Everyone looked at Micky. He wiped his eyes hard to hide the tears he had been crying. He stopped wiping his eyes, all of a sudden there seemed to no longer be a point to it.
"Chea can't be dead." Karen said. "Chea was vibrant, full of life. Heck she was life itself. And she was about to have a new baby. Why would she die?"
"It might have been her age." Brianna said. "Women giving birth beyond fifty has always been a tricky act to accomplish."
"Oh what do you know??" Karen lashed out at Brianna. "You were never pregnant, like Chea, you never had child, like Chea, and you certainly didn’t just bleed to death like her!!" She yelled at her. Brianna recoiled underneath the barbs her friend threw at her. Mike grabbed Karen and held her tightly. Davy did the same for Brianna who only let him do so reluctantly. Peter and Phoebe picked up their guitars and started to strum very slowly and solemnly.
"Chea, oh shes an angel of the morning...she'll touch you cheek before she leaves you, angel, shes an angel of the morning, angel...." They sang together.
Karen shook herself loose of Mikes strong grip. She glared at the singing duo. They stopped cold. She stifled a loud sob and ran in the opposite direction. Davy let Brianna go.
"I better go see after her." Brianna said. "Theres no telling what she could do at this point."
Karen felt like she was running forever. Her sides heaved, and she was breathless cause she was running so fast. She didnt even know where she was going but she wanted to be far away from hallway where she heard her best friend was dead.
About five minutes later she found herself in the middle of the huge parking lot of Mercy General. She stopped cold in the middle of her run. She bent over and felt herself having dry heaves as her wind tried to catch up with her. As soon as she was done gagging, she stood up and took a deep breath. She stood a moment listening hard, already knowing someone managed to catch up with her. She knew it was Brianna. She turned and looked at her.
"You know it all started in fun. Go to another dimension. Let's have fun Karen. A vacation." Karen said. "We'll meet the Monkees." She said. She sniffled. "And we did. We had a lot of fun, and we met you too. We had even more fun. All because of a gadget made out of garage sale and refrigerator parts." She said.
"It did us some good. We got a lot of good friends...great memories..." Brianna said.
"Yeah." Karen sniffed and opened her pocket book. She took the time gadget out and looked at it disdainly. "We went to new worlds, all kinds of places. A wonderful thing indeed." She snarled. "But what use is it if you can't use it to save your best friends life???" She brought her hand high up in the air with the gadget. She gripped it tightly and slammed it into the ground. "It's useless!!!" She said as tiny sparks surrounded the gadget. Brianna stepped back and watched it disintegrate. "What use is it if it can't take me back ten minutes and warn them what was gonna happen? All I want is ten minutes, and I could have saved her. Ten minutes!!"
"Honey no one could have saved her." Brianna spoke calmly.
"Where the hell were you?" Karen pointed a accusing finger in her direction.
"I was with Davy." Brianna protested.
"You should have been in there helping out. You could have stopped her from dying. But where were you? Thinking of yourself again?" Karen spat.
"Hey, in case you don't remember, Miss Thang, that is not my area of specialty!" Brianna reminded her.
"You still could have done something." Karen said as Mike and Davy approached from behind. "You could have stopped it!" She started sobbing again. Mike grabbed her and pulled her to him. "She could have done something." she said into his chest.
"Blaming Brianna isnt gonna get us anywhere." Mike said, his voice calming her.
"I know." Karen said as she watched Davy take Brianna back into the hospital. "But it sure felt good."
"You're angry." Mike said. "We all are." He said squeezing her tighter.
"How is Micky?" Karen asked. "I been so selfish about my own feelings I forgot about him."
"How do you think he is? Right now he's inconsolable." Mike said. He walked her to his car. "Come on. I'll take you home."
"I don't remember where I live." She muttered quietly.
"You can stay in my hotel room tonight." Mike offered. "You'll be fine in the morning. If not then, then you will be someday."
Karen stiffly nodded. "Yeah. Tell me that in ten years, and maybe by then I'll half believe you."
The funeral
The next two days flew by. Karen and Brianna were swept up in making funeral arrangements, something they thought they would never do.
"I can't believe we're going to a funeral." Brianna said.
"Me neither." Karen said. "Even more unbelievable is who its for."
Mickys daughters and sons came over. Adriana was the oldest, followed by Cassidy, Juliana, Brady, Stevie, Rachel and Jack. Jack was the youngest one. Brianna sat with him.
"Wheres mommy?" Jack asked Brianna.
"Mommys with Santa Claus." Brianna said looking at Karen.
"Will I ever see her again?" He asked.
"Sure you will." Karen said. "You can see her whenever you want to. In here..." Karen pointed at his head. "and here." He said and pointed at his heart. He smiled.
The day for the funeral was sunny. The service was very subdued. Micky got up and said some words.
"Chea was and still is the true love of my entire life." He said quietly. "I have never met anyone like her, and I don't think I ever will again. She was truly one of a kind and I think everyone gathered here will know that is very true." He laid a rose on the ground. "I'll be seeing you soon. I'm already missing you like crazy babe."
The group around the grave in the cemetery slowly broke up. The Monkees and Brianna and Karen stayed. Adriana and her brothers and sisters went to wait for them next to the cars.
"What now?" Karen asked.
"It would be a nice moment for a song." Brianna said. "But I don't know what she would have wanted sung at her funeral."
"Me neither. This kind of thing doesn’t come up in everyday talk." Karen agreed. "What was her all time favorite song?"
Brianna shook her head.
Micky looked up and slowly began to sing.
"Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again. Because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping. And the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains. Within the sound of silence"
Peter slowly joined him.
"In restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone. Neath the halo of a streetlamp, I turned my collar to the cold and damp." Micky looked at him. "When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light, split the night. And touched the sound of silence."
Davy jumped in. "And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared, and no one dared. To stir the sound of silence."
The trio looked up as Mike joined in on the last part.
"Fool, said I, you do not know, silence, like a cancer, grows. Hear my words and I might teach you, take my arms then I might reach you. But my words, like silent raindrops fell, and echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they'd made. And the sign flashed its warning in the words that it was forming. And the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls. And tenement halls, and whispered in the sounds of silence."
Brianna and Karen smiled at each other then at the guys.
Later
Brianna and Karen stood next to each other at the reception drinking punch. Brianna had a lost far-away look in her eyes.
"Don't stare Brianna." Karen said through her teeth.
"I'm sorry, its just so weird seeing John Lennon alive." Brianna said.
"And Linda too." Karen said.
"Oh no, according to Davy I taught Linda how to do this." She said making a circly pattern around her breast area.
"Thats a really bad miming job." Karen laughed.
"No, this is the thing you do to look for cancer." Brianna elbowed Karen. "It saved her life."
"Ok, why are we saving Beatles when we should be saving Monkees?" Karen asked.
"I don't know." Brianna said. "But I promise to bring the album up soon. Its just that me and Davy are getting used to being fiancee's right now."
"I understand." Karen nodded. "Someone should be happy."
"Karen, I didn't mean...."
"I know, I'm sorry." Karen threw her paper cup away. "I oughta be alone for a while."
"Well don't be alone too long." Brianna said. "I wouldnt want you to be alone forever."
Karen smiled at her and went outside.
Micky walked up to Karen outside later on in the reception. "We need to talk."
"Is that a new catchphrase?" Karen half laughed. "If it is, its starting to suck."
"You knew Chea better than anyone." Micky said.
"Yeah." Karen nodded.
"Good, cause I was hoping you could tell me what this was." Micky said holding up the notepad he had gotten Chea at the hospital. All the pages were filled. Karen looked at it wide-eyed.
