By John Silverton
Everyone spoke well of Edward’s father and a hundred or so attended his funeral. A kind, generous and humorous character, he brought joy to the lives of many. Not only was his life cut short – a meagre forty years – the pain convinced him to attempt suicide by jumping from the hospital ward window. In those few weeks of illness he aged thirty years becoming a gaunt, grey wraith Edward could hardly recognise.
The funeral service played out as a ceremonial drama, irrational to the comfort of private grief that Edward and his mother needed.
‘Ask God why his life was cut short. Ask God why he was made to suffer,’ Edward hollered from the pews.
‘God works in mysterious ways. It is not in our wisdom to question His motives. We should celebrate a loved one’s reunion with God,’ the vicar reprimanded.
Edward had nothing but contempt for the vicar’s platitudes. As clods of wet earth pounded the coffin lid, his and mother’s faith were buried with him. Edward had looked to the heavens for an explanation of God’s motive; but God was found wanting. There was no reason to inflict such suffering and rob them of the fulfilment of a long life well lived.
Edward had an ulterior motive for looking up at the dissonant concert of thunderous storm clouds, the raindrops on his cheeks might pass muster for the obligatory tears he was unable to summon in his despondent anguish. The torrential rain appeared integral to the occasion, washing away a precious life on a flood of memories.
His father’s early demise, the vicar’s enigmatic act of God, railed against all the religious pronouncements that God was merciful, God was love. Mother became a reclusive broken spirit, all the gaiety of life rinsed away by the rain that cried for them in that dank, windswept churchyard. Henceforth she lived the odyssey of his absent future: she grew old, grey and arthritic and whilst he remained young and handsome in her memories and photographs, she was unable to block-out his last anguished days.
A convert to atheism she stood defiant in the church’s graveyard at Edward’s wedding, a portent for the future of a marriage that didn’t last. It would be sixty years before his mother entered another church, then to star in her own black comedy.
Author Bio:
John Silverton is the author of A Pearl Amongst Oysters, a passionate suspenseful interracial romance spanning fifty years and two continents, available in paperback from Amazon Books.
A collection of short stories will be published later this year. John is twice winner of the Anderida Writers short story competition, 2024 and 2026, and a collection of stories is due for publication. A second novel, a crime thriller set in the art market, will be published in 2027.
Contact Author:
Email: johnsilverton@hotmail.co.uk
