The Good Atheist

The Good Atheist by Michael Manto Read Free Book Online

Book: The Good Atheist by Michael Manto Read Free Book Online
Authors: Michael Manto
Tags: Christian, Speculative Fiction
found myself asking again, what right had he to look so serene?
    The director invited the pallbearers to come forward, and the six of us took positions around the casket. We lifted it up from the pedestal and followed the director out a side door where a hearse waited. Its back doors were open and we slid the casket inside.
    Selene and I rode in the back seat of the hearse. We drove at a dignified speed slowly through town, leading a long procession that must have included every pickup truck and half the cars within a hundred mile radius. In a brief and solemn ceremony, at a small cemetery at the edge of town, we committed my grandfather to his final resting place.
    Afterwards, the funeral director gave us a ride to Jorge’s house in his hearse. He dropped us off and we stood on the sidewalk in the warm sunshine, debating whether or not to go through with it. I could see down the driveway into a large backyard where already a large number of people mingled around barbeques and tables laden with food. I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to go, for a number of reasons.
    “Are you sure you are ready for this?” I asked Selene, shamelessly projecting my own uncertainties onto her.
    She nodded. “Yeah. Like you said, we can’t spend the rest of our lives hiding.” Her hair was combed over on one side, partially covering the side of her face with the worst scarring, but it couldn’t hide all of it.
    “They’ll be a lot of strangers in there who’ve known Grandpa for years. And they’ll want to meet us,” I said.
    She fixed her eyes on me. “Sure. So, are we going to stand out here and yak all day?”
    “Let’s go then,” I said, taking her hand. We walked down the driveway into a spacious yard behind the house. Fifty or sixty people milled around and talked in small clusters. A long table spread with finger food and a punch bowl was setup in the middle of the yard underneath a bright yellow awning.
    Jorge detached himself from a group and made his way towards us. “I’m so glad you could make it.”
    “Thanks for inviting us,” I said. A few other people standing nearby gravitated towards us. Jorge told them who we were, and their eyes lit up at once. Others came over, and soon we were surrounded by a couple of dozen friends of my grandfather’s. They took turns telling us how much they loved my grandfather, how much he will be missed. I loved my grandfather too, but it was hard not to feel jaded. A whole town full of people had something with my grandfather that I’d been robbed of.
    “Seems like the whole town knew my grandfather really well the past few years except me,” I said with a smile, but my tone was petulant. Whoever said I couldn’t make polite small talk?
    Selene gave me a sharp look. I’m sure she would have kicked me if she could have done it unnoticed. If Jorge was put off by my display of childish temper, it didn’t show. “How long are you in town for?”
    I told him that we were staying overnight and would return home tomorrow.
    “There’s a bunch of guys that meet for breakfast at Rosie’s almost every morning. Your grandfather was a regular. Why don’t you join us tomorrow?”
    I decided that it might be nice to meet some of Grandpa’s friends, and agreed. Selene said she was hungry and went over to the buffet table to look over the cornucopia of barbequed chicken, finger sandwiches, and dessert squares spread across it. The others standing around drifted away until Jorge and I found ourselves alone.
    “He tried to get hold of you, you know,” Jorge said.
    I didn’t say anything and waited to see where he was going with this.
    “He tried to contact you after your mother moved away with you. But she blocked all his emails and returned his letters. After a while he gave up. He had to, or he faced legal action and possible imprisonment. She threatened a lawsuit if he kept trying.”
    “Lawsuit? Imprisonment? That makes no sense,” I objected.
    He just looked at me for a moment.

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