Tales from Day Lilly 1

Arlington Cemetery. The tombs of soldiers, of family, and of friends. The final resting place of many great men and women. Allen had been here only once before, when his grandfather, a WW2 veteran, had been laid to rest. He could still remember the smell of soil and freshly cut grass. He, dressed in a black suit, began to walk down the rows of cement crosses and stars as he read the names on their faces. His feet felt the grass as he walked past them, looking for his fathers resting place. Behind him were Norbert and his brother-in-law, Gaston, looking content as they looked at some of the names. They reminisced of their time overseas, fighting in the Pacific, with an air of reverence for their fallen kin.
Allen finally stopped in his tracks when he saw the grave of his father. He then ran to it as fast as he could, as a son would run to his father. When he got to it, he fell to his knees and looked at it. The headstone was new, white marble with a polished shine and black lettering.
“Jeremiah Roberts, Marines, private for Vietnam.  Born 1925, died 2002.” Allen read aloud as he knelt down next to the stone. Norbert and Gaston looked at him and decided it would be best to leave him to his thoughts for a while, and walked away, continuing their recollection of their time in the army.
“Papa… I’m sorry that I couldn’t come sooner. I know that you would have wanted me to be here, but I knew that…”
“Bastard.”
Allen turned around to see a tall, muscular bald man in a tweed suit looking at Allen, carrying a crystal vase of roses. His face was like a statue of Cesar, standing, accusing all who would look into his eyes.
“Nathan… I was told the funeral was two days ago.”
“It was. I knew you would come here afterwards, and I didn’t want my fathers grave to be tainted by you.”
Allen stood up and looked at his brother in disbelief. “He was my father as well!”
“He stopped being your father when you killed Stephan. You have no family anymore and lost the right to be recognized as a Roberts!” Nathan kept his distance as a smirk crept over his face. “When I heard on the news about you being disfigured, I thought it was a simple burn. Now I can see that God showed the world your true self.”
Allen looked down at the grave as he grated his teeth. He had so many things he would love to say to Nathan, words with a bite like a junkyard dog, but knew that such things would be useless.
“Why don’t you say something, Demon-Boy? Why don’t you burn me like you did Stephan, or break me like you broke Papa’s heart? You have the strength to do it. Maybe it’s because Mama isn’t here to protect you? You know how she loved you more than the rest of us. Even Stephan, the babe out of the five of us, didn’t have the same place in her heart as you. She was the one that talked Papa into lifting the charges off of you. She was always defending you, always finding some way to get you off the hook! I doubt you even loved anyone in our family, with how easy it was for you to walk away from her.”
“You have no right to talk to me like that!”
Nathan threw the crystal vase at Allen, embedding shards of the crystal and the roses into Allen’s shoulder. “Don’t you dare even defend yourself! You lost your rights. Right now, I will speak my piece, you hell-spawn! Because of you, Mama died miserably, calling out your name, while we where standing right next to her! Papa waited for you for years, wanting to see you one more time.” Despite all the hurt and rage in his voice, Nathan managed to begin to laugh as he walked over to Allen and shoved the crystal shards still in his arm deeper. Allen’s stone fist began to tighten, rasping his anger as he looked at his brother with a great sorrow.
“Never knew that you could heal so quickly. So, this is what you get from selling your soul to Satan!”
Allen finally erupted in anger as his tar arm grabbed the collar of Nathan’s shirt. “I have never done such a thing! When I killed Stephan, my mind, my heart was filled with a grief you will never know! My soul cried day and night, not just for Stephan, but for other people I hurt! I gave my soul to God, and he healed me, but the memory of that pain remained. I took your abuses, and your hatred, but I will not stand by as you punish me for a crime that I have already been punished for. You can hate me and throw me to the side like trash, but I will not give you the right to be my Judge.”
With that, Allen loosened his grip and gently put his brother down to the ground and turned to his father’s grave as he began to sob, kneeling once again as he prayed silently. He took one of the roses still sticking into his arm and placed it onto the headstone as a drop of blood dripped from one of its thorns. He pulled himself up and began to walk away as his brother stood, still with his statue like gaze, watching him.
Allen saw Norbert and Gaston looking at him as he took off his suit, revealing his now tattered dress shirt underneath.
“What did you see?”
“Nothing abnormal, Allen.” Gaston said as he looked up at Allen with a comforting smile.
Norbert pulled out his cell phone as Allen began to pull out the crystal shards and rose thorns from his arm. The three of them walked to the road winding through the cemetery and waited as a small van drove up. Jasper rolled down the passenger side window, and looked at the three of them from under the bill of his camouflage baseball cap.
“Why did you guy’s call me for? We just got here not too long ago.”
“We just need to leave now, Jasper. Let’s go to the restaurant, get some soup, maybe a steak.” Gaston said as he elbowed Allen, who smiled as he helped his older friends into the van. He made his way to the back of the van as it popped open and climbed in to the specially made “seat”, which was simply a pillow on the floor with an industrial strength harness grafted to the van. Allen strapped himself in as Gaston looked over the seat as Allen closed the door.
“You alright back there, Allen?”
“Yeah… still a bit cramped, but a bit more comfortable than when we had that cooler on my lap.”
Gaston gave Allen a pat on the head as he turned around and gave Jasper the all clear signal. Allen looked out the window and watched as the rows of headstones passed him by. He took a deep breath as he rested his head against the window, making sure his horn did not scratch the glass as the van hit a pothole. For the most part, the drive was quiet, save for when Jasper pushed in his cassette tape of Bon Jovie.
Upon the third time listening to “Living on a Prayer”, they had reached their destination, a buffet restaurant. Outside stood the Johnsons and their three adopted children, as well as Junior Morrison, a short, dwarf-like man who looked uncomfortable in his Armani suit as he waited at the door of the restaurant.
As Jasper parked the car, Allen popped out of the back of the van and was immediately swarmed by the Johnson children. He smiled as he bent down and pulled from his pockets some hard caramel candies.
“Pastor Allen, can I ride on your shoulder while we wait?” Billy asked as he pulled on his pants leg. Allen’s ears perked up when he heard his request.
“Now, why are we waiting, Billy? Everyone else had gone back to Day Lilly.”
“Opps…” Billy quickly closed his mouth with his hands as Mr. Johnson, a small, pale, skinny man walked up and patted Billy on the head.
“Its alright, Billy. He was going to find out sooner or later. We invited someone to dinner with us, a perspective new teacher for Day Lilly.”
Allen raised his eyebrows  as his interest was piqued.“Well, what do you know of him, Sam?”
Sam put his hand on the top of his adopted son’s head as he smiled. “SHE is a friend of one of my cousins. She went to school in Paris, France, and wants to settle down in Day Lilly. She graduated valedictorian in her class. If she and I were in the same high school, she would make me look like a jock.”
“That is quite the feat.” Gaston grunted as he walked past Sam.
“Surprised you survived the walk out of the van, you old coot.” Sam muttered as he gave a smirk.
“I’m surprised that you didn’t have your wife hold your hand as you crossed the street, midget.”
“Fascist…”
“Commie…”
Before things went too far, Allen put his hands on their shoulders to create a physical barrier between the two. “Both of you, act your age and apologize to each other!”
The two began to speak, oddly enough, in unison as they pointed at each other. “It’s not me who started it! It was that crazy nut job over there! Me a crazy nut job? I’m not the insane *insert political party name* who’s trying to destroy America! I’m not insane! Your insane!”
Allen rolled his eyes as he turned to Mrs. Johnson and Norbert and with an eager tone in his voice, asked for assistance. “Marge? Could you get your husband? And Norbert, your sister’s husband? Their going at it again.”
Marge walked across the street and picked up Sam by the collar of his shirt while Norbert used the handle of his cane to drag his brother-in-law away from the confrontation.
“Daddy is having one of his days, huh Pastor Allen?”
Allen sighed as he lifted Billy up onto his right shoulder. “It seems like it, Billy.” Billy laughed as he grabbed hold of Allen’s horn. As Allen walked to the entrance, Junior jumped onto Allen’s free shoulder and sat there.
“Junior… why are you sitting on my shoulder?”
“ ‘Cause I needed a place to sit. Plus, there was room.”
“So, grownups can give other grownups piggy back rides?” Billy asked innocently, causing a quick hush over the immediate area, which ended with Junior slowly climbing down Allen and sitting on the ground.
“Did I say something wrong, Pastor Allen?”
“No… you’ll have to ask your parents about that when you’re older.”
“How much older?”
Mr. Johnson’s eyes seemed to glaze over in a strange fear-based trance, while Mrs. Johnson gave a nervous laugh as she walked towards her son.
“We’ll talk about that latter, alright Billy?” she told him as she took out a napkin, licked it, and cleaned up a smudge on Billy’s cheek.
They all waited outside of the restaurant for an additional fifteen minutes as they waited for the mysterious interviewee.  Before long, a blue Aveo drove to the front of the restaurant, and from the passenger side door opened as a long, red haired beautiful woman in a business casual dress suit stepped out and closed the door. She looked up and was immediately transfixed on Allen, who had bent over so Billy could go back to his family. Instead of panicking and retreating back to the car, she grinned, closed the door, and knocked on the roof. She stepped towards the small group and gave a curtsey.
“I am Rose Ledbetter. It is a pleasure to finally meet you all.”
Mr. Johnson stepped forward and bowed. “As it is ours, Miss Ledbetter.” He then pointed towards his family, and began to introduce them. “This is my wife, Margaret, my sons, Howard and Billy, and the eldest, Helen.” As their name was called, they bowed or curtseyed as it was appropriate, but as Helen raised back up, Billy stepped forward with a curious look over his face.
“You don’t look like a dork.”
“Billy!”
“Sorry, mom…”
Rose simply gave a noble smile as she walked towards the others. Gaston walked over and looked over Rose, and gave an approving smile.
“It’s a welcomed sight, n’est pas?”
“Oh, tu parle Francais?”
“Oui, Madame. J'étais né à Bruxelles mais j’ai habite dans les marais ici pendant mon enfance. Et vous?”
“Ma famille a exigé que j'ai appris français.”
“Ahhh, so you are as educated as the commie said you were.”
Norbert used his cane to jab Gaston in the back as he came forward and shook Rose’s hand.
“Forgive him… my sister was drunk when she married him. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t be here.”
Rose simply smiled as she walked away from Norbert came to Allen, who looked down at her with a nervous smile.
“Hello, Miss Ledbetter. Its an honor to meet you.”
“No, no… the honor is all mine, Mr. Roberts. You’ve become quite the celebrity, with all of the people pulling  you to their side,  being poked and prodded by scientists for three solid weeks. ‘The Mutant with Human DNA’. No genetic abnormalities, no hoax, no answers to so many questions.”
“So, are you a skeptic, or a believer?” Allen said as he smiled.
“I am a teacher, Pastor Roberts. I teach what is true. Whether you are a cursed human or some poor man with a horrible genetic disorder doesn’t matter to me, as long as I know the truth.”
Allen didn’t quite know what to make of Rose, who had walked back to the entrance of the restaurant. Billy ran to Allen’s side and looked up at him with a large grin.
“She seems nice, Pastor Roberts! And she’s pretty!”
Allen looked down at Billy and patted him on the head. “Beauty isn’t everything, Billy. It doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t everything.”
With that, Allen nudged Billy forward to the entrance as he himself walked into the restaurant.


To be continued