قبرستون

CHAPTER NINE

Cemetery

After leaving Owen’s uncle, Monica did something Owen didn’t expect. She drove the car into a cemetery.

“Where are we going?”

“My parents were buried here. I want to see their gravestones.”

They parked the car in the visitors’ car park, then walked. The sun was very bright. They were walking through a field of white crosses and gravestones. They stopped to look at some of the older ones.

“Look at this one, 1826.”

“And this one is from 1905. Michael Mason. Look, his wife died a year later.”

“I think I like archaeology because of the connection between two periods of time. I mean, when I understand the way someone lived hundreds of years ago, I understand more about the way we live now.”

Monica took Owen’s hand and walked with him to her parents’ graves.

“They were never buried here. We just have the graves to remember them. They died at sea. Their bodies were never found.”

Monica took a jar of water from her coat pocket. She poured some of it over each of her parents’ gravestones.

“What’s that?”

“It’s water I took from the sea. I was at my parents’ funeral, but I never felt like I said goodbye. This is something I thought of doing to let them know that everything is okay.”

“Was there a problem between you and your parents?” “Well, my father loved our family holidays. The summer they died was the first time I hadn’t gone with them. Some friends of mine had a beach house. I was eighteen. I wanted to be with my friends. My dad and I had a big fight. We didn’t talk to each other before he left on their boat trip. I felt guilty about that. In fact, I never forgave myself, until I began to believe in this scarab.”

She touched the stone on her neck. “You think your father will somehow feel that your argument meant nothing compared to how much you loved each other?”

“Something like that. All the things I’ve seen and heard since I got the scarab have given me hope. I would like to believe that I live a better life now because of the good things done by the people who lived before me. It does justify their life. If what the ancient Egyptians said was true, I mean the fact that people’s lives are judged after they die, then I believe it’s our duty to show the gods that those who died did help us by their good actions. It’s a good reason to do the best you can.”

As Owen and Monica walked back to the car in the bright golden sunlight, they looked like two dark figures slowly disappearing into the distance.