Last Goodbye

[GuestGuest]

The last note of the bagpipe drifted across the cemetery and a light breeze caused the ends of Rowan's tartan sash to flutter as the rector prayed over the coffin, poised above the gaping hole in the earth that, in a little while would swallow it up for time, eternal. At least she was together now with the grandchildren she never had a chance to see and the husband she had truly missed, even though she had remarried.

As the rector's voice soothingly carried his words to the few gathered at the graveside, Rowan's thought drifted back to the last few weeks. Things had seemed such a blur with her and Marcus taking the new jobs and relocating their small family of Lady Macbeth and his sisters to the home attached to Gippsland Grammar School. Her mother had been so proud of her and it seemed she was the only one besides them that was excited and happy about this change, at least the only one who said so besides their friends.

At the same time, Molly had decided to sell the small shop she ran in the town and relocate also, wanting to be near family. Selling the shop had been a definite decision and the sale had gone through with no problems and quicker than Molly had expected. It was relocating that had apparently run into problems, arguments apparently had ensued. Rowan was not quite sure what had happened with Molly. Her mother wouldn't talk about it and just said things would work out.

The urgent owl arrived from St. Ringo's with a rather out of character and solemn Rick Wright just moments behind. Her heart had given out and there had been nothing anyone could do. Rick had been on duty and recognized the name as Rowan's mother. There was nothing they could have done.

The next couple of days had been a bit of a blur. Apparently, when Rowan had no idea but in the past few months, Molly had drawn up a medical power of attorney and a will with strict instructions as to who was authorized to act for her, specifically her daughter and intended son-in-law. She had Gerard draw it up and made sure there was no way for anyone to contradict it. Whatever had been going on would remain a secret now but Rowan was responsible to handle all arrangements as specified in her mother's will.

This was why now, a week later, Rowan and Marcus were standing side by side watching as the graveside service came to an end. Some of her mother's former neighbors and friends had come and were coming by offering condolences and sympathies and meeting Marcus as well.

Eventually they were the last ones there as the gravediggers went about their work and the coffin was lowered into the ground, covered and they too left. Rowan set a rose she had been holding on the fresh dirt, against the tombstone that bore both her parents names. "I love you mum. I miss you so much," she whispered before standing and leaning against Marcus, who would lead her back to their room over the pub in town.

[Marcus Hobson]

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Marcus had been in town when the news had come though, arriving home to find Rick in the kitchen drinking tea and talking to Rowan was enough to raise alarm bells normally had it not for the fact that Rick was sitting and talking softly.. that meant trouble. Big trouble. Marcus didn't dare go inside at first, his natural instinct was that Ashleigh was in trouble, that Mel was in hospital or Chloe had hurt herself.. all bad news, it took serious news to turn Rick from a A grade arse to a human. It was why people put up with Rick because they knew that as long as he was being a arse, everything was going to be okay. Marcus knew the moment Rick glanced at him and didn't say something that today things where very much not okay. Instead he was left making tea, listening and trying to digest the news little by little. It hadn't sunk in, not really. Not even when there was talk of wills and laws. Marcus was glad that there was folks like Gerard to take over with it, and he was especially glad that it was school holidays so they didn't have to worry about closing down or finding a substitute. It all felt wrong, from standing in the kitchen listening to Rowan as she told him what had happened.. it wasn't long enough before they where organizing portkeys, leaving Sam and Kat in charge before grabbing passports to go to Scotland.

Marcus had only ever made it to one other funeral, he didn't understand them for the most part and often it was a matter of flying out after dark, sitting awhile on his broomstick (because of course he'd been cursed so that one step on the ground would land him..quite literally.. back at his old school) and thinking awhile till cold or boredom drove him home. In a way he missed the excuse to avoid the crowd, he just didn't do well at these kind of events. Marcus knew that there was no question that he'd go with Rowan, not just to support her but to pay his respects to a woman he'd never had the time to know as well as he'd wanted. It seemed to be the story of his life, his mother had walked out and then back in to his life without a care, Chloe's mother he'd have happily dated had she been a mere three years younger. Molly.. she had been different. Marcus had remembered sneaking into her shop on more then a few occasions for advice, she was the only one he knew who could make a suit jacket that didn't leave him feeling like a five year old playing dress ups and she was often the first to know if he was planning something stupid like asking Rowan to marry him.

He had to bite his lip, faces he'd never met coming up to them.. just as interested in finding out who he was and offering them wishes as paying respects and sympathies for the loss. It wasn't fair. This wasn't how he'd wanted to meet Rowan's family and old friends, he'd liked it at the pub when they had been chatting and drinking, now it was all black and sad faces as he listened to people he'd never met telling stories of a women he'd never really gotten enough of a chance to know. Marcus had always thought that there would be time, somewhere in his mind he'd imagined out how everything would be, they're marriage, kids for her to spoil rotten like he'd been told Grandma's where supposed to. Marcus had never met his grandparents so he just had to believe what he knew from friends that it was what they did. Closing his eyes as the priest talked Marcus tried to push it all away, he had to be tough for Rowan, everyone was looking to him and the last thing Molly would want would be a moron like him causing a scene.

He'd done what he could, a mad-dash around town to try and find a pair of black pants and shoes. He'd never worried about it before but realizing that never again would he be able to send Molly a owl if he needed a shirt or call in to get something mended. People had glanced at his outfit today and known that it was Molly's work, you could see it in their faces as they nodded, he knew a person's handiwork lived on. Maybe that's why it had seemed so important to tuck in his shirt today and shine shoes.. solid black shoes that felt wrong and uncomfortable, a size too big but it was the best they'd had at short notice. Molly wasn't young.. they kept saying that she had lived a full long life but what did that even mean? Marcus tried not to think on it as the grave was lowered into the earth. Professionals like him, people who dealt with the refuse of the every day world.

Putting a arm around Rowan as she stood looking at the graves as others walked off.. no doubt down the pub for a pint and reminisce Marcus looked down at the grave and wished his own life would be that simple, he'd never see his parents buried side by side, a last resting place together in peace. Marcus wondered what they thought of them now.. well if they could think. Rowan's father who he'd only heard of by name, and Molly now gone to be with him once more. He guessed that was the best anyone could ask for, to be again with the ones you loved in life. Maybe one day he and Rowan would share a headstone, somewhere on a hill with flowers to attract the bees. As Rowan moved forward he stayed where he was, maybe if it was a movie he'd know the perfect words to say but in life he was silent as he took Rowan's hand before putting his arm around her to hold her close, as if the summer breeze was liable to blow her away at any moment.

Last to leave Marcus glanced over his shoulder at the gravediggers getting to work, nobody but them to take care of Molly now as he turned his back, guiding Rowan back along the streets he'd seen the others take, to the pub where just as expected people where drinking and talking, Marcus had never understood that and so instead he guided them though the flocks of people, up the stars to their room. Peace against the horde, no sympathy just time to think and maybe now it would be possible to come to grips, to not be stuck in this daze and do what in the end everyone always did and go back downstairs to greet and talk to the people he'd never met and Rowan hadn't seen for so long. To do what was painful but needed to keep living then tomorrow there would be organising and no doubt packing and legal mumbo jumbo. It felt wrong that someones life could at a end be nothing but paperwork to be signed and filed, paperwork and objects to be organised, packed, sorted and given away. In a way he'd already died, his ministry file wiped clean at the age of 15 and assets 'dissolved' making him a unperson in the sense that one file ended on December 3rd 1995 and another just happened to be created the same day but without certain key details... such as well.. anything to do with his parents or before 1993 but that was life apparently. You moved on or you stopped, and when one life ended it was up to everyone else's memory to ensure they where not forgotten.

It was the only thing you could do after all.

[GuestGuest]

As they walked back to town, Rowan was quiet though she did feel a bit overwhelmed by all of the half familiar faces that she knew there were names to go with but her fogged brain couldn't drag out and associate at the moment. Her mind was at first on the night in the kitchen and the surprise of Rick showing up. It was a side of him many did not see and Rowan was grateful that he had thought enough of her and her mother to make sure she had someone there rather than an owl's message to 'come now'. Marcus had been amazing, managing to make tea as he, too, tried to absorb the news.

Gerard had immediately begun dealing with all the legalities and details that she did not have to directly handle. The fact that her mum had things spelled for the service and handling of her remains helped save a lot of decision making that she really wasn't up to. It was the stack of crates from the shop that had amazed Rowan. While Gerard had arranged for an estate sale, there were several boxes and crates marked with their names.

Leave it to her mother to think ahead and have some suits and shirts already made up in just the way Marcus liked them. He would not have to worry about those things for a while, that was for sure. Rowan's box involved outfits as well. Molly even had a box for each of the girls, Chloe and Kat with some skirts and tops in styles the young women liked and their favorite colors. In each of their four boxes was also a kilt for Marcus and tams, skirts and sashes for Rowan and the girls in the family plaid. Even a tiny kilt and mini tam for Lady Macbeth and a tam for Bertrand that matched Chloe's. Apparently her mother had been working on upcoming gifts to be ready ahead with all their birthdays and Christmas.

At the pub, she let Marcus lead her upstairs and to their room sitting on the edge of the bed and kicking off the heels she had worn. After sitting there a few minutes, Rowan looked over at Marcus and in a firm voice said, "I want a drink," and after pausing a moment, added "And I want darts. See if you can hit the nose again!" It was time. Time to mingle and relax and let the slow tread back to going on with life begin. "Come on," she said, standing and beginning to change her clothes to something more relaxed and comfortable. Rowan hung up the dress when she was done and once Marcus was ready, headed downstairs to proudly show off her fiancee to old neighbors and friends of her parents and begin doing what her mother would have wanted, living.

[Marcus Hobson]

Restless Marcus found himself unable to sit or relax after they had returned to the room, his mind was all tied up in thoughts, memories and all the things he'd thought one day to do. He was having trouble looking at Rowan, she was stronger then him, he felt that one glance would make whatever calmness crack and the pain take over. They'd already cried over it, Marcus tried not to let his thoughts dwell on the boxes that Molly had left, clothes folded neat, as if she knew. Who knew, maybe she had. Unsure of what to do now he found himself looking out the window, the sash windows breaking the view into fragments. He remembered his bedroom having the same type of windows, spying on his Mother and Father taking tea in the back garden. Of course from there it looked like a typical domestic scene, too far away to see the expressions or hear what it was they where talking about.

He felt like he could hide up here forever. England had always held a strange fascination for him, he liked the mix of old and new, the pubs and the people (for the most part) but there was times like now where it reminded him of the estate where he'd grown up, the grandiose buildings made to measure and magicked to look older, a slice of England in the middle of the bustling Australian city. It was a relief when Rowan spoke up, Marcus cracked a smile for the first time that day, "Yeah.. I thought you'd never ask" meeting her eye he couldn't helped a choked laugh as she mentioned the darts from the first time they'd visited. Half crying and half laughing, pitched somewhere in between but that was life all over. "I really don't think that's a good idea.." he said remembering his last attempt at drunken darts. But Rowan was right, they couldn't stay up here forever and so as she changed he checked his reflection in the glass, small, tired, hair sticking up in places and too long, he'd not yet gotten around to finding a new hairdresser since Noodle and it was showing.

"Ready?" he asked smoothing down his hair as Rowan hung up the dress, black dress, Marcus hadn't liked it but then again he hardly liked wearing a suit either. He didn't have the heart to change though and so taking Rowan's hand followed her into the crowd, beers handed out, music playing and now the stories started to come out.. bit by bit the funny ones like how they'd both ended up kneeling in a puddle when he'd proposed and how he'd met the real Doctor Who. Maybe from the outside it didn't make sense to drink and laugh but now watching Rowan kicking his arse at darts (no surprise there) it wasn't all about missing the dead, but a reminder that life only gave you so long. He'd wasted so much of his life trapped within the fence of a old sheepfarm turned school that in many ways he couldn't help but feel that he was only now in the last year that he'd been free to live properly for the first time in his life. One day they too be nothing but funny stories and memories so for today he'd smile and joke, trying to make a good impression with folks he'd never met and do his best to make Rowan proud... even if he never did manage to hit the queen's nose with the darts again.

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