After Forever Ends

“I can’t stay here,” Merlyn sobbed, “I have to walk away.”

We followed him to a corner of the cemetery near our cars and we all stood in a huddle. The tears flowed unashamed until not one of us could breathe. Finally, Alexander spoke, “Damn it!” He said, “I should be able to dial him right now and get him on the phone!”

Pe

“He was so damned tall!” Merlyn blew his enormous nose, “I’m going to miss him!”

“We all will,” Oliver said, “It’s going to be different from here on.”

“I feel like we should do something,” I glanced around at each of them, “Something to honour him. He’d be so upset if he saw us all standing around bawling over him. We should do something to celebrate him.”

“I agree,” Lucy lay her head against Oliver’s arm. “But what?”

Alexander turned toward the gravesite. He stood there for a moment before he began to sing the Be

“We sing of you in united chorus,” Oliver joined him. “Oh, Be

Suddenly, without any type of communication, the twins hooked arms and began a folk dance that we had all been forced to learn at school.

Merlyn blew his nose one more time and joined their dance. “Oh, Be

And as quickly as they had begun singing, they changed the words.

“So take your ties and shove them!” Alexander bellowed to the next part of the song, keeping true to the tune.

“We’ve had it with your black jackets, too!” Oliver roared.

“Oh, Be

They swung each other in circles, laughing and shouting.

“Oh, Be

“Come on, Sil!” Oliver cried, his face pink with life, “Lucy, Pe

“Oh, Be

“Oh, Be

“Your detentions and your curfew bells!” Yelled Alexander as he spun me in a circle.

“Your lousy pumpkin soup that I threw up all over the wall in the West Corridor!” Oliver offered.

Merlyn burst out laughing. “Yeah, that was bloody disgusting!” He spun his wife around. “How about the time we all got caught after curfew nicking apples and cakes out of the kitchen?”

“Lance was the only one who could fit through the service slot!” Alexander’s face was flushed, but he smiled brightly, “Remember how Ollie picked him up and stuffed him in headfirst?”

“And then he couldn’t get out so Alex reached in to pull him and his shoulders got lodged?”

They were laughing hysterically.

“Lance was tall enough! I don’t know why he thought he needed help! Boyo, wasn’t Professor Adkins completely bloody cheesed at us?” The three of them slapped their hands together in one giant high five, “Take the chorus, Silvia!” Oliver lifted me in the air and spun me around.

“Oh, Be

“Oh Be

“Oh, Be

“Oh Be

“Oh, Be

There we were, the six of us dancing a folk dance in the middle of a cemetery path, sing-shouting the Be

“Good bye, Lance!” Pe

“See you across the veil!” Oliver yelled.

“We love you, Lance!” Lucy and I hollered.

“You owe me money!” Merlyn shouted.

“Ah, forget him, Lance, give it to me!” Alexander bellowed.

And then, as people must, we hugged and kissed Merlyn and Pe

The following autumn we got word from Merlyn’s daughter. He’d had a heart attack and was in intensive care. He was not faring for the better and Pe

“Please,” Oliver asked her, “Let us know if there is anything that any of us can do, either for him or for your mother.”

She promised that she would call us again with any news.

We never heard another thing. Oliver and Alexander tried to phone his mobile several times, but they got Merlyn’s voice mail until the answering message said simply that the mailbox was full. No one ever answered his home phone. Finally, Alex rang the mobile again and it was disco

Losing Merlyn like that was worse for the twins than when Lance left them. They were forced to wait, hoping for some information on what had happened to their other brother. Eventually, they gave up and accepted that he had died. It was the only explanation that made sense as to why they never heard from him again. Had he lived, there was no way that Merlyn Pierce would ever have abandoned them. It defied his character.

We thought and spoke of him often. Oliver and Alexander would go to the church and light a prayer candle for him once a week. It was never the same knowing we never had Merlyn or Lance to laugh with ever again.

“I just would have liked to have known what happened,” Oliver said softly months later as we sat with Alex and Lucy in the garden, “We grew up together. I think it’s very rude-like that no one ever gave us the chance to say goodbye to him.”

I put my arm around him and said nothing, but he knew I agreed.

Alex nodded. “We loved him. He was our family, too. It’s not fair.”

“He loved you two as well,” Lucy rubbed her husband’s shoulder, “He’d be right brassed off if he knew no one called you and let you know.”

“I know he would be. We just wish we knew what happened to him. I mean, I know he’s gone. He has to be, unless he’s some vegetable in hospital somewhere. Even then, he’s gone.”

“And then again,” Oliver sighed, “I don’t suppose it would be any comfort, really, to find out either way. It would only be a hint of closure.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Closure would be nice, though, wouldn’t it? We’ve cried and worried and been sick and sad about him. I think we all need to find a way to say goodbye. I mean, at least I do.”

Oliver stood straight up from the ground and walked into the cabin so quickly no one had time to ask him what he was up to. A few minutes later he came out with a hat in his hand.

“You have Merlyn’s hat?” Alexander recognized the beret, “How in the world did you wind up with that in your possession?”

“Remember when the three of us sat in the car after your speech at Lance’s funeral? He left it. I never saw him again to return it,” Oliver looked at it fondly. “I was supposed to send it by post, but I put it up and forgot.”