It was only a day or so after Jack had woken up in his pond that several men came. They had long poles with hooks and they used them to break the ice on the pond before reaching under it with them and scraping around for something. They pulled up several logs and one rock, but seemed disappointed at not finding something. One of the men seemed especially upset at not having found what they were searching for and Jack felt a pang of guilt at seeing the man so saddened.

He followed the men down to the village, being sure to avoid getting in people's way. Once there the sad man was met by a woman and young girl, both seemed upset and when the sad man shrugged and shook his head they all embraced, the little girl crying.

It was later that day, nearing sunset when the people of the village began to gather in a large plain building. Jack followed them in, but kept to the far corners. He was curious about these people and what seemed to be making them all so sad, especially the children. The sad man he had seen at the pond moved to the front and began speaking.

"Thank you all for coming and for your support in these dire times as we say goodbye to a boy that was almost a man."

The man goes on from there and poems and scripture are read aloud by various members of the village. Jack clutches his staff to himself tightly as he, on some instinctual level, understands that this is a solemn occasion. He may not know this 'Jackson Overland', but he felt sorry for the family at his loss. As the gathering progresses Jack watches as several children step forward and share stories of how 'Jack' would always play with them and tell them stories.

Eventually things wound down and Jack watched as people slowly filtered out of the meeting hall and to their homes. Many stayed to offer their condolences to the family and Jack found himself wishing he could touch and be heard by them to offer comfort.

I based the funeral on the customs of the Quakers in colonial times. I did quite a bit of looking into them in order to get things right. For this I placed Burgess in Pennsylvania, at the time Jack died it would have been a largely Quaker population in the area. If you would like to learn more, let me know and I will gladly share the link I used for my research.

There will be more to this, but I felt it best to break things up a little.