Ade knew that what has happened was unbelievable. He still cannot understand how it all happened. The more he looked at the scene of the accident the more his thought ran parallel refusing to merge. 

A few hours ago he has been screaming, “Father, Mother.”

But now he sat down calmly in a police van but never stopped wising it was all a dream and he will soon wake up from it. He licked his lips with his tongue several times but still can’t take the dryness away. The thought of having a cup of cold water came into his mind but soon disappeared. When he remembered how his father and mother were covered with white clothes. And then the accident scene was covered with blood. He closed his eyes several times and then forced several blinks. Only wishing it should be but only a dream and nothing more. The more he looks through the windshield of the police van. The more his mental ability cannot comprehend what happened a few hours ago. His heart was pounding now, faster than it did minutes ago. Pains he can’t possibly remember how it came, resumed. Pain on his legs, waist, and the backside of his neck got him all the more motionless in the police van he sat.

Seconds later, he felt more pain close to his spine. And as he struggles to lift his body, his breath stopped momentarily. He quickly dragged a large volume of air in to maintain the airflow through his lungs.

Minutes later, as he looked out the windshield again he saw Victor, his uncle discussing with one of the policemen. He can’t hear them talk but what he knew just happened a few hours ago wasn’t a dream but a sad reality that David and Cynthia are in trouble.

But why is nobody talking to me?

Where are my father and mother?

Why is the policeman talking to Victor and not David or Cynthia? He kept on pondering. 

Now it was obvious his comprehension of the circumstance was broken into dotted lines.

But an hour later merged when he heard one of the police officials say. “He is the only survivor and he needs a doctor’s attention.”

As his eyes meant Victor’s he knew the worse has come if not already here.

He knew what his fears are is what is hidden far inside the eyeballs of Victor and that is. David and Cynthia are no more.

Ruth and Joan stood by Ade whose eyes were already filled with tears.

Joan watched Ade’s lips shivering for minutes. She couldn’t fully understand what is happening either. But she noticed a lot of people standing around. And the voice of Reverend Landus that keeps on gaining momentum on them.

Her eyes fell on Ade again, this time her heart pounded faster than ever. Suddenly a silence fell over the cemetery next to the church. As the pallbearers slowly lowered the coffins into the grave, even the birds that had been chirping in the trees paused in their song. As if sensing the solemnity of the ritual being carried out below. As the coffins came to rest on the floor of the grave, the church bell began to toll, but as Ade gazed down at the lids of the coffins for his mother and father. He barely heard the striking of the hours, for a terrible fear was already growing inside him. As Reverend Landus whispered the final benediction and dropped a clod of the earth unto the caskets. Ade and Joan flinched, imagining the hollow sound it makes inside the coffins.

Suddenly Ade became uneasy in his mind. He heard the hollow clunk as the next clod fell into the grave.

Now he imagined himself reaching out to explore the darkness, but feeling only the satiny softness of the casket’s interior, a softness whose deception would be exposed. And as he felt the unyielding walls behind the padded fabric, he reached out to the firm grip of Ruth who has stood calmly beside him watching everything.

When it was his time, he picked up a clod of earth with his gloved hand and then dropped it unto his parent’s coffins but not without screaming.

Ruth held unto him and pulled him back, careful not to let him slip into the grave.

Minutes later, he stood. As he watched the mourners were stooping to pick clod of earth to add up to the earth that was already in the coffin. Ade looked around.

The faces of the people he saw were full of sorrow, and then suddenly at the far right end of the cemetery. He saw Rodson his father’s lawyer exchanging words with Victor.

Why are they all here?

Are Dad and Mum going to come back?

He still can’t figure out what exactly is going on. The more his thoughts came the less he believes what just happened. As he swings his head behind, his eyes meant Joan. 

They both knew the future wouldn’t be any interesting with Victor now the focus of attraction.