Me Without You by Rona Go Page B

arrange the church services after this. But where is
she? Jane, come on. Where are you?" Jonah said out loud
impatiently. She was already feeling restless waiting for her older
sister. And she did not like the thoughts which entered her
mind.
    The loud ringing of Jonah's phone which
bounced off through the walls of the funeral house was both a
welcoming and embarrassing interruption. Anxious that the sound
will summon the dead to life, Jonah hastily picked the
phone.
    It was Hugh.
    "I heard about your mother," Hugh
immediately blurted out. "I'm sorry!"
    It's weird but I am not
sorry … Jonah almost said out loud. She just
kept silent not knowing what to say. Of
course, Hugh probably had already heard it. Well, who wouldn’t have
heard the rumors going on around? Aunt Judith and Jonah's other
siblings took care of the details for the talks to make its rounds.
Aunt Judith had vehemently insisted that the rumor spread out.
Although, Jonah could not quite comprehend the whole reason, it was
of utmost importance that people will think so for the safety of
Rebecca’s children.
    Rebecca Blood was poisoned
to death by her seven children— the seven deadly sinners. Jonah thought.
    Jonah mused it could not be considered
a rumor anymore. As far as people were concerned, it was a reality.
Rebecca’s children, all seven of them, had the motivation to kill
their own mother.
    "Jonah?" Hugh asked. "You
there?"
    "Yeah," Jonah answered. "Hmm, so you
haven't left yet?"
    "I am leaving. Then, I heard—" Hugh
said. Jonah heard a pause from Hugh's end. She was feeling him
hesitate for a while. She imagined somebody was trying to tell him
the next thing to say. Jonah hoped it was Xavier.
    "Is X with you?" she shoot him the
unexpected question, longing that her intuition was right. "You
still there?"
    "Huh?" Hugh stammered. "Yeah— I— I am
still here. So how are you taking it? How are you
feeling?"
    "Yeah— X is with you? Can I talk to
him?" Jonah said getting excited.
    There was another pause and a muffled
silence. "He sends you his—"
    "Love?" Jonah said and laughed
sarcastically."Yeah, right!" In her mind, she saw Xavier quite
clearly, turning his back on Hugh after knowing she wanted to talk
to him.
    "Condolences," Hugh
supplied.
    "You still owe me, you know!" Jonah
told Hugh.
    Hugh chuckled out loud. "I don't
believe you. You have a mother to bury and you are still thinking
about—" he stopped in mid-sentence.
    "Let the dead bury the dead, remember?
Or something like don't pity the dead but pity the living," Jonah
said. "And I thought you've heard about—"
    Just then, the door opened and Jane
appeared together with the manager of the funeral house. She looked
at Jonah forlornly.
    "What?" Hugh asked.
    "Hey, I can't talk now," Jonah uttered.
"Later?"
    "Okay, later, " Hugh answered. "But
later, right?"
    "Definitely!" Jonah told him and hanged
up.
    Jane reached out towards Jonah as she
sat next to her and whispered, "The coroner’s has requested an
independent autopsy. They also want to extract a part of your
mother’s brain to see if the drugs they found in that vial matched
whatever they’re going to find out in her body. And how much was
taken for her to die." Jane let out a long sigh. "They are so
positive, she was killed."
    Jonah squirmed a bit. She felt
uncomfortable when the manager cast them a watchful eye. He
probably learned about the rumors and believed them to be
true.
    There was no doubt that everybody in
town was already salivating on the rumors about the seven deadly
sinners Rebecca produced."Who cares?" Jonah said out loud still
absorbed in her own thoughts.
    "What did you just say?" Jane asked
looking confused.
    Jonah dismissed the subject
immediately."So how long are they going to keep her here?" she
asked clearing her throat as the manager looked away
instantly.
    "Would you believe it?" Jane shook her
head. "It can take a month."
    "A month?" Jonah shivered. "Can’t we do
something about this?"
    "We can go ahead and