iagentbrunhilde·:
lena could not help but marvel at the strength of this small child. it took so much energy to stay standing with tightly clenched fists. she was fighting back the tears as well. the week had been a downpour of emotions, and she was left exhausted and hydrated. she could only imagine he felt the same. “it’s okay to be sad right now. we’re all sad,” she told him, “but he wouldn’t want us to be sad forever.”
and when he began to cry she felt her heart break. she wanted to reach out to him, to hold him tight and tell him everything would be alright. she wanted to make everything alright. but it was not her place. she was just a woman in a veil who knew she had taken his father away from him. it was her fault, and nothing she could say to him would bring eden back. for the first time in a long while she was at a loss for words. she looked to the woman for guidance, before offering a reply.
“i worked with eden earlier this year. it was only for a few weeks but he made quite an impact on my life,” she admitted. she could not say that we was the reasons he had a life at all. any mention that she could have played a part in eden’s untimely demise would put the conversation at risk for an analysis of blame. now was not the time for that, even if that was wear impulse drew the heart. “i’d like to say we were even friends for that short period of time.”
she kissed the side of his head, pushing his hair away from his face and wishing there was something she could do to make it better. this was what funerals were, though; they were the time to grieve for the person they lost, and it was what benjamin needed after keeping himself so pent up during the car ride and during the ceremony. “ your father was a great man, bennie. you can tell by the great friends he made. ” she whispered against him, giving him one last kiss before she looked at the woman.
michelle reached out, no longer being able to bear watching the stranger with her knees in the mud. as she stood up, she pulled her up as well, and ben kept his face hidden away against her coat. she kept her hand on his back, letting him squeeze against her. “ he doesn’t like to be seen crying, ” she whispered, glancing regretfully at her son. “ he’s so young, i don’t know where he got it from. sometimes i think it’s one eden’s traits that passed down to him. ”
she stood quietly for a second, considering what the woman had said. michelle wanted to ask more. she wanted to know what eden’s life was like before he passed, but she knew that it wasn’t in her place to know all of that. if eden didn’t share it with anyone in his family, then she knew there was an important reason. “ thank you... for telling him that. it’s exactly what he needed to hear that i couldn’t tell him. ”













