Chapter 3 Laid To Rest

• It is the burial ceremony of Evolette, and the graveyard was filled with friends and loved ones who had come from far and near to pay their last respect for Evolette and also show their support to the bereaved family.
• With the countenance of everyone present, it was so obvious that they would miss Evolette so much as she had been a dear friend to them during her lifetime.
• Riona watched on absentmindedly as the priest prayed over the remains of her late mum, Evolette. All through the duration of the whole event, she was lost and was absent minded on all the happenings around her. The death of her mum had hit her so badly and it had turned her into a shadow of her formal self.
• Riona had not known when the priest was done with the intercession and even when he had said ‘We pray oh Lord’, she was still aware.
• It was everyone present had chorused ‘Amen’ that her mind was drawn back to them.
• Haven been absent minded all through the final rites, and brought her back to the present by the sound of amen from the crowd; she focused her gaze at the coffin in front of the priest.
• Riona wondered how such a little piece of wood would be able to hold her mum captive for a very long time. She reminisced on how she would be able to go on all alone without her own mother to lead, guide and love her and within her, she cursed the coffin and death. Of course her dad, Wright is great; there was no denying that fact. But there was Maeve, clung all over him, like she has been waiting for this very moment her whole life.
• Thinking of her dad, she turned to his direction. She saw him in grief, and she could see Maeve all glued to him, pretending to console him.
• The sight of Maeve beside Wright disgusted Riona. And no matter what happens, she will never trust Maeve’s sudden friendliness and sympathy over the death of her mum. To her, Maeve should be the enemy.
• Riona cannot remember where Maeve emanated from and how or why she all of a sudden decided to become a part of their lives.
• Even in her grief, Riona was able to access Maeve for the untempt time. To her, there was no doubt that Maeve was beautiful and she also appears to be lovely. But then, her beauty was nothing to Riona who believes that Maeve beauty goes to no issue when compared to her mum, Evolette. As for been nice, Riona overlooked that fact as she believes that she was only acting that role in order to gain her and her father’s trust. An agenda that Riona has already vowed to make impossible.
• She cannot fathom ever seeing Maeve around her family. She only sprung out after the demise of her mother, Evolette and Riona had never hesitated to show Maeve that even though her presence brought her father some consolation, she will never be accepted as part of them no matter how hard she tries.
• It is not as if Riona had never knew Maeve before now, on the contrary she had knew Maeve ever since she was little. But then, she was never this close to her family and Riona had never seen her close to her dad before now. So what changed after the death of her mum? This is a mystery that Riona is bent on unraveling.
• “Hey Riona, I am so sorry that you have to go through this” a voice said beside Riona.
• Riona turned to see that Riley was standing next to her. Seeing Riley by her side, Riona can’t tell if she was just coming to stand beside her or if she has been there the whole time. However, Riona was not in any mood to accommodate Riley at this moment and was ready to out rightly discharge her if she persisted.
• She takes a look at Riley, and she noticed that her eyes were red. Riona concluded that that might be as a result of crying at this occasion but nevertheless, the realization did not bring any relief to Riona, but only further disgusted her.
• Why the hell was she crying? Riona thought. Was she the one that had lost her mum? Riona does not seem to understand the excess show of care and concern on the part of Riley. She could only conclude that she was just like her mum, a person that Riona has already termed as an opportunists.
• “Accept my condolence dear” Riley added.
• Riley was hoping Riona would embrace her kind gesture, and would not see her as an intruder. She knows what Riona was going through right now and how much she would need a friend to talk to and she was hoping that friend would be her.
• However, Riona was filled with nothing but disdain. She believes Riley is only acting up and she could not take this shameless show of hypocrisy any longer. The truth is that, as a classmate, Riley was a girl that Riona has a little respect for, but these past weeks has revealed a whole lot to her and had made her to start seeing Riley as a person one needs to be conscious of.
• Rather than respond to Riley’s condolences, Riona decided to go meet her dad who all along has been occupied by Maeve. Her main concern was to go get Maeve far away from her dad since she does not appear to be shameless in her desperation.
• As Riona walks towards her dad, Wright, whose face had been bowed to the ground all along, suddenly looked up and saw Riona approaching. He brightened up a little to receive his daughter.
• “Hey Riona”
• Wright called her as soon as she was standing in front of him.
• A tear dropped from her eyes as she could feel the pains in his voice. The death of her mum has really been hard on the both of them. She wishes she could do something to bring him back to how he used to be before the demise of her mum. Riona vowed that she would do anything, absolutely anything to achieve this but would not let Maeve in even if she is the solution that she seeks.
• “Daddy” she replied.
• She went to where he was standing and she intentionally stood between him and Maeve.
• Riona turned to see that Riley had actually followed behind her and was now right where they were, standing close to Maeve.
• Riona is strongly of the opinion that Riley and Maeve have all along been waiting for an opportunity to take over her family and Riona is as much ready to forestall this attempt. Riona sees them as been wicked for wanting to profit from her misfortune.
• Riona did not want to be in the company of Maeve and Riley as she detests their presence. So she held Wright by the hands and led him away from them. She wanted him all to herself.
• As she led Wright through the mist of those that have come to sympathise with them, and away from Riley and Maeve, her eyes wandered through the sympathisers once again.
• She could see her aunt Kyra standing beside her husband, Phillip with his right hand on her shoulders. Kyra and Philip had flown in from Regina this morning for the burial.
• Kyra wore a dark shade on her black gown and even in her grief, she still looked pretty. She has not been able to bring herself to alter much word ever since her elder sister, Evolette passed on.
• She saw Maeve’s family members, the Johnsons. She was able to recognize them as she had attended two or more parties at Riley’s place as a little girl. The ones that her dad had made her go as he claims it would make her appreciate everyone even those beneath her class. Her mum was not in full support of her attending those parties but she never tried to stop her against her dad’s wish.
• As a little child, Riona had this fear for the Johnsons. This fear has been built up from how she has always felt whenever she attended Riley’s parties at their house. She wondered why there should have such a large expanse of land at the outskirts of town all to themselves and how much care they had put in to ward off intruders when they should have just sold a good part of it to better their lot.
• Riona knew that the Johnsons were not anywhere close to her family in terms of wealth and yet her dad does not have such a large expanse of property. Because of this, Riona suspects that the Johnsons must be hiding something in most of their rooms as they were just numerous for her to count and there were not in use.
• One very singular occasion had almost confirmed Riona’s fear and when she had gone home to narrate her experience to her mum, her mum had used that opportunity to stop her from attending any more occasions at the Johnsons.
• On that day, in disregard to Mr. Johnson’s instructions, Riona had wandered to the back of the house and for a moment she could swear that she had seen about three huge wolves right in the middle of the big field. What further alarmed Riona was the fact that she could swear that she had heard one of the wolves speak and they had all ran off as soon as they had noticed her presence.
• She had been so scared to speak and in her frightened state, she had not known when Maeve had come to the back door. It was when she heard Maeve call out her name that she fainted.
• Upon been revived, she had narrated what she had witnessed to Maeve and her mum, Mrs. Johnson but they instantly brushed it aside as an hallucination on her part.
• She has gone home to narrate the event to her parents but her dad had scolded her for disobeying Mr. Johnson’s order and her mum had restricted from ever attending any event at the Johnsons.
• Riona does not know why, but after some years, she noticed that Maeve stopped inviting her to any of their occasions after her encounter at the back of their house so she took the task of knowing what lies beyond the estate of the Johnsons. Her search only revealed that the Johnsons resides at the borders of the city and her search did not reveal the possibility of having a wolf within the parameters of their property.
• Since then, Riley has remained just a classmate, and even though both girls are not best of friends, they have always found a way to get along as classmates simpliciter.
• Riona could also see her team from Rennet Aid, the Non-Governmental organization that is owned by her mum. Cindy was in their midst. She has been a dutiful and diligent staff all these years and Riona knows that with Cindy by her side, she would not have any difficulty in running the affairs of Rennet Aid.
• Riona led Wright to the front of the gathering. At the time they were almost close to where the priest was standing, the coffin was ready to be confined to mother earth.
• In fear of watching her mum gone away from her forever, she clinched onto Wright as she could not bear to look at the remains of her mum buried to come out no more. She wanted to scream and wail, perhaps that would make her mum come back to her but as much as she tried, she could only let out some sobs.
• She has lost her strength and her voice from crying for the past month since the demise of Evolette, and now she has no tears left to shade anymore.
• Tears dropped from Wright’s eyes as he watched the remains of his late wife been finally laid into the earth.
• He held his little girl to himself, he could not imagine how much she must have suffered from missing Evolette, her mum.
• When he broke the news of her mum’s death to her, he saw how traumatised she was and how she could not bring herself to accept that her mum was gone to be seen no more.
• The next few days that followed after that was hell to both Wright and Riona. Riona would not stop wailing as she refused to eat anything and asking that her mum be brought back to her.
• During thoss times, Wright had hated more than anything else to see his beloved daughter in such state, but what more can he do? On his part, he could not even console himself. For days, he lived in denial of Evolette’s death, he believed that his lovely wife was going to walk through the door and return to him and their precious little daughter, Riona to make their family whole and happy once again.
• It was only until this morning that Riona has stopped crying and had joined him in the dining for breakfast when he announced to her that Evolette would be laid to rest today.
• At first, Wright had feared that Riona would not want to come for the burial. He fear was premised on her blunt refusal to accept the death of her mum, Evolette. Hence, he was very careful when he was relaying the information to her.
• Riona watched as sands were poured to fill the earth. Unwilling to take it, she held her breath and also closed her eyes. When it became impossible for her to sustain herself without air, she opened her mouth slightly and began to breathe a little bit fast as she starts to gasps for air.
• “It will be okay Rio, mum is fine wherever she is right now” Wright whispered to Riona.
• When Wright, saw that the whole scenario was becoming too much for his daughter to take, he decided to lead her out of the premises for he too was unwilling to look on any longer.
• He led her to the back of the venue, away from everyone. He took her to an empty bench and they both sat on it.
• “She will be fine dad” Riona said.
• Her voice was barely audible and it was obvious that she was only trying to reassure herself that her mum would be fine.
• Wright looked at his daughter, not sure whether to respond or not. In reaction, he could only shake his head in affirmation to what she had said.
• “She loves us, and did not just leave us” Riona continued.
• What Riona just said touched Wright so much. Yes, it is undeniable that his wife loves him and their daughter, Wright was certain that if Evolette was given an option to pick, she would have chosen to stay with them and not leave.
• “And I believe that she knows that we love her too and would forever miss her so dearly” She added.
• Wright placed his hands on Riona’s shoulders to assure her that he is still here for her and would never leave her, at least not anytime soon.
• “She knows dear, we love her” Wright managed to say.
• “Hello Mr. Wright” Cindy called.
• Wright looks up to see Cindy standing just a little distance from them and he replied her. “Hi Cindy”
• “Please you can come inside now” Cindy said.
• “Very well Cindy. Thank you” Wright replied.
• Cindy went back inside and looking at her, Riona wished she would be closer to her family in place of Maeve as she has been very good to her mum and has diligently worked for her and the organization.
• Wright held her by the hands and they both stood up. They looked at each other and smiled and still holding hands, they both walks back inside.