“Who is Auntie?” Megan asked from her seat in the back of the van with that youthful innocence that made her just glow. Miriam loved it when she smiled.
“Yeah, who Aunt Maude?” Melissa chimed in from her father’s side in the front of the minivan.
Fred’s daughters were only three years apart, but Miriam could see that the two girls were worlds apart in demeanor. Megan was still in the realm of the innocent. She was sweet and pure. Melissa was on the opposite end of the spectrum. She was a monochromatic spot that was clad in black. Melissa seemed to push herself further away from the innocence that she once held and further away from her family. All Miriam could do was feel badly for her brother. He had a teen-aged girl in full hormonal swing and another one heading in the same direction.
“Oh that would be telling now. There’s going to be a party.” Maude giggled like she used to when she was Megan’s age. Miriam could feel her own annoyance building within. Her sister was slipping further and further away and there was little she could do about it. Miriam saw the soft glow of innocence radiating from Maude and instantly felt guilty for being angry.
“Look! I told you we’d make it in plenty of time.” Fred’s loud voice boomed in the cabin of the minivan.
“Great.” Melissa released another black cloud of pubescent pithiness.
“Who are we visiting at the cemetery again?” Megan asked. Her eyes were wide with curiosity as she took in the view of the massive leafless trees sitting on rolling hills. Miriam remembered when they had buried her brother near the mausoleum. The scene was picturesque. It wasn’t grey and dismal as it was today.
“Brother Frankie called us,” Maude explained.
“Maude honey,” Miriam placed a hand on her sister’s arm. “Frank can’t call, dear.” Miriam fought to keep her composure through Maude’s look of hurt and confusion. “He’s dead, dearie.”
“Miriam!” Fred burst. Miriam could feel the sidelong glance coming from him. She didn’t need to look at him.
“What?” Miriam threw her own glare back at her brother. “Did I lie?”
“Tactful as ever,” Fred muttered as he nudged the minivan through the gates.
“Here we go,” Melissa shot out another angst-filed gust into the air.
“Mel, please!” Fred pleaded with the emotional terrorist that was his eldest daughter.
“Frankie’s not dead.” Maude beamed, “he called me.”
“He most certainly did not, dear.” Miriam looked into her sister’s eyes. They seemed clear, but her mind wasn’t. “He’s dead. He’s been dead for the last five years.” Miriam felt badly as she saw the light fade from Maude’s eyes. It seemed to Miriam that she was constantly breaking the news about Frank’s death to Maude. It was as if Maude couldn’t remember that he had died.
“Really, Miriam?” Fred bellowed.
“Frankie’s dead?” Maude’s face was frozen in shock. The innocent glow was gone.
“Yes dear.” Miriam stroked Maude’s hair. “Five years now.”
“He’s about to blow.” Melissa announced in a thoroughly bored monotone. Miriam turned to look at her in the front seat. The ebon creature that was her niece was staring out of the passenger window at the shores of the frozen lake that butted up against the graveyard.
“Stop it, Miriam!” Fred had already worked himself into a full lather. Miriam rolled her eyes. Melissa was right, ‘here we go,’ indeed. “There is absolutely no reason for that.”
“Frankie’s dead?”
“Yes dear.” Miriam patted Maude’s arm and then turned to her brother, “What would you have me do Fredrick? Would you have me entertain her fantasy?” Miriam could feel her jaw tighten as the words were coming out. “You’re never there Fredrick. You just don’t know.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Melissa asked in that same noncommittal voice.
“You’ll understand when you’re older.” Miriam snapped her eyes to her niece. Melissa hadn’t even bothered to turn her head from the window. She was intentionally exacerbating the situation. “And I’ll thank you kindly to not interject your opinion when you know nothing of what is going on.”
“What’s going on?” Miriam finally got the girl to turn her head. The two locked eyes for the briefest of moments. “Whatever,” the younger girl exhaled and went back to the window.
“It’s not enough that you’re devastating our sister, but now you’re attacking my daughter?”
“Frankie’s dead?”
“Fredrick, Melissa doesn’t know what’s going on or what’s best for Maude.” Miriam felt her cheeks begin to flush. “She’s full of –”
“Of what, Aunt Miriam?” Melissa’s voice changed from the adolescent ambiguous to insecure indignant. “Am I full of shit? Is that what you were going to say?”
“Melissa, language!” Fred yelled at his daughter.
“And this is what you get Fredrick,” Miriam huffed. “You go and let your wife leave and this is what you get.” She motioned to her niece sitting next to Fred.
“You don’t know shit about my mom you stupid bitch!”
“Melissa Raney Jenkins!” Fred blustered.
“Frankie’s dead?”
“Such an ungrateful mouth,” Miriam shifted in her seat. “Do you see what I mean Fred? There is simply no couth in her.”
“You’re one to talk,” Melissa spat out another caustic cloud as she sat back into her chair.
“Melissa –” Fred started. The minivan lurched forward and issued a high-pitched whine before the engine sputtered and died.
“Great.” Melissa was back to her guarded monotone.
“You reap what you sow,” Miriam muttered, not caring if Fred and his raven-haired demon child heard her or not.
A high-pitched scream permeated the small space of the cabin. Miriam cocked her head and shifted again to look at Megan. The young girl’s face was flush with the effort it took to pierce the air with her tiny voice. Miriam counted, slowly. It took the Megan twenty seconds to stop.
“Yes, we can all hear you now.” Miriam began to rub her temples. It never did any good, but it was the first thing she always tried when she felt the migraines coming.
“Why is everyone fighting?” Megan asked between her sobs. Miriam looked at her sitting in the extreme rear of the now silent minivan. Her face was twisted in pre-pubescent anguish. Miriam sighed. Megan’s drama was only going to add fuel to an already blazing inferno.
“We’re really not fighting sweetie,” Fred tried to reassure his youngest daughter from his position up front.
“Yes we were,” Melissa threw out her contrary statement as she stared out at the darkening mid-winter sky.
“That’s not helping, Dearie.” Miriam tried to sound calm. She could feel her composure slipping.
“You’re not helping either, Dearie.” Melissa’s venom came back in a failed impersonation of Miriam. “We’re on the way to visit Uncle Frank’s grave. It’s cold. We’re stuck in the mud. And you’ve got such a stick shoved so far up your own ass that it’s not even funny anymore!”
“Melissa,” Fred pleaded.
“Well!” Miriam could think of nothing else appropriate to say. Megan’s sobs broke the sudden silence.
“Why are you crying sweetheart?” Maude whispered softly to her niece. “Don’t worry, sweetie. “They’re coming, you know. Frankie called me and let me know.”
“Uncle Frankie’s dead, Aunt Maude.” Megan said between her sniffles.
“Someone’s coming.” Melissa was sitting up now. Her hand pressed on the glass. Miriam looked up from Megan and out the side window and saw the figure approaching the minivan.
“Frankie’s dead?” Maude said with that same sense of surprise. “He called me and told me not to come today. He told me his friends were coming over instead.”
Miriam could feel the intense cold that was pressing into the shell of the minivan. She could almost feel the sinister intentions of the wind that had whipped up outside.
“Dad?” Melissa’s panicked voice trembled. More figures had gathered within the instant that Miriam had looked away. They were coming from the outskirts of the graveyard where the mausoleums were. Miriam could hear the clicking of the engine.
“Daddy!” Melissa was now hitting her father’s arm in alarm.
“Fred, start the engine.”
“Trying.” The engine gasped and faded into silence.
“Daddy, please!” Melissa pleaded.
“Fred, start the goddamned car!” Miriam heard her voice spit out the vulgarity as her eyes watched the shambling figures come closer.
“Oh, isn’t Frankie nice,” Maude squealed in happiness. “He sent his friends to come for us!”
They were impossibly fast. In an instant Miriam found herself in the middle of a nightmare. The dead figures had surrounded the minivan. Miriam could hear their soft moaning through the glass.
Maude began to giggle, “Frankie called me. I told you, but you didn’t believe me!” As the van started to rock Miriam could only hear her sister’s laughter.
It was the last thing she ever heard.
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