Epilogue

I'm swinging in my front yard from our huge magnolia tree. My parents say that I'm lucky to have this gigantic tree, considering we live in the famous city of Chicago. A car pulls into our driveway. Sage's car. Her mother and father step out of the vehicle. Sage's mother wet with tears and her father with a grim face on. They walk up to my front door and ring the doorbell. My mother lets them in. I peek in through the window and see them sitting at our kitchen table talking. I leap off the swing and head inside.

"What are you guys talking about?" I ask them. My mother looks at me, and there are tears in her eyes. Sage's parents are here. My mother is crying. What is going on.

"Lyric sweetheart, we have some very tragic news." My mother tells me gently. I pull out a chair and sit down.

"Yes?" I ask, cautiously.

"Sage was on a flight to Maine to visit her grandmother, and the plane got...hijacked. They found a bomb in the back of the plane and....." My mother's words hang in the air. Time seems to freeze where it is. Sage's mother hunches over with grief, and Sage's father comforting her. My mother cries into my father's shoulder. All I am doing is standing still.

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I tug on my black skinny jeans and my black sweater. I slowly brush my hair, and top it with a black beanie. I lace up my black sneakers and grab the locket that Sage gave me for my thirteenth birthday. She has the same one. I slip it over my head, and walk out of my room, closing the door behind me. Today is Sage's funeral.

The car ride on the way is unbearably quiet. It's a cloudy day. I stare out the window as my mother tries to talk to me.

"Lyric sweetheart, it wasn't only Sage. Four planes got hijacked." I keep staring out the window, with a blank expression on my face. "Lyric, talk to me. You can't shut everyone out forever." Oh yeah? Watch me. I think to myself.

When we get to the cemetery, everyone is dressed in black. I pat my pocket to make sure my eulogy is still in there, folded up. It's a windy day, one that has the leaves blowing around in all directions. I make my way to the black tent that is set up in the corner of the cemetery. I take the last seat in the front row. A boy, looking about seventeen years old, walks over to me.

"Little girl. That's my seat." He says rudely.

"I was her best friend, b***h. Go find another seat." I tell him.

Soon the ceremony starts and I am called up to the podium to read my eulogy. I clear my throat.

"I know some of you are probably thinking that I'm being disrespectful by not wearing a dress. But I'm not. Sage would have wanted me to wear what I want to wear. She knew me better than anyone. At times, I used to think that she knew me better than I knew myself. It was like we could read each other's minds. We weren't like sisters. We were closer than that. Sage always knew what to say, and how to word it. She knew the truth about the world, she knew the truth about everything. And I don't mean that she knew the truth about how Darth Vader was Luke's father. She knew that we humans never really thought about the real meaning of things. She realized all the little details in our world that we overlooked. A gift that precious could only be given to a person who could manage it. And she did." I bite my lip. "D****t." I whisper to myself. I feel tears coming on. "Sage knew that whenever something bad happened, that there was always some reason behind it, whether it was a good one or a bad one, a reasonable one or not. Sage was observant. She noticed things that no one else would notice. She could feel things no one else could feel. She was a superhero. She was my hero. Thank you, Sage." I finish. I feel a tear roll down my cheek as I sit back down. I take a deep breath. Breathe, Lyric. Breathe.

                         

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                                        THE END

Author's Note

The epilogue is in Sage's best friends point of view...her name is Lyric. Just so you know.