Page 43 of Over the Verdant Hills
Josiah had been the one who had found the burial plot that Grandma had at the little church in Raspberry Ridge just outside of town. Claire had even forgotten the church existed. But Grandma had aplot, and the funeral home had taken care of contacting the gravediggers.
They didn’t need to have an actual grave ready until Saturday, when they would have a short graveside service after the funeral.
Josiah had helped her figure all that out too.
She’d been leaning toward cremation, but Grandma hadn’t said one way or the other, and since she had the burial plot, it seemed to make more sense to do it that way. Grandma had money saved, and Josiah had found that in her desk as well while Claire had been busy calling all the relatives that she had just called the day prior.
Her mom was coming up from New Mexico, which was nice, except she wasn’t going to stay very long. She needed to get back, because her husband’s mother wasn’t well, and she was responsible for taking care of her.
It made Claire a little bit angry that her mom was more concerned about her mother-in-law and was shirking her duty in favor of taking care of her husband’s mom. But Claire supposed that was how life went. The living demanded more attention than the dead anyway. She didn’t know her stepfather and had never met his mother. Maybe she was a sweet lady who deserved her mother’s loyalty.
“So now all we have to do is wait for the kids to come home and we’ll tell them, and then they can make the decision as to whether they still want to go to their program or not.”
“I feel like we should call the school and warn them that the kids might not be there.”
“I think they’ll understand, but if you want to call the school, you certainly can.” His voice was easy, calm, and rational.
“All right. I think I’ll wait.”
And then she remembered. Grace!
“I never canceled with Grace,” she said, frantically picking her phone up and looking for her number.
“What time were you supposed to meet her?” Josiah asked as she dug through her contacts before her fingers froze.
“I couldn’t possibly—” She broke off. Why not? She had time. She had several hours. Her children got out of school at three o’clock, but by the time the bus brought them back, it was closer to four.Sometimes she would pick them up just to give them a little bit more time at home.
“I wouldn’t have very long to talk to her.”
“It might be nice to have someone to talk to,” Josiah suggested.
“Other than you?” she asked, because he had been the one she had needed to talk to all day.
“I can go with you if you want me to. Or,” he looked at the kitchen behind her, “I can work on the kitchen a bit. I am sorry that the house is such a disaster during this time.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine for starting the outside and then making you have to finish it.”
“I don’t mind. I just feel bad that I couldn’t get it done faster.”
“It is what it is. We can’t change it now.” She couldn’t believe she was saying that. The Claire of a few weeks ago would obsess over the state of the house, but the Claire of right now didn’t care. She wasn’t sure if it was just numbness from the grief that would explode upon her at some point when she wasn’t aware, or whether it was a true calm and peace from the Lord.
One thing she knew for sure—it was good to have Josiah beside her. His steady, calm presence had bolstered her throughout the day.
“All right. You’re right. Why not go meet with Grace?” And then she nodded her head. “I know I’m going to be more emotional, but it was going to be an emotional meeting anyway.”
“All right. I can seriously go if you think you’re going to need me.”
“No. Grace isn’t going to hurt me. I know that now. And while I’m a little bit nervous, I’m actually kind of excited to talk to her. She was my best friend back in the day. We did everything together.”
“Yeah, I remember you two were inseparable. A lot of times, you wore the same outfits to school and styled your hair the same. People called you twins.”
“We often wished we had been twins. We preferred each other over anyone in our families.”
How had they gotten to be so far apart when they had been so close at one time?
She couldn’t answer that, and she really didn’t know, and she supposed it didn’t matter now anyway.
“Should I change?” she asked, looking down at the outfit that she’d put on this morning and never changed. Jeans and T-shirt and tennis shoes.
