sign of her dad.

  As the man returned, he handed her a small box with Jack’s name on it. She just stared at it for the longest time. It was hard to open the little box. By opening it, she would soon see the only personal effects that her uncle still owned in the entire world. And even though he was gone, these were still very much his. Katie was just opening the box when the sounds of a woman screaming filled the air, followed by several large bangs and crashes. Then it was quiet again.

  “Daddy!” she yelled as she followed the man from the room and back into the waiting room. There on the floor was an elderly lady who had apparently fainted for some unknown reason, and as she fell to the floor, she must have knocked the display of coffins off of their stands. Coffins were everywhere. The only remaining coffin that was still on its stand was the one that Grady had been in. Katie looked, and it was empty.

  Grady came into the room from behind the curtain.

  “What happened?” he asked as he looked at Katie. She knew what had happened. It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this one out.

  “Oh, a lady fainted, is all. It happens all the time. She’ll be all right,” the man told her as he tried to help the lady back to her feet. She was dazed, but she seemed to be okay. She turned to see Grady, screamed, and fainted again.

  “What? I didn’t do anything. I swear,” Grady swore to them.

  Katie just threw him an evil look that told him straight up that she didn’t believe him. Just then, two more workers came in to see what all of the commotion was about.

  “Good! David, Lester, would you please be so kind as to take this woman outside for some fresh air. I guess death is a hard thing to handle. I have to finish up with the Windslows. It shouldn’t take very much longer,” he told them.

  “Sure, boss,” one of the guys told him as they started to help the poor lady to her feet. Grady tried to stay out of eyesight of the timid lady.

  The three of them went back into the office.

  “Okay, where were we?” the man asked.

  “I need to explain about what happened out there,” Katie told him.

  “Oh, no need. We see that all the time,” he told her.

  “No, but my father was—” Katie tried to explain, but the man cut her off.

  “Please, miss, if we can get back to the matters at hand,” he asked her.

  Katie just looked over at Grady. He got the message loud and clear. Katie looked down at the box that she still held in her hands.

  “What’s in the box?” Grady asked.

  Katie looked at him again. “Jack’s personal effects,” she answered.

  “Really? Aren’t you going to open it?” he asked her.

  “Well, I want to, but these are Jack’s things. They’re all we have left of him,” she told him.

  “Well, no, right now all we have is a small brown box. We don’t even know what’s in it yet, and until you do open it, we never will. Go ahead open the box, sweetheart,” Grady told her.

  Slowly, she lifted the lid off of the box. She just stared down at it.

  “What is it, dear?” her daddy asked.

  Katie slowly lifted out the picture of her, the one that the gentleman had told her about. It was in fact her picture taken sometime back when she was maybe ten or so. Tears swelled up in her eyes as she flipped it over. Written on the back of it, though it was somewhat hard to make out, was “To my favorite uncle, with love your favorite niece, Katie.”

  Katie could remember writing it and even the moment that she had given it to Jack, but she couldn’t put a date to it. More tears started to build up, but she wasn’t crying yet. Katie handed the picture to her dad.

  “This is back when you were in the fifth or sixth grade. I remember this. Your mother took this picture at Easter time. Remember?” he asked her.

  Okay, now she was crying. Wave after wave of tears ran down her cheeks. The man handed her a tissue, then another, then another. Finally, he handed her the entire box of tissues.

  “Thank you,” she told him as she tried to wipe away the onslaught of tears.

  “You’re welcome. If you need more, we have plenty,” he told her.

  “Sorry about that, dear. I wasn’t thinking,” her daddy told her.

  “It’s all right, and yes, I do remember it now,” she told him as she glanced down at the rings at the bottom of the box, half buried under what used to be Jack’s billfold.

  “These rings need to stay with Jack,” she told them.

  “Are you sure that’s what you want to do, dear?” Grady asked her.

  “They’re his. They should stay with him,” she told him.

  “I understand that, but in ten years or so, when you’re trying to tell your kids about him, what will you show them, dear? We don’t even have a decent picture of him, not since the fire. So you decide what you want to do here. But I know that at least one of those rings aren’t going back to Jack. There should be one that belonged to our grandfather. I want that one,” he told her.

  “You know what? You’re right. These are all that we have left of him. We need to keep them,” she said as she started crying again.

  “I’ll get some more tissues,” the man said as he stood up and walked over to the cabinet and got another box.

  “Is there anything else you’ll be needing from us? I really need to get her out of here,” Grady asked.

  “Just your choice of casket. We have a wide selection to choose from—” Grady cut him off.

  “Any one you choose except for the rose-colored one. It looks too much like my wife’s,” Grady told him as Katie started crying again.

  “Yes, sir, we’ll be delivering him to your place just as Mr. King had instructed us, and don’t worry about paying for it. It’s all been taken care of. Courtesy of Uncle Sam, you know. But I do agree with you. You’ll need to get her out of here. This place has a bad habit of getting to most people, sooner or later,” he told him.
r />   “I can understand that,” Grady said as he helped his daughter back to her feet. With the small box tucked neatly under his arm, they made their way back into the showroom. As Grady turned to open the door that led outside, he came face-to-face with the elderly lady who had fainted twice before. Again their faces were mere inches from each other’s. And just like last time, she fainted. Again.

  Once Katie got outside and into some fresh air, she was a lot better. But she decided to let Grady drive them home.

  About halfway home, Katie looked over at her dad. “So are you going to tell me what happened with that old lady or what?” she asked him.

  “Do you really want to know? I mean, really?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I really do,” she answered.

  “Okay, fine. I was lying there you see, with my eyes closed and my arms crossed across my chest. I wasn’t asleep, close maybe, but not totally asleep. Anyways, I got this weird sensation that someone was looking at me. So I opened my eyes, and this lady was close enough like she was going to kiss me or something. Anyways, she screamed! I screamed and sat up. Ramming my lips against her. And for a mere second, if that long, we were like lip to lip, staring at each other, and then she fainted. So I tried to get out of the coffin to help her, but I slipped and landed on the coffin next to us. It went crashing into the next one and so on and so on. I didn’t know what to do, so I jumped behind the curtain and waited for you guys. The rest you already know,” he told her

  Katie busted out laughing. “You actually kissed her on the lips?” she asked.

  “Not on purpose,” Grady said in his defense.

  “No wonder the poor lady fainted three times. You could have given her a heart attack,” she told him.

  “Her? What about me? I could have had a heart attack too, you know. And just what was she going to do if I hadn’t opened my eyes?” he asked.

  “This is some funny stuff. Just wait until I tell Mike and Melissa about this,” she said as she continued laughing.

  “You wouldn’t! Come on, Katie, have a heart,” he told her.

  “Not a chance. Serves you right anyways for playing in a coffin. I mean, really,” she said laughing.