24 The Meadow alright these days,” she said, straightening the listing silk flowers in their bronze vase. The flowers were relatively new and Alannah was glad that someone had been visiting. The pancreatic cancer had hit hard and fast, leaving the woman dead before her thirty fifth birthday. Alannah had hidden herself behind a bigtooth maple to watch the funeral. Gaelan stood beside his father, cub and grizzly, both of them shrugging and plucking at the fabric of ill-fitting suits, both staring into the short lived sliver of light between casket and grave wall. Gaelan flinching every time his father exhaled. Sitting beside Gaelan’s mother, Alannah finally saw it. Could it really have been so idiotically simple? Bully begets bully? Terror begets terror? It would go a ways in explaining his career choice. Alannah bet that law enforcement was full of men who had once been helpless little boys in brutal families. Men desperate for a chance to finally save the day, save their mothers, and bring down the family monster. Eight days later, Alannah was thinking that it was a good thing that Mr. Christakos had put in an exedra bench for Mrs. Christakos, because she needed to sit down and ponder some things. Like how she was going to get through another meeting with Gaelan Newman without breaking down. The oldest wounds seeded the foulest infections. “Good morning, Miss Walsh.” He sat down beside her and it took a minute for her to realize that he was humming Mr. Rodger’s “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” She cracked up. Then they sat in silence contemplating the beautiful day, the stately loblolly pine sheltering the Veteran’s section and the five turkey buzzards roosting in it. “Is it my imagination, or do those birds smell?” he asked, wrinkling his nose. “Those birds smell,” she answered. “Let’s walk. What’s happening with…” Alannah hesitated, not sure how to finish the question. “With Dylan Ludlow?” Alannah slowed her pace. “Really?”
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