Chapter 20
It was 1:20 PM at the Mimosa Funeral Home in Locust. The Sunday afternoon memorial service for Fred was almost over. Travis had just glanced at his cell phone for the third time. Well, I guess Mark is not coming to his best friend’s funeral service. Wonder why. Did something happen to him?
After the eulogy and miscellaneous closing remarks, Travis started to leave with his wife, Nancy, at his side. They met a common friend in the parking lot. It was zany Jeremy. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
“Guess what I just read on the internet, Travis?” He was holding up his smartphone.
“Let me guess … Mark and Susan joined a peyote cult in New Mexico?”
“No, but it’s about Mark. He’s dead, man! His car went off a bridge down at Carolina Beach.”
“Are you sure that’s our Mark van Buren?”
“Yes. I saw his picture on the news website.”
“Man, this is too much! Fred and now Mark. Both dead in less than a week.” This is unbelievable.
“Well, I gotta run. Let’s talk later. Try to stay alive.”
“Yeah, you, too, Jeremy.”
Jeremy disappeared around the corner. Travis and Nancy just looked at each other, stunned.
“Honey, are we in the twilight zone?” Nancy asked.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Travis stated, while trying to take it all in.
A gust of warm, summer-flora-scented, afternoon air whistled through the green-leafed, kudzu-enveloped, deciduous trees as they drove away.
There would be no funeral for Mark.