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The Funeral

He ran from the cemetery. John almost made it to the main road before collapsing. As he passed out from exhaustion and blood loss, John thought about the funeral:

He remembered the funeral invitation. Stephen Spander, one of John's childhood friends, had died in an automobile accident. Along with the invite and cemetery directions was a newspaper clipping detailing Stephen's death.

John made arrangements with his job to take the next couple of days off, than packed a suitcase and drove to the small town of Ottsville, located in southern Ohio. John hadn't visited his home town in fifteen years. That was also the last time he saw his old friend and the rest of the Spander family.

The Spanders' owned a twenty-five acre farm that had been in the family for seven generations. Toward the back of the property, the Spander family had a private cemetery where every generation since the second, had been buried.

John was surprised to discover his car was the only one in the makeshift parking lot outside the cemetery. He got out and peered through the old iron front gate and saw a group of twenty people dressed in black gathered toward the center of the cemetery. He fought off chills and locked his emotions away.

John approached and stood behind a small ring of mourners surrounding an open grave. A preacher completed reading a passage from the Book of Psalms. John stared at the hole in the earth, lost in memories of youth soon buried.

The preacher closed his book rather sharply, bringing John back to the present.

"My friends," the preacher began, "thank you all for coming today and for your show of respect for this departed soul..."

John looked around. He noticed several mourners staring at him. He found this unnerving and looked down at his feet.

"...I am of the belief we do not mourn the loss as much as we celebrate the release of such souls..."

John looked around again, trying to spot Stephen's parents. Surely it hadn't been that long ago. He was puzzled that there seemed to be more mourners than before. John had been too lost in his own thoughts to notice their arrival.

"...So as we celebrate the release of this soul, we come together to remember him in spirit..."

John recognized no one. However, the mourners seemed to know him for now the new arrivals were also staring at him. John felt out of place and began to suspect the Spander's were offended by his presence but didn't know why.

John turned to leave, than stopped. He was no longer at the outer circle,

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