A time to leave..

I entered the church with all the other people; they were all being ushered into the pews. I made my way to the front and sat down. The priest began the service; he began to tell the assembled people about the person whose body lay in the coffin. He sounded interesting this person, although he didn’t seem to have done much with his life. Nothing bad was said about this person only the good? Some of the people were invited to stand at the front and tell a short anecdote. Some funny some about how good a person he had been to them personally. There were even people here who hadn’t liked him, but still they came to show him some semblance of respect. The service was brief! After all he didn’t have any religion, none of that nonsense for him! But it was his friends seeing him off, they had decided he had needed some kind of religious service. I looked around the church, there were many former lovers here some who had slept with him for his looks, some out of pity, after all he hadn’t been good at pickup lines, nor at knowing how to treat them properly until later in his life. As he matured his mistakes became less, experience became his teacher, but above all else he had been a good listener and he had known how to make a woman, feel like a woman and make them laugh.

The service ended and the priest walked ahead as the pallbearers carried the coffin. Outside it was a bright summer’s day. It was a good day, the people made their way to the freshly dug grave. The coffin was lowered into its resting place. The priest said a few words of religious wisdom as people filed past the coffin some picking up a small amount of soil and placing it into the grave. Then people moved off no doubt to have a drink in remembrance of their friend and share their personal experiences of the deceased. I stood and watched the gravediggers start to fill in the grave. As I watched. I suddenly felt a soft small hand take my hand. I followed the hand up to an arm until I was looking into the eyes of a beautiful young woman, my mother! She hadn’t aged she looked the same as I had remembered her when. I was a child. A large smile came across her face.

-“Hello my son”.

“Mother it’s good to see you”.

-“Come my son now is the time to go; everyone’s waiting to greet you”.

“What’s going to happen to me now?”

-“You are going to live my son for you time has stood still! Now life begins a life that will last an eternity”.

“But the people I have left behind I worry for them what if they still need me isn’t it true that sometimes we can do more on this plain of existence than the other I feel hurt that I will leave my friends behind and I have left so many things unfinished can I not correct them ?”

-“There is nothing you have left unfinished! Your life on earth is finished! All material goods and wealth are meaningless, your friends are individuals, some of good character some not. You have responsibilities here now and they have responsibilities there until their time comes? All things must and will end, even in time, time must end! You cannot change what has become; you cannot go back you can only go forward, this road leads forward. For many have tried to stay, but cannot. In time you will come back to see those you love. They will feel some semblance of your presence and believe you are around them, does this help you feel better?”

“A little, but I feel I still need time, time to walk around make sure my friends and family are ok. Maybe then I will pass through into the realm that awaits me”.

-“Time is irrelevant for us! If you want to stay a while that’s ok I will walk with you or you can ask for someone else to walk with you?”

“No you are my mother, you made me. You taught me. Helped me when I was down. Dad was there to make sure I acted and became a man. But in truth only mothers can create a boy and make him a man. I was fortunate to have a mother, who was wise and beautiful in every sense of what it means to be a mother”

-“Then I will indulge you my son. We will walk together here, until you are ready to walk on the other side”

We walked along the path from the cemetery and onto the main road my mother took my hand and suddenly we were in the pub with the mourners my mother looked at me.

_”Walk among your friends my son interact with them I will sit over there”.

She pointed to a table where an old regular of the pub sat sipping his drink and watching the room?

“I walked over to a group of people I used to work with they were not talking about me just talking work. I decided to move to some of the others. Over in a corner my best friend in life was talking to some people I vaguely knew? I listened to their conversation!

“You know. I wish I had borrowed a couple of thousand pounds off him last week. I wouldn’t have had to give it back”.

Some of them gave a small laugh I smiled that was pretty funny.

It seemed strange to be in a place where no one could see me and hearing some people saying things, things they would never say to me. Some were hypocrites some were sad, but most were genuine!

I looked at my mother. I knew she wanted only what is best for me. I decided my mother is the one person who would never lie to me, harm me or allow harm to come to me ever.

I turned around and looked straight into the eyes of the love of my life! Kelly. For a moment I could see in her eyes the sadness and the hurt, she walked right through me. I turned and shouted her name, it fell on deaf ears. Tears began to fall from my eyes. I looked at my mother she cried for my pain. I walked over to where. Kelly now sat. I tried to run my fingers through her hair, but not one follicle moved. She raised her hand and ran it through her hair. I put my lips to hers and kissed her; she suddenly put her hand to her mouth and felt her lips. I smiled and gave her a hug; she closed her eyes and whispered.

“I will always love you”.

I whispered into her ear.

-“till the end of time! I will wait for you my love for. I will always love you”.

She got up and put on her coat and began to say her goodbyes, to people she knew and then she left.

I went over to my mother and she stood up.

“Let’s go and greet the others mother, after all as you say I can come back later and see my friends.”

-“Come then you also have six cats and four dogs who are waiting too”.

“I was hoping some of them would make it. I have missed them all”.

We walked outside, the sun shone on our faces. It felt warm and bright; we walked towards its brightness and moved into another dimension, to begin a new journey.

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