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FICTION Junior Blevins Bob Sloan POP STARTED COMPLAINING about an extra memorial service while we were still in a hospital lounge, waiting for a hearse to come and get Mom. He said if we did one night of visitation after we got her back to Kentucky, anyone who really cared would be there. Adding a night in Indiana would only make people feel like they had to show up in both places. Until I called a few funeral homes and found out how much it would cost, we'd all agreed that before we took our mother home, there'd be a memorial service in the town where she died. My sister Lena knew as well as I did Pop was worried about money, not aggravation for relatives he hardly ever talked to. She didn't argue though. My brother Troy sat away from the rest of us and didn't say nothing. I could tell he was disappointed. I think he was looking forward to showing off for his real estate buddies how tore up with grief he was, something like that. By Wednesday none of us was sorry we did what Pop wanted. A mortuary room where the best part of our family was laid out in a copper-colored box, the air thick with the stink of dying roses, was as bad a place as I ever been. A second night of dead flowers and a coffin would've made us all crazy. GreatAunt Ruby showed up with two daughters for escorts. Except for Ruby, who doesn't stand but an inch or two over four foot, the women in that family are big stout things. They got blocked right away by people who didn't notice a little old lady trying to get to the coffin. After a minute's pause, maybe not even that long, Aunt Ruby sailed right on through the crowd, leaving the daughters behind. I couldn't really see Ruby, just this empty space moving through the shoulder to shoulder turn-out. Ruby was almost out of that mob before I saw how she did it. Ruby'd brought a heavy cane to lean on, and while she walked, swung it like a pendulum. Every time that cane banged some big man's ankles, he frog-jumped out of her way. It was funny, and when Ruby heard me laughing out loud she smiled and winked at me. It was the first thing I'd had to laugh about in a long while. 46 As I walked her to the casket Aunt Ruby told me about being there the day Mom was born. "I pinned the first diaper onto your mommy she ever wore," Ruby said. She meant to tell more but Lena come and got me. The Church of God preacher wanted to talk to us. I leftRubywith Pop,who wasn't aboutto follow a minister into a little room where he'd have to talk about details of the service. It was like he was pretending there wasn't going to be a funeral the next day, that the mob in the mortuary was just another family reunion, only out of season. Lena, Troy and me sat with Reverend Carlyle for almost an hour. I told him Mom wouldn't have wanted a service full of religion or an hour of sin and salvation preaching. Carlyle wrinkled his face when he realized he wouldn't save any souls at our mother's funeral, but he nodded and said he understood. Lena mentioned a piece of Bible verse she wanted him to read, and the preacher recited the whole thing and more. All Troy wanted to talk about was what a hard worker Mom had been. Troy didn't seem able to hush, once he got going. About the time we came out of our meeting with the preacher, one more old timer I didn't know showed up. By then I'd faced two or three dozen strangers, explained who I was, stood beside them in front of that awful open box. I wouldn't have given another unfamiliar face a second thought if it hadn't been for the...

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