Funerals are twisted, a beautiful send-off on one end. Encapsulating everything that a person was in about an hour. But, on the other hand, they often leave people feeling empty, lost, and left wondering.

  Ralphie's thoughts were swirling through him; he was set to speak at the funeral, which was only set a couple of days away. Lily had been working to gather as much as they could about Isa and his story. She put out several interviews with Isa and his mother. It was something that was seldom pushed out by CelTecs' never-ending string of bullshit. People tuned in.

  After Ralphie had finished giving Lily all the details about what had happened, Lily agreed to give Ralphie some space to grieve. She assured him that there was a lot more that needed to be done, but with more people speaking out. CelTec couldn’t silence them all, and there truly was power in numbers.

  The first thing that Ralphie did was go straight to Sage's house once the Spade had released her.

  The scars still plagued her body, but Ralphie didn’t mind much; if anything, he thought that they added uniqueness to her. She would always remain beautiful in the mind and in appearance.

  “Hey,” Ralphie said, managing to crack a smile amidst the exhaustion he was feeling. Sage stood up from the couch that she was lying on before she embraced Ralphie in a hug. She was warm to the touch, familiar.

  “I’m ok,” Ralphie said, his words shaking slightly.

  Sage could see that something had gone wrong by the way that Ralphie was looking away from her. She embraced him again. “What happened?” She asked softly. Ralphie let out a couple of deep breaths. His throat felt like it was swelling up as he tried to form the right words. His whole body felt like it was in pain.

  “Leon, and my parents,” Ralphie managed to get out, his voice cracking from the pressure and weight that he felt in his throat and chest. He cleared his throat before repeating what he had previously said, slightly slower and slightly clearer. Sage tightened her grip around him.

  Ralphie felt like he owed it to tell the rest of his friends exactly how Leon had died. Their reactions were filled mostly with shock and silence. He refrained from telling them what happened to his parents. In those weeks, he felt more alone than he ever had in his life. Ralphie visited his parents' house a couple of times, each time with the feeling of utter loneliness inside that house.

  Eventually, Petey gave Ralphie a call after not having heard from him in some time. Ralphie picked up the phone. His voice was groggy and filled with low energy.

  “Hey, Ralphie, this is Petey, just checking up on you? Ralphie noticed an unusual nervous tone underlying his voice.

  “Just been working out the details on the funeral. Sage has been helping me quite a bit.” Ralphie let out a sigh, placing his hand on his head. Every breath he had taken in the last couple of weeks felt labored and silent, like a wool cloth had been wrapped over his head.

  “What’s been the hardest thing so far?” Petey asked; he had been through this process before. Quite frankly, he would always live with the death of his father.

  Ralphie sat in silence for a couple of seconds before Petey repeated his question.

  “Well, I have what I want to say down, and I found that came pretty easily. But the thing that is giving me the most trouble is trying to figure out what kinds of flowers are going to be at the funeral.”

  “Lilies?” Petey suggested.

  “Lilies would work, I could go with some white Lilies, but I don’t feel like they capture everything about them. Leon and my Father wouldn’t much care about the type of flowers, but my mom would. She would insist that everyone she knew brought her flowers, so she always had them rotating through the house.”

  “Did she have a favorite?” Petey asked, he scraped at the palm of his hand, digging in as he tried to remember his father's funeral. He couldn’t remember a thing.

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  “I’m trying to recall, but I can’t remember. I wish I could ask her.” Ralphie contemplated for a while before saying, “She did love humming birds, I know that.”

  “What about honeysuckle? Hummingbirds love them,” Petey’s mother had always kept them in her garden to draw the hummingbirds out.

  Ralphie smiled behind his phone, “You know that could work. I think that could be pretty beautiful.” Ralphie nodded to himself.

  The funeral took place on a bright sunny day. The rays of heat baked the freshly cut grass, as the fumes rose from the ground. There was a series of fans that were placed around the seats, blowing cool air on guests. There were a little over forty guests at the funeral, all wearing black. There was a series of refreshments, including several bottles of wine, cans of beer, and a couple of gallons of water. As for the snacks, the table was filled with a wide assortment of cheeses, crackers, and various cuts of meat. Several sandwiches were enough to fill anyone. The turkey seemed to be gone the fastest. In order to provide security for the funeral, it took place at a giant house far outside town. The house was surrounded by tall grass that stood a couple of feet overhead. Several undercover Spades hid amongst the crowd for protection.

  Ralphie wanted time to process, but he felt like he had to put on a show. One of the men who came up to Ralphie took him by surprise. Frank was a tall, older-looking man who was wearing a strange-looking brown hat. Frank had walked up to Ralphie, greeting him with a very firm handshake.

  “You look very similar to your father, you know that, right?” Frank's voice was rich, his words piercing through the air.

  “Yes, thank you, sir.” Ralphie managed to smile.

  “I met your father almost fifteen years ago; he was my student. He was a very fiery man when he was young. You have that same fire in your eyes. I can see it.”

  Ralphie looked at Frank with curiosity in his eyes. Something about this man seemed familiar. It was the way he talked; it was very similar to his father's.

  “What did you teach my father?” Ralphie asked?

  “I taught him linguistics, I taught him the meaning of words, the power of inflection, and the ability to communicate between people.” Frank shrugged, “It's a lost art nowadays, most people seldom communicate, at least face to face. We need more people out in the streets, people talking face to face, seeing one another, seeing facial expressions, inflection, and connections. Do you understand what I’m saying?” Frank asked.

  Ralphie nodded before asking, “ Do you know how important my father was in the Spades?”

  “Well, he was one of the most important people behind your mother. Your mother was the brains behind the Spades, an innovator who led the backbone of the Spades. It was a shame that I never got to know her better. I really would have liked to. Your father, on the other hand, was the pied piper. He got people invested, went out and talked to people on the street. He was the reason why people joined the Spades, why they had power, and why CelTec was afraid of them. I see that same drive in you.” A voice beamed over the loudspeaker announcing the start of the funeral. Ralphie thanked the man before he found his seat towards the front.

  Ralphies black suit was soaked in the heat from the sun. Most of the procession was pretty boring. Towards the end, the speaker asked if anyone else wanted to speak. Ralphie raised his hand, and his mouth grew dry as sand.

  As he made his way to the podium, he tucked his glasses into his pocket before rearranging his jacket; it sat stiff against his shoulders. Ralphie took a look out into the crowd, gazing upon the many tired faces. The sun had driven many of them to exhaustion.

  Ralphie took a deep breath, collecting himself, “I would like to thank everyone who took the time to make it here today. But I would also like to thank you all for a very different reason. I would like to thank you for giving me the last opportunity to see my parents and my best friend. They are not here in the flesh, but because of all of you here, many of whom I have spoken to for the first time. I get to see them through a much richer history.

  Today, I see that they were not just my parents or my best friend. But, remarkable people who have made an impact on every one of you, and for some of you, even formed a close relationship. I think we seldom realize how many people we are going to meet throughout our lives. How many lives have we changed, and how many lives have changed the ones we are currently living? I did not know my parents as revolutionaries, and as many of you now know, I’m not sure I even knew them at all.

  But even after they were turned into cheap imitations, they still possessed many of the things that we knew and loved about them. Passion, Kindness, Love. I’m sure most of you know this about my parents, but they were extremely friendly. Almost to a fault. So much so that they would invite almost any random stranger into their house. I remember growing up with Leon, spending days on end at my house. Waking me up by banging on my door at the early hours of the morning. Telling me that we were losing daylight by staying inside; there was a whole world to explore, he would say. We would hop on bikes and just ride around for hours. By the time we got home, the sun would be far behind the horizon.

  We would be covered in sticky sweat that was so pungent my parents wouldn’t let us inside. So my father would come out all giddy with a hose spraying us as we ran away from him. My mother laughed at the three of us from within the safety of the house. Growing up, my parents always had people's best interests at heart. I will remember that, and I hope to care for that with me for the rest of my life.”