3 by Shera Eitel-Casey Read Free Book Online Page A

instead of
that dreadful moment in my life that was defining me. I leaned
right back into Storm’s ear and whispered “Sorry.” He looked back
at me and asked “What for?” I replied “For being difficult and
acting all weird. I'm nervous; I've only been to one other wake.”
He turned his head looking at me scrunching his brow. Then
relaxed them and said “No problem” like he hadn’t even thought
about it twice.
    I hadn’t a clue on how to
act, what to say or ask; Nic looked at me, shrugged her
shoulders and pushed the corner of her lips downward, I did the
same. Storm began “On another note, she isn’t the first one to die
in this school of something suspicious.” We both looked at him,
questioningly. He responded “My Uncle's a cop.” Nic and I looked at
each other and shrugged our shoulders again. That explained a
lot.
    Storm was holding our hands
and I wasn’t about to let go, it was nice; it made me feel like all
three of us had a connection. Plus, I’m glad Nic and I were with
Storm, he needed a friend. As the minister finished his sermon, I
heard him mumble something about last respects when passing by the
casket..... That’s all I heard. The students in the first three
rows stood up and made a single file line that went to the casket
and ended at the pew, just like when you went to take communion,
except they emptied the pew to the right instead of the middle
aisle and made a line. As students passed by the casket to pay
their respects you could hear some crying and sniffling going on.
We were in the last row on the right side. I was hoping we would
high tail it out since we were so close to the doors, none of us
knew her personally so I was thinking we didn't need to pay last
respects especially to someone we didn’t know.
    I nudged Storm and nodded my
head toward the door and he shook his head with his eyebrows
rumpled. That’s when I noticed a guy sneaking out the back door.
Storm must have been worried about me because he took my hand and
put his arm under my elbow and then re-gripped my hand and
whispered “Are you okay?” I nodded. It wasn’t my first wake it
was my second but when I passed by my first dead body, my
Grandmother's, it was different. I knew her and when I saw her I
actually saw her peaceful and asleep. Before she died she was
miserable and in pain. Then I saw her in peace, it was
different.
    That's where I got my name,
from my Grandmother, her name was Adele too. We both hated it, but
after she passed the name grew on me because I was reminded of her
simply by saying my name. My grandmother used to smoke and sew and
even though she was stubborn and bossy, I loved her. Yes, she had
lung cancer. My mother and she quit smoking cold turkey the
day they found out she had it. I thought I hated shopping with her
on Saturdays and helping her cut patterns out all day, but after a
while it was actually okay with me, and now, I missed it, I missed
her. She used to take us to a candy store and they only sold it by
the box, making it super cool, that was before the big bulk stores
existed.
    Plus, we used to go to this
Lithuanian Deli; they had great lunch meat, fresh polish sausage
and the best bacon buns on earth. That's where Tori and I got the
saying “Two are better than one.” My Grandma used to tell us that
when we fought, and we used to fight all the time, that we needed
to stick together. She had us go outside once and collect three
sticks. She told us to try breaking one, pretty easy right. Next
she had us try and break two sticks, not as easy right...she told
us. “Two are better than one.” So Tori and I were always trying to
use that saying around my grandmother. She found it
humorous.
    I'm glad I can get my mind
to focus on other topics easily. Since we were in the last row we
would be the last students to view the casket and last ones back to
class. I'm sure that’s why Storm picked these seats. When we stood
up I was first out of the pew and Storm leaned into