Country Lovin': Chapter Two

The day couldn't get any more horrid. Valene had called the entire family to relay the news of her father's recent death. As promised, Nadine was there to go to Johnson's Funeral Parlor with her. It was hard for the both of them to walk into a place of death, and know that this is where their father would be in a day or two.

They were able to schedule a time for their father. It would be the following day from one until four and from five until eight. Nadine had picked out a beautiful casket. It had been made out of beautiful mahahony, with brass fixings. Everything was set; they just needed to contact everyone, once again, and let them know.

"I can't believe we're doing this." Nadine said as they pulled into the driveway of her city home. Valene wondered how anyone could live in a house where there was no side yard, just another house. Then again, she lived in an apartment with no yard and another apartment right next to hers, so she really couldn't talk.

"Yeah. I'll have to call Derek. I feel so sorry for him. Dad and him have always been close." Valene said as she laid back in the driver's seat. "I felt so bad for him in the waiting room yesterday." She added.

Nadine had her dirty blonde hair in a ponytail and her green eyes, like mother, were large and luminous. "How about I do the calling this time? You had to call everyone before." Nadine offered. Valene smiled gratefully and nodded.

"I'll see you later, Val." Nadine climbed out of the car and Valene waited until Nadine had unlocked the front door of her home and went in, before she drove off.

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The waiting room of the building she worked in was cool from the air conditioner. Sighing she crossed her legs and wished she had a ciggarette. She worked in a non-smoking building, and she still wished that she could stop. She'd have to start taking those patches, she thought to herself as she saw the door to her boss' office open. He came out and smiled when he saw her. He was a tall man, not large, but slim, he had a full head of salt and pepper hair, thin framed glasses and a well tailored suit. "Miss. Zimmerman! How are you? Why don't you come in?"

Valene stood and followed him into his office. It was a comfortable office, much larger than the one she worked in. She took a padded chair across from Mr. Luther Miller's desk. She crossed her legs and folded her hands in her lap. She had only been in here once before, and that had been five years ago, when she had applied for this job.

"What can I do for you, Miss. Zimmerman?" Mr. Miller asked. He had folded his handed on his desk. His brown eyes were looking at her.

She adjusted herself in her chair and smiled. "I've been working here almost six years, Mr. Miller, and I was wondering if I could take some time off. I just lost my father, and there have been some other personal problems, and..." She trailed off, knowing that if she continued, she'd be giving away more than what she had wanted to conceal.

"Some vacationing time? How much?" He asked. His voice didn't falter, and she remained calm. As long as he didn't get that look in his eye.

"A week and a half, two weeks?" She replied. She was hoping that that wasn't too much, even though she'd love to have that much time off. She noticed that he had pulled out a pocket organizer and was looking through it.

After looking through it for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality, only five minutes, Mr. Miller looked up and smiled. "How about two and a half weeks. I've noticed you have been here on time every day since you've began. You deserve a little break and time off. That'll be seventeen days off, all right?" Mr. Miller wrote down the time in his pocket organizer and then looked back up at her. "Once today is over, your seventeen days begins. So, have fun, Miss. Zimmerman."

Valene stood and shook Mr. Miller's hand. She smiled and thanked him graceously. Walking out of the room hadn't had the relief as walking out of the building did. She already felt free. She needed some time off. She needed to rest and hope that everything that had been slammed into her the day before could be resolved in the seventeen days she had taken off.

As she entered her apartment, it felt weird not seeing Brad there. They didn't officially live together, but he'd spend the night every couple of nights. If the night before had gone the way she had planned, Brad would have most likely spent the night. Of course, that didn't happen, and he was probably with some other woman by now. His reason of drifting off. That this relationship of just sex.

Sighing, she set her purse on the kitchen table and sat down. She rubbed her forehead with her palms and knew that she wouldn't be leaving anywhere until after tomorrow.

She suddenly felt an urge to take a shower, so she did. When she came out of the shower, she felt better. She felt clean and refreshed. She brushed her hair and changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She sat in front of the mirror and looked at herself. Her father had always called her his beauty. Nadine had been his lovely. Her damp chocolate brown hair laid on her shoulders and down her chest. Her frosty blue eyes glimmered. She ran a finger down her slim, narrow nose, and over her slim upper lip and then down her slightly more fuller lip on the bottom. She had never really looked at herself. She never really saw what her father saw.

She stood and walked into the living room. She sank into the sofa and fiddled with the television remote before turning on the television. She skipped through the ending soap operas, which would be through for the day, the talk shows, cartoons, and finally found a movie, with Harrison Ford, from the early nineties.

After awhile, she got bored of the movie, and turned the television off. Her mind kept wandering to her father and how he wouldn't be with her or Nadine or Derek. Valene stood and walked into the kitchen. She was starving and needed to get out of the house. She just needed to get out and get away. Her life had taken a sudden trip south and it wasn't good. It wasn't fun either.

She grabbed her keys and her jacket and went outside. The New York City weather was good. The breeze was cool, but the heat from the buildings seemed to equal it. She lived almost seven blocks from Central Square. She had been there many times, sometimes just to sit, while others, she had gone with Brad. It had been just the two of them and they'd sit there and talk. She shook her head. This wasn't a time to think about him. He was a nobody.

She climbed into her car and revved the engine. She was starving and needed something to eat. What? She didn't know. She could always go to a buffet and make life easier. Eat what looks good. It sounded like a plan. Then again, if she saw all that food, she could be tempted to eat all of it. Then that could be a problem. She could shook her head and sighed. Life could be so damn difficult.

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Her father's casket was open. The church was full of friends and family. Even some of his old co-workers were there as well. Valene stood next to it and shook people's hands. She smiled and tried to look happy, when inside, her heart twisted with sadness, and her stomach clenched. Her legs ached from standing. Break would be in a few minutes and she'd be able to take a ciggarette break. She hadn't had a smoke since after she arrived. She didn't have any time to.

As the last of the people came in and shook their hands, they sat down in the pews waiting to hear a speech the pastor was going to read. Valene told her sister and brother that she needed some air. She desperately needed a ciggarette and she really did need some air.

She walked outside. The air was cool and the sky was cloudy. She reached into her purse and pulled out her Marlboros. She yanked out a ciggarette and pulled out her lighter. As she puffed her ciggarette she felt herself calm down some. She sat down on a bench outside the funeral parlor. This wasn't what she had wanted her life to be. She had wanted to be married by now. Have at least one child. But life didn't go the way you wanted it to. Nothing ever did. Not the lotto, not relationships, not work, not anything.

She finished her ciggarette and threw it onto the ground where she used the end of her heel to put it out. Valene walked back inside and noticed that the pastor was just finishing the speech. She wasn't as nervous has she had been and took her seat inbetween Derek and Nadine.

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Standing by their father's grave didn't help much. Derek had that lost, sullen look upon his face and Valene wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Nadine was leaning against Valene, so Valene wrapped her other arm around her. The day was sunny and cool. Everyone that had been at the funeral home, was here. Some were now holding long stemmed roses or boquets of daisies. All of this emotion brought on by the other people brought tears to Valene's eyes.

Before they began to cover the casket with dirt, everyone placed their flowers upon the cakset. Valene, Nadine, and Derek followed by each throwing a handful of dirt onto the casket. When the cemetary workers began to throw more dirt onto the casket, none of them could bare it any longer. They turned and left.

Derek hugged his sisters and walked to his car, where he'd head back to his apartment, where he lived. His sisters watched as he walked away. Nadine smiled, then looked up at her older sister. "It's so hard for him."

Valene opened her purse and searched around inside it. "Yeah. They were close. It hurts that his most looked up to person, has died. It feels like you die too. I know how it feels. It's the way I felt when Mom died." She yanked out a ciggarette and her lighter.

"Those things are going to be the death of you." Nadine said as she waited for her sister to light one up.

"I can't help it. I started when Mom died and it helps me calm down." Valene took a drag off the ciggarette then tapped it, ashes flew into the air, seeming to disappear.

"I'm going to get you to stop." Nadine said cooly.

"No one can get me to stop." Valene replied dryly.

"I got to go. Call me, will you?" Nadine hugged her sister and walked off to her own car.

"Love you, Nadine." Valene called. Her sister replied with the same saying and climbed into his car.

Valene hurried with her ciggarette, stomped on it and walked to her car. The cemetary was almost empty. It was just the priest and the cememtary workers.

"Country Lovin': Chapter Three"