Everyone was uneasy and uncomfortable. Heavy, dark clouds were coming in fast from the south and the August humidity was almost unbearable. Malcolm Wilkerson felt lightheaded and tugged at his tie. He stripped off the lightweight sports coat his mother had forced him to wear and tossed it on the ground. That felt better but his shirt was completely soaked and plastered to his skinny body. His eyes went in and out of focus and the priest's words were an unintelligible garble.

Suddenly everyone was looking at him, expecting something from him. His bleary-eyed dad took him by the hand and led him to the edge of the open grave. Hal Wilkerson bent down and picked up a handful of the freshly turned dirt, gesturing for Malcolm to do the same. After several awkward seconds, Malcolm followed his father's lead and tossed the dirt on top of the coffin as the heavy nylon straps lowered it into the ground.

"Man has but a short while in this life. He cometh up in full vigor of his youth, and is cut down like a flower; he flees from the world as it were a shadow, never to continue in his stay amongst his kin."

Malcolm had the sensation of being in a play, this was all make believe and soon he could go home, they could all just go home and be happy. The guy playing the priest was really pretty good, he thought, maybe a little young for the part, and an Irish accent would have been nice. The holy man took a handful of dirt and tossed it in just as the coffin came to rest on the bottom of the surprisingly deep hole; Malcolm wondered if it really was six feet deep.

"In the Name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we commit the body of your servant, Reese Andrew Wilkerson to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection. In Christ's Holy Name, Amen."

Something snapped inside Malcolm's head. Everything made sudden and terrible sense. This was no play. He sobbed with a heart-rending passion that touched the souls of everyone there. He fell to his knees and stared into the gaping hole that contained the mortal remains of his brother. "I'm sorry, Reese, I'm so fucking sorry!" Malcolm sat in the dirt and cried, pushing away anyone who tried to help him up.