Internment

My grandmother practically raised me. No, I should rephrase that, despite what my mother will think. My grandmother raised me and I am the person I am because of her.

It is the end of the most difficult week of my life. I've never lost anyone close to me before. Parked at the cemetery for my grandmother's internment, I'm paralyzed. I can't stand the word internment. I can't stand to think what it means. I don't want to leave the safety of my car.

But I must. I must walk past the graves of strangers to stand on the ground above where others are interred and pay respect to the most important person in my life. I wish my grandmother were here to hold my hand. I looked up through the trees and said, "I love you and miss you terribly. Be my strength today and guide me."

My best friend, Chad, knocked on my window and brought me out of my trance.

"Oh, you didn't have to come," I said as I hugged him.

"Funerals are for the living. I'm here for you," he said into my hair as we continued to embrace.

Despite my grandmother's wishes, my mother had a priest speak at her services. She feared her mother could use some last minute saving. The drone of the priest's words were unintelligible to me. I couldn't focus being so close to my grandmother's lifeless body.

I looked just beyond the priest and the gathering and spied a calico cat stretched out on the edge of a nearby headstone. I smiled despite myself. If there is a reincarnation, my grandmother would be a calico cat as they were her favorite feline.

The cat turned its head and looked at me and then back to a yellow leaf seemingly suspended in the air and spinning. Caught in a spider's web, the leaf had the attention of the cat.

I smiled thinking the leaf was certainly not a sign from my grandmother as she would have chosen another color leaf as she had a vehement dislike for yellow. The cat leapt into the air and swatted the leaf to the ground. With a swish of its tail, it made for the thicket along the cemetery's boundary.

I took that as my cue. I stepped forward and kissed the impossibly shiny coffin. I turned back, grabbed Chad's hand and concluded my time at the internment. Walking back to my car, I smiled as I watched the cat slip into the shadows.

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Writer's Cramp 10/22 PROMPT: Use the following words/phrases, exactly as written, in any order, somewhere in your story or poem:

calico cat
drone
yellow leaf
interment