They said he died of a bad heart

“No, he died of a stroke,” my mother said.

“He died of stress,” I heard from a neighbor

“He hung himself.” The church women whispered in the bathroom painting on their red lipstick.

Dad called he had ptsd after the war

My sister claimed he had cancer

My brother acted like he ain’t know who I was talking about.

“He looked like death from what I seen,” echoed a friend of the family

A week before he died, the pastor dedicated his sermon to him

The congregation prayed for him

We all hugged him after service-

A lady in purple kissed him on the cheek.

He stood there dazed.

“He was high!” Sister Jenkin’s cried.

“Man, the man had DEMONS!” the deacon shouted.

What are Demons?

At Sunday dinner, I watched him eat Mary Lou’s potato salad.

He looked fine to me.

“He was too young to die,” my grandma mentioned.

“He worked too hard.” my grandpa replied.

I heard, he left his family for some floosy.

Even I know floosies are no good.

What a shame.

The Funeral fell on a Sunday-

The whole town showed up

we crammed in the church like canned sardines

It was so hot my stockings were sweating

My mama made me wear a velvet dress

It itched

His grown children didn’t speak at the funeral

His wife sat next to her boyfriend on the front pew- my cousin told me

She kept a white handkerchief on the brink of her nose, while her boyfriend kept a hand on her knee-

during the whole funeral!

A random fat man did the eulogy

“I hope he found the Lord”- he sang out as he dabbed a handkerchief on his pregnant forehead

Everybody yelled “Amen.”

Before they put the body in the ground, I got a chance to look at this demon filled man.

I look at him plainly

from his beady head to his wrinkled hands,

his right hand covered the left

On his suit was a silver badge with small writing placed on his heart

He's no devil.

He looked like he was sleep, like he was having a good dream.

He had lines on his forehead like he was thinking

I wondered what he was thinking about

Oh Oh!

He smiled at me!

Mama look, look he smiled at me!

Mama grabbed me by the elbow and pushed me forward

Dead men can't smile she whispered.

My sister laughed

...................

Later on, that night, everyone gathered at his house

Mama told me and my siblings to be seen but not heard.

We gave his wife a homemade German chocolate cake-

for her troubles

Everybody from the funeral gave her food

Mac and Cheese, Ham, and Collards

Do dead men eat?

We gathered in the living room

Grown folks on one side

Children on the other

They were laughing and sharing stories

Her boyfriend never left her side.

She's the floosy!

Kids ain't allowed to talk, but I heard

everything.

“The funeral was short and sweet.”

“The body looked nice.” so and so said

"That chicken didn't taste that good."

I made a face, it was too chewy

You know what?

Adults talk too much.

I stopped ease dropping

I felt bad for the demon filled man.

.............

A few weeks later people stopped talking about him

Like he never existed.

Mama was on another subject- something about working

My brother began baseball

Church service was boring again

The flowers at his grave sat shriveled up on the stone

His ex wife's boyfriend move in to his house

To everybody else, he was forgotten

But I didn't forget him-

That demon filled man-

He smiled at me.

Pastor said "sinful people go to hell."

I don't know what that means, But

I do know that man is going to heaven

.....

Yep, he went to heaven

and left those demons behind

I smiled at the sky, he smiled back.

.....

Yep, I know he did.