Episode 2: Ghost

Episode 2: Ghost

"And when her spirit left her body,

How it split the sun.

I know that she will live forever,

All goes on and on and on."

- From "Ghost" by Neutral Milk Hotel

At the first night of the showing of the body of Gloria Michelle Dawes, these lyrics clawed their way right into my mind. They really were fitting. I don't believe in God or heaven or Satan or whatever, but I thought that surely when someone so great dies, someone so full of life, it must jar the world. I was still having trouble believing that Gloria was gone, though she was right in front of me, cold and beautiful.

Lots of people were putting things into her casket, so I wrote her a letter and put a big G on the front, for her nickname, and put some designs on it. It was a small, unobtrusive thing, a piece of lilac legal paper folded into a small rectangle. On the back I wrote the lyrics to the song.

I'll never forget

Not being able to make myself leave the second day, knowing that the last time I would see Gloria was at her funeral the next day. There weren't many of us left and so I helped Shelley remove things from the casket that wouldn't need to be in there at the funeral. When she got to my letter she asked if that was supposed to stay, and I nodded. It was for her, and she'd never get to read it, but I just wanted it in there with her.

The next day Shelley asked me about the lyrics I had written on the back, and whether or not they were of my own creation. I told her that no, they were from a song that I thought of that night. The funeral was over and the letter went to be burned up with Gloria's precious little body.

Now, more than three months later, I sit here and cry like it's fresh, as I write this out. No one reads this but I feel like this story needs to be somewhere.

My mom called a few hours ago to ask what I'd written in Gloria's letter. She said that Shelley wanted to know if I could remember it to write it down again. It was a long letter and it wasn't something great and poetic so I was confused. Then mom said, "You wrote something about splitting the sky."

"Oh," I said. "Those were lyrics from a song."

Well Shelley wanted them, because

They own this business and this guy walked in and got to talking to Brian, Gloria's dad. They talked about Gloria and then this guy was telling Brian about how this one day he was looking at the sky and saw that it looked really awesome, the way the clouds were pulling apart. Like the sky was opening. So he showed Brian the picture. Well where did that happen? On 77, near Seneca.

That's where Gloria died.

Another time, after that I believe, Brian was talking to the gentleman that hit Gloria. To sum it up, this is what happened.

Gloria was coming down 77, headed for her family's lake house to spend Labor Day with them. It had been storming terribly. Somehow she crossed the median, I guess by hydroplaning, and went into oncoming traffic, hitting this guy head-on. Gloria was killed instantly, as much of a "blessing" as anyone could ask for when one they love is no longer with them. Her passenger, a good friend, survived and was rushed to the hospital. Gloria was taken to a funeral home to later be identified by her parents. There wasn't a mark on her body.

She had been 10 minutes from home.

The gentleman who hit her was telling Brian that on that day, he was driving and noticed that the sky looked funny. He kept looking at it and saw that the clouds were opening, like the sky was splitting open. He had never seen anything like it and was in awe. When he looked back at the road, Gloria's car was in front of him.

I don't believe in God, I don't like religion. I am not sure if I think that all things happen for a reason. But I know that every time someone close to me passes, I become closer with the people involved, and I start to see things more clearly. I learn from it all.

I don't think there was a reason that Gloria died but several people saw the sky open up on highway 77 that day, and it seems to me that it was opening up for Gloria.

Z