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The church was large and lavish, but an intense gloom
hung over it, a hovering
sadness draped as though it were a fog. A casket sat
closed on one side of the
room. The pews were full of friends, family, and admirers
of the beautiful,
young supermodel who had been tragically murdered.
AJ and a stunned Keesha sat in the second pew together
with Karen and Joe. In
the third pew, Monica, Alan, Emily and Edward sat near
where Lila's chair had
been pulled up, in the asile next to that pew. In the
first pew were: Jerry,
Julia, Jax and a little further from them, Ned and a
concerned Alexis. In the
last pew, in the back sat Jagger Cates, who was surprised
to see Veronica
scoot in on the other end of the same pew. In that moment,
Mike entered, and
walked down to where Karen and Joe were, and sat with
them. Joe gave him a
hello, but Karen could only smile weakly at him. Lucy
Coe entered and looked
around, seeing no real friends. She sighed and set herself
on the end of the
last pew, not far from Veronica.
"It's always a tragedy when someone so young, with so
much to live for, and so
much life ahead of them dies." The minister started.
"But when they are
murdered, it's even worse. Brenda Barret's life was ended
unfairly and soon,
but you can take comfort in the fact that she is now
in God's Kingdom." (I
don't go to funerals. So, I don't know this stuff. Bear
with me.) He went on
for some time, including prayers and other tidbits and
then asked for
eulogies.
Karen went first: "I don't really know that I can say
Brenda Barret and I were
friends. I can't say that we were enemies or rivals anymore
however..."
Something caught her eye, as she saw Jagger in the back.
He smiled softly,
urging her not to stop for his sake, and she simply shrugged
it off and went
on. "I know that Brenda was taken too quickly from life...from
all of
you...all of us, I guess." Camera pans to Jax who reaches
for Julia's hand and
squeezes it comfortingly as she fights tears. She nods
and smiles weakly at
him and wipes her cheeks.
"And I know that she could be catty at times, but that
she had a basically
good heart. I remember one time, she found out about...
a bad time in my life.
We'd never gotten along, but she never used it against
me. In fact, she was
one of the people who helped me overcome it..." Jagger's
eyes travel, in the
memory. In a pew further up, Joe nods at Karen encouraginly
and she picked up
the words again.
"So, Brenda and I were... well, we could've been friends,
I think, if I'd
stayed around after that, or if I'd found more reason
to know her after I
arrived back home. And I wished I would have thought
of it. I wished I would
have become her friend because though she had her claws,
she had that good
heart, and a strength that was constantly underestimated
by all. She was
someone worthy of respect and admiration." She nods and
sighs as she walks
back down, looking at Jagger the whole time as she walks
to take her seat next
to Joe.
Next, Mike went up there. "I don't know what to say exactly.
But I feel I have
to say something." He paused. "Brenda was... the daughter
I never had." His
eyes misted over. "And I'll miss her...I miss her already.
That's all." He
didn't know what else to say, so he retook his seat.
Ned was next. He walked up to the front slowly. "Brenda
was probably my best
friend. She was like a little sister to me. She was...
someone who would put
up with me." He shrugged. "She was one of the few people
I've known in my
life, who actually listened even when I didn't really
even have anything to
say." He paused as his eyes misted over again.
"I remember the stubborn, fiesty, firey, young woman she
was and the mature,
admired, strong woman she became. She... knew what she
wanted, when she wanted
it and she fought tooth and nail till she got it. And,
of course, what she
wanted changed a lot. But... in these last few months,
I could tell she was
happy. Really happy. You could see it in her eyes. And...that's
the most
important thing to remember." He stepped down,
fighting tears. His eyes were
misted over and tears reached the corners of his eyes.
Alexis bit her lip,
glanced at him and reached out for his hand. She squeezed
it comfortingly, and
he tossed her a weak, grateful look. She nodded, understanding.
Julia took a deep breath as she stood up there. "Brenda
and I grew up in the
same house, with the same father, but we weren't really
sisters back then. I
was too self-absorbed to even notice her much at the
time, I suppose. There
was one time, though. She was reading this book, in the
living room, I guess.
And it had all these...fairytales in it. And she was
reading aloud, just like
she was delivering a monologue. She was really...good.
To this day, I remember
this day, and wonder why she wasn't an actress..."
Jax almost gasps in memory, remembering saying almost
the same thing to her,
but listens as Julia goes on. "Well, Brenda was reading
this story... I don't
remember the story, but if I listen to the memory, I
can still hear her voice.
And I just... sat down on the couch to listen. And I
curled up and listened to
her recite story after story... she didn't even know
I was there. And then,
oh, about five stories later, she looked up and saw me.
And at first she was
startled, but when I smiled at her, she finished the
story and I clapped. I
remember aplauding. She was only seven or so. And she
smiled the biggest
smile..." Julia closes her eyes. "She was so excited
by it and she...smiled so
beautifully..."
"I don't know why that's the only time I remember sharing
a moment like that
with her when we were little." Julia continued, wiping
her eyes a little. "But
I remember moments nearer to now. We were just begining
to really be
sisters... but still, I was always so busy or... I couldn't..."
She shook her head. And then she smiled weakly, "But she
invited me to her
wedding, and wrote me a letter a few weeks ago. A long
letter and she told me
about everything that was going on in her life and how
wonderful it was..."
She trailed off. "Brenda was better at trying to be family
than I was. All of
my life, I was too busy and she was too unimportant.
But the truth is that she
wasn't unimportant. She was special. I just wish it wasn't
too late to tell
her that. And I just hope she knew that I thought so."
She wiped her eyes and
stepped down, retaking her seat.
Finally, Jax stood up. "I loved Brenda with all my heart.
She was... the other
half of my heart, the other part of my soul. She was...everything.
We were
supposed..." his voice cracked. "to be married in November.
There isn't much I
can say about Brenda because... it wouldn't be adequate.
She was a living,
breathing, loving, feeling, human being and I can't describe
all of what she
was with words and... I can't describe how much I loved
her. And I can't tell
you all how much I'll miss her..." He trailed off, his
eyes misting over.
"She was beautiful inside and out. The whole world saw
her smile, which sold
make-up and cars and..." he trailed off. "But that wasn't
her. That wasn't the
Brenda I--and you all--knew. She was so much more than
that, and I loved her
stubborness, and her fire, and her strength. She had
a lightness about her.
When, she laughed the whole world was right. But, she
didn't always smile. And
she didn't try to fake it, like some people do. If something
was wrong with
her, you usually heard about it. She could be open and
loving....she was
just...everything to me..." The tears that streamed down
his face as he
started to step down said as much, if not more, as he
had the entired time
he'd been up there.
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