GS Kariyapperuma
6 min readJul 2, 2020

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Aftermath

Love is the dawn of slumber of life. It was astonishing and beautiful how I met her. It was a sudden meeting. Who would think to meet his future life partner in a funeral? It was the funeral of my grandfather. But that day was the turning point of my monotonous life. Though the days passed, I never forget that moment. Julie is a beautiful woman and a fair lady who was helping me to live even one more day. She is very kind and innocent which make her more beautiful.

It was a nice evening with a calm environment. I was sitting on the rocking chair in the veranda, enjoying the blood red Sun which is fading in the West sky. The villagers went passing our home. One in few slowed and waved their hand to me. After few minutes, Julie joined me. A cool breeze flew through us and went up the sky with the leaves from the old tree in our garden. She reached me that I could feel her warmth and her smooth wrinkled hand slowly came up to my chest. It gave me nice feeling about our years long relationship. Then she kept her hand on my wrinkled hand and grabbed its fingers smoothly like an infant. It was successful enough to send me back to the moments when I grabbed her hand and wandered along those green fields. Those are the years that will not come back.

Julie spent few minutes with me and went it to the house. Her absence made an uncomfortable environment around me. Then I heard her sound, as she was preparing something for our dinner. The darkness came through every corner of the garden and stopped at my feet. So, I went in to join her in the work.

She had already decorated the dining table when I went there. The dining table is a memorable thing in my life as my father gifted it to me on our wedding. It is important that it never changed its position and lived many years with us. I wanted to add something to the decorations. I found the candles in the cupboard. They were the candles she always loved. We sat at the dining table and its heavy wooden legs helped us to have our dinner peacefully. Julie served me and we enjoyed our dinner while listening to a classic music. It is clear that it was the best dinner I ever had.

I went to bed early that day as I felt tired strangely. I hardly remember that Julie finished her work and came to me that night. In the midnight, I was caught in a strange freezing atmosphere. Julie’s warmth tried to concentrate the temperature but it failed. I was in a state where I got lost in the nightmare and reality. It started to feel like I am floating in the air. The condition lasted for few minutes and faded away. It was a weird nightmare. I think I fell to a deep sleep. I was so relaxed and it was comfortable. After few moments, I heard a sound from the outside of the bedroom. It was the sound of Julie who was making tea. I slowly opened my eyes. It was the next day. The night flew like a feather in the wind. I came to the real world with the entrance of Julie to the bedroom. The air in the bedroom got pregnant in her fragrance. She reached me but I could not feel her warmth. I tried to reach her but I failed. I was puzzled. I looked around to get help from something to stand-up. It was the moment I realized that I am floating in the air few inches upon my body. In the next moment, I heard a cry. That scene really shocked me. I saw Julie crying upon my silent body.

It was so strange that I saw myself bathing in the tears of my beloved wife for the first time. All the things were spinning around me. I was unable to touch her. Her eyes turned into pale red. Her face was soaked in tears. Her old hands were shaking. She left the room. I could not go anywhere as I did not want to. I was struggling to understand what happened. I heard Julie’s voice talking to someone over the phone. She came back. She sat next to me and touched my face slowly. But I could not feel it. In few minutes, she stood up due to the sound of a vehicle. Three strangers in white clothes came to the bedroom. Two of them carried a blue colored folding stretcher and put it down next to the bed. The other one signed Julie to step back. The two rolled me in my bed sheet and put me down on that blue stretcher. They carried me and put me in the van — they came. I traveled few miles tossing up and down in the van and they put me in a cold storage of the morgue.

They kept me there for a while. During this silence, I was dragged to a different dimension by a bright light. The only thing I could see was white colored surrounding. It looked as it was empty but there was a feeling that something was existing in it. I was dragged towards the dead body again with the sound of the water. I was out of the storage and I was floating few more inches away from the body that I could see the surrounding clearly. It was the time I saw a stranger — washing me. The murmur came from the next room. So, I looked. It was room full of different types of coffins. There were another two strangers who were decorating a coffin. My body was moved to an adjacent room where they kept many wardrobes. One started to dress my body. It was the first time that I was dressed by a person who was not my mother. They spent the next two hours decorating my coffin. Then came a group of people in black suites. The person who looked like the leader of them came to my coffin and examined. He nodded to the decorators and the rest of the group shut the coffin. They carried it out and put it in a hearse. The night had fallen. The hearse arrived at my place and the men in black suites carried my coffin into my home. The neighbors were there arranging the chairs for the people who will come bid their farewell to me. the strangers left me in the living room and went out. I looked round to find Julie but I failed. The place was decorated with my favorite flowers which gave me a kind of relief.

The bright bars of light sprang up in the eastern sky. Then came the arrows of dawn scatting the dark shadows. The sun himself came forth in glory through the window and touched the dark corners of the house. It was the funeral day. It had to be as once I said to my wife that I do not want a ‘days long funeral’. Our friends, neighbors and our son Fred with his family were wandering, talking and murmuring in the premises. The day went and it was the time to go. Then arrived the most wanted picture for me; Julie. Julie, in her funeral dress looked so beautiful than ever. Our son, Fred and his wife, Anya came to my coffin. They waited there few minutes gazing at my silent body. Julie stepped towards the coffin slowly. She looked at me. Her eyes were full of tears. She bent down and touched my hands smoothly. As Fred and Anya fell back, my grandson ran towards Julie. “Grandpa, why are you sleeping here?”, the little boy asked. A couple of tears fell from the eyes of Julie. Anya grabbed him and went outside. That group of strangers in black suites came with their leader. I saw that the leader spoke with Fred. The men carried the coffin to the hearse again that was ready to drive to the cemetery.

I always hated the scene of the cemetery. They spent so much time delivering speeches. I knew that they will miss me. It is the nature. After all those acts, the men in black suites carried me to our family grave house. It was there since my grand-grandparents’ times. It is clear that the odor of the house made anyone sick. But they put my coffin in the house and left me alone in the pitch dark. The murmurs and the footsteps of outside faded away. The atmosphere was dense in silence. After few minutes, a familiar whispering female voice came from outside through the darkness.

“I love you”

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