Veronica and I stared at the ruins of the urns and photograph, lying in a sea of ash and dust that floated in the air. In the light, shining through the blinds, I could have sworn I saw my parents standing in front of me as their remains took on their form, before settling back to the ground below. It was after then that the scream that had stopped itself from escaping finally bellowed out of me as panic took over. Veronica spun towards me with wide eyes and a cracked smile.
“It’s alright! We can fix this!”
“MY PARENTS… ARE IN… THE CARPET!” I shouted fearfully. “What did you do?!”
“It’s not my fault! I saved ‘em! It’s this cheap shitty shelf your cheap shitty landlord put up!”
I groaned loudly as I hurried over to the ashes. I almost instinctively wanted to scoop them up with my hands, to hold them and profusely apologize to them. I stopped myself, realizing doing so would only create a greater mess, and I didn’t want to stain the cream walls with palm prints of my mom and dad. I got to my feet, clasping my hand over my mouth.
“What do we do?” I rapidly repeated to myself like a chant.
“We’ve gotta replace them!” Veronica said, snapping her fingers and pointing at me. “Get the same urns and photo frame!”
I looked at Veronica, still in a state of shock. I tried to think of where we could possibly get those. There was a funeral home nearby that probably had those. The photo frame was common enough that any store would probably have it. I nodded as I looked back towards Veronica, calming myself down.
“Alright, you gather the ashes and fix the shelf, I’ll get the urns and frame.”
“Gear. How long do we have?”
I pulled out my phone and we looked at the time. Of course we give Jessie the chance to get off at a reasonable hour and it bites us in the ass. If I had a car, 4 hours would be nothing, but I was beholden to public transit and however fast my legs could carry me. Veronica gave me a handful of cash and I bolted out of the apartment.
If there was one thing I was physically good at, it was sprinting, thanks to the number of times I ran out, fearing for my life. Endurance was another story. I was able to make it to the funeral home in a reasonable time, but by the time I made it to the door, I couldn’t even breathe. I was leaning against the wall outside, sweating like a pig in summer. The salesperson thought I was having a literal heart attack.
I made my way inside after finally regaining my motor skills and browsed the urns. The inside was dignified and solemn, with some customers shopping around for whatever felt fitting of their deceased family. Meanwhile, I ran back and forth, panting and fogging up display cases in a frantic search for whatever matched my parents’ urns. While some might say I provided some solace in distracting people from their pain and replacing it with utter confusion and discomfort, that wasn’t on my mind.
Eventually I came across the ones I was looking for. They had a jade color with a golden rim and handle. For a moment, I looked as though I had found God. I laughed quietly as I pointed towards the urn and looked at the salesperson.
“That’s the one! How much for two of them?”
“That one would be… $300 each.”
My eyes widened even more in panic. It dawned on me that those two had to have been the real deal. What we had before were porcelain painted to match those colors and were barely $60 each. I sounded like I was literally deflating as the air escaped my lungs. I looked around, trying to find another one that at least looked similar. No such luck.
As I scoured the funeral home, I noticed two cheaper ones that looked similar in design, if not for the color scheme. As I stared at them, a new idea came to mind. We’d be cutting things close, but if we could paint over them quickly enough, we might be able to at least put on a show until I could replace the urns with something closer to the real thing. Unfortunately, I was low on cash and even lower on options. I bought the two urns and hurried out.
At the very least, the paints, brushes, and walnut-colored photo frames were easier to find. It didn’t take long to buy those and hurry back home. I trudged myself inside, barely able to breathe. I collapsed onto my back, cradling the urns as tightly as I could to protect them. Veronica rushed out of the kitchen with Tupperware in hand.
“Did you find them?!”
I pulled an urn out with the paint, still wheezing like an asthmatic. Veronica stared in disbelief before frowning with uncertainty.
“Are we really that desperate?” she asked.
I nodded. She let out a resigned sigh. It took me a moment to notice what was inside the Tupperware. Gray powder filled them up to the brim. It was then I realized it wasn’t powder.
“You put my parents in Tupperware?!” I wheezed out.
“Desperate times, mate. It was that or leave ‘em in the vacuum clean-”
“You vacuumed up my parents?!”
“Relax, Jack,” Veronica replied reassuringly, putting them down on the coffee table. “I emptied it out first.”
I dropped my supplies to the ground and crawled over to the table with a horrified look. The thought that this would befall them after death felt like a dagger to the heart. If they didn’t hate me before, I was certain that this desecration would have them haunt me for the rest of my life. I shuddered as I leaned my head against who I was holding. The containers were probably filled with bits of both of them.
“God, I’m so sorry,” I murmured quietly.
“They’re gonna be more pissed if we don’t get them in something! Jessie especially! Now get a move on!”
She wasn’t wrong. Time was of the essence. A text from Jessie made my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out and flipped my phone open; she was on her way. This gave us maybe 30 minutes at best, depending on traffic. We hurriedly poured the ashes into the urns and began to paint them as quickly as we could. We put them on the repaired shelf, hopefully mitigating any mess we would get from moving the urn around. I did what I could to cover up any other damage on the wall with the closest paint I could get to patch any scratches and dents.
I didn’t expect Jess to notice the urns’ patterns, so we didn’t need to be perfect. Thank Christ, because it was exactly what you’d expect from a high schooler and a vagrant. The jade paint gave it a sheen that covered up any clumps of paint that we couldn’t smooth out, and the gold lining of the edges of the lid and porthole were spotty at best. But at a quick glance, it did what it needed to do. Jessie’s hair dryer was the final touch to dry them off as hastily as possible.
As I waved the blow dryer over the urns, I saw Jessie’s car pull up through the blinds. I swore under my breath as I quickly yanked the hair dryer from the outlet and stashed it back in the bathroom. Veronica was quick to hide our remaining supplies in the couch, under where the pull-up mattress would fold. As I hurried back into the living room, Veronica waved me back with a wide eyed stare.
“For Christ’s sake, clean yourself up! She’ll think we were fuckin’ around!”
I wiped my forehead. I was a sweaty mess. I hurried back into my room, drying myself off with my sweat-drenched shirt as best as I could before changing into something fresher. I could hear Jessie enter and talk to Veronica, but their words were unclear. I figured I’d give them a bit to talk while I calmed myself down. I knew if anyone would blow our cover, it would be me.
It seemed calm enough. The conversation sounded casual, so things had to have been going well. I thought we might have been in the clear, but as I began to ease into a relaxed state, a series of thuds and glass shattering erupted from the living room. I could hear Jessie shriek at the top of her lungs, and my heart suddenly stopped.
“We’re dead,” I thought to myself.
I waited for Jess to explode on Veronica before storming in here and tearing me to shreds before giving Veronica the boot. Instead, I was greeted by another sound. I could hear Jessie start to bawl in the living room. Now I wasn’t just scared, I felt my guilt somehow topping a new level, because as far as I was concerned, we just gave her more grief then she could handle.
My entire body quaked as I cautiously made my way out of the room towards the group. I tried to make each step as soft and silent as possible, not wanting to set Jessie off any further. As I entered the living room, I found Veronica slowly backing up towards me from the couch. On the ground was Jessie, crouched on her knees while sobbing in front of the newly broken urns and detached shelf.
I stared in shock and confusion. I expected death, but instead I was greeted with some sick salvation that most people would pray to some eldritch being for. I turned towards Veronica, who had a relieved smirk on her face. She looked at me, victoriously.
“We’re in the clear!” she whispered.
“You didn’t,” I whispered back. “Please don’t tell me-”
“I wish I’d thought of that. Looks like your luck finally turned around.”
I turned back towards Jessie, who seemed to cry even harder right on cue. I slowly made my way over to her and sat next to her. She wrapped her arms around me tightly, burying her face into my shoulder.
“One thing!” she blubbered out. “I just want one thing to go right!”
“Jess, it’s okay! We’ll fix it.”
“I can’t take care of you, I can’t take care of this apartment… I can’t even take care of a god damn urn!”
Jessie rubbed her arm against her face, breathing in through her nose with a flappy snort. I gave her a sympathetic look as I hugged her back. I looked back towards Veronica, and her cocksure smile slowly faded to a guilty frown. Her eyes closed as her head sank, clearly trying to avoid the scene in front of her. Her frown only grew as she gave me an annoyed look. She wanted an out, but clearly we weren’t giving it to her.
“Look, Jessie… this… it’s…”
Veronica floundered with her words. It seemed every two words she was groaning with exasperation. She rubbed her forehead, taking a moment to recompose her words.
“Shit happens in life. The worst thing you can do is… hang on to it when all it does is bring you misery, yeah? That goes for Jack here, too. Fuckin’ let go.”
Jessie looked over at Veronica, unsure of how to react. I couldn’t tell if she was taking her words to heart or wanting to scream at her to “stay in her lane.” Veronica sighed quietly as she walked over and sat next to Jessie, keeping herself supported on her knee as she crossed her legs like she was some wise sage.
“You got this far, which means you’re doing a lot more right than wrong. This?”
Veronica motioned towards the ashes on the ground with a matter-of-fact look.
“That’s not your fault. Trust me. I know a shoddy bolt when I see it. It was gonna happen sooner or later because you’re living in this cheap shack. Once again, not your fault. You’re playing with the hand you were dealt with.”
“Maybe skip to the point,” I whispered, trying to spare Jessie any more blows then she was already dealing with.
“My point being… the both of ya’ve been floating around this for far too long. So… time to lift some spirits by lifting those weights off your shoulders, yeah?”
Jessie stared at Veronica, trying her best not to burst into more tears. She sniffed as she ran her hand under her nose, let out an audibly loud and sharp sigh.
“And how do we do that?” Jessie asked in a low voice.
“By doing what my mum taught me,” Veronica responded, a smile growing on her lips.
Leave it to Veronica to figure out how to somehow shift the blame to the world instead of the two people who actually caused damage. I wasn’t sure how much of that was genuine, but if it saved the day, I was all for it.
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