Forgotten Cemetery

Chapter 6

It took weeks for Jeremy to even consider visiting Max. he kept telling himself that he went there all the time in the past. He wanted to talk to Franky but didn’t want to put anything else on him. Sometimes Jeremy sat for hours a day trying to convince himself to get up and just look at her grave, this is what he was currently doing, until his phone rang,

“Hello?” Jeremy answered.

“Are you awake?” Franky said.

“I guess so, why?”

“ Need you to come in and sign these papers and the property is ours.”

“Okay, where?”

“The office. Be here in an hour.”

Jeremy hung up and saved his dilemma for later. He searched for his suit and showered.

As Jeremy drove he imagined the times Max sat next to him in his car. Now he wished he hadn’t bought her two cars, then he’d have more memories in his. He thought about how he always reached over to grab her hand and squeezed it. She would always look at him and rub her thumb on his hand. Without thinking he reached over to find an empty seat next to him. The memories sometimes felt so real. He sighed in disappointment, how was he supposed to get used to this? Her turned the radio up and focused on the drive.

When Jeremy pulled into his parking space something occurred to him. He got out and met Franky.

“Hey, um don’t you have power of attorney?” Jeremy asked.

“Yeah, I just wanted you to do something besides lay in bed all day.”

“That’s not what I do all day.” Jeremy said defensively.

“We both know it is. It’s good to get into work sometimes. You need it.”

Jeremy sighed. “Let’s get this done. Are they here yet?”

“No not yet. In a half hour.”

Jeremy sat in the conference room staring at the walls for thirty minutes. Soon he realized people were walking down the hallways and snapped back to reality. He stood up and waited to greet them.

It took an hour for signing the papers and making sure everything was done properly. Jeremy has been through this so many times but he completely ignored everything the lady was saying to him and signed wherever Franky pointed.

After shaking everyone’s hand and walking them out the door Jeremy ripped his tie off and headed back to his car trying to catch his breath.

Franky ran out after him. “Hey where are you going?”

“I gotta go.”

“But….” Franky stopped himself; he noticed Jeremy wasn’t breathing right. “Okay. I’ll call you later.” Franky said and went back to work.

Jeremy started his car and turned up the air conditioner. He sat there trying to clear his head. After and hour he realized he had to go see her. It was the only way to end this anxiety; it would only keep coming. If he didn’t go now he would end up back in bed.

Jeremy pulled up on the side of the road and removed his shirt and wore a wife beater and dress pants. He took each step breathing heavier than the last telling his body he needed to do this. Sweat drenched his clothes as he kept telling himself to pull forward. It took him twenty minutes to get to the clearing and then he saw it. Her grave; so fresh and untouched. Jeremy walked slowly as to make sure it was real;  it was. He looked at her name and his knees buckled dropping him to the floor.  He tried so hard not to let another tear fall from his eyes, but Jeremy still found himself hugging her tombstone begging her to come back to him.