Judith's heart is thumping in her chest like drummers in a marching band, and though the fan above them keeps the room cool against the hot climate, sweat still trickles off her brow.

The day has arrived – the funeral – and they're thirty minutes early so they can see him first. She's anxious. She hadn't seen him since he dropped her off, and all she can think about is how different he'll look.

When her brother Michael died of liver cancer, she remembers him looking more like his brothers on his biological Dad's side than himself. To some, they all looked the same, but to her, he was unique from his wavy fade to his large clown-sized feet.

Judith's sitting in the parlor, tapping her clogs against the carpet and darting her gaze from vase to portrait.

Vera, Stevie, and Sheryl ducked into the bathroom and left her alone with Stacey and Robbie across from her.

"Judy, are you alright," Stacey asks, and she glances at them.

"Yes, I'm fine," she lies with a forced smile to ease the worry from their faces, but it's futile. Judith looks toward the chapel's double doors and stares at the orange light pouring through the glass.

Stevie walks alongside Vera to the sofa next to Stacey and Robbie, and Sheryl strolls toward Judy. As they sit down, she stops beside her and taps her shoulder.

"Let me get this seat." When Judith stands up and steps to her left, her mother sits in the chair and groans on the way down. She exhales, then says, "Judy, go see if the funeral director is in the chapel. I've been looking for him, and I can't find him."

Judith walks toward the doors with her head hung, and she wipes away the sweat gliding toward her eyelids. She lifts her head when her hands grip the door handles, but before she jerks them back, she peers through the glass and spots Walter.

She sucks in her breath, and her heart skips a beat. She feels vomit bubbling behind her navel, but as if her throat has a mind of its own, it tightens to keep the acid from rising.

He's lying in an off-white casket with his hands across his stomach and the funeral director standing over him, adjusting his black tie.

Judith sprints toward Sheryl, panting like she'd run a marathon and each breath she takes burns on the way in.

She sits on her mother's lap, and with her arms wrapped around her neck, she weeps onto her floral dress' left shoulder. Everyone around her share confused expressions, but she doesn't care. Her body feels numb, and her throat aches.

"I – saw – Dad," she wails. Sheryl wraps her arms around her and lets out a sigh that leaves a sorrowful look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Judy," she tells her, caressing her back with her right hand. Stevie and Vera avert their heads to the doors as the brown-skinned man in the suit steps into the foyer. "I didn't know they had him out."

"Is she okay," he asks when he notices Judith crying, and Sheryl shakes her head no.

"She saw Walter." The man mouths Oh and sighs.

"I'm sorry for your loss, and I'm sorry for upsetting her. I just got him ready and had to fix his tie, but I wasn't expecting anyone for a while." He lifts his golden pocket watch from his jacket's left compartment, and it ticks as he checks the time against the overhead light. "You're a little early, so I assume you're here for the viewing?"

"Yes." He returns it to its place in his suit. "His family and friends will be here from all over, so we want to see him while we can."

"Understood. Well, he's right in there when you're ready," he says. "There are boxes of tissues on each pew, and I'll be in my office if you need me."

"Ma, do you wanna go first," Stacey asks.

"No, I need us to go in together." She nods, and while they rise, Sheryl pulls Judith off her shoulder and looks into her red, misty eyes. She combs strands of her daughter's hair off her forehead and brushes them behind her ears. "Everything'll be okay."

"Where's Wayne? He's supposed to be here," she whines. Though his two sisters and Robbie look away from the scene, Stevie stares in pity.

"He's on his way, Judy. I talked to him before we left your granddad's house. Now, come on while we still have time." Judith stands to her feet and sniffles, stepping to the side to clear a path for her mother.

When Sheryl pushes herself up, she takes her daughter's hand and nods to Robbie. He leads them to the double doors, and Judith feels her heart beating in her neck. She can hear it in her ears and taste saliva surrounding her tongue.

She leans against her mother for support when they step into the chapel. Her eyes land on her father dressed in black and white, and her legs stiffen with each step closer to him.

When they reach the first row of pews, Judith stops in her tracks. Stevie and Vera walk around her, and Sheryl continues toward him.

She watches them crowd beside him with the shortest in the front, but through the crack between their shoulders, Judith watches Walter's chest pulsating and his stomach rising and falling.

She blinks hard, then flutters her lashes, looking at his body again. She no longer sees him moving, so she steps toward him. She stands behind his head and stares at his pale, dark face.

"Oh, God," Sheryl cries out, and Robbie grabs her when her knees buckle. They watch her wail, her voice echoing throughout the chapel.

"Let's walk her out of here." He and Stacey take an arm and guide her down the aisle with Vera in tow. Judith stands beside her little brother. He tucks his hands into the pockets of his slacks, and she crosses her arms over her chest.

"Does – do you think it'll hurt when you die?" She glances at him, then at her father, and sighs. Stevie's lip quivers, and his voice cracks, but he forces himself to speak. "Sometimes I – I think about how he must've felt before he died; how stressed he must've been because of me."

"You didn't stress him out," she assures him. She licks her lips and clears her throat. "I don't know what happened. Mom said it was a heart – thing, but – I don't know. Whatever it was wasn't anything to do with us."

"But do you think he was hurting," he asks again, and she shakes her head.

"I think he was fine." They stare at his face for a moment more, and when Stevie's eyes fill with tears, he sits his hand on his father's, and his lips twitch. As Judith looks down at him, he turns away from the casket, and she watches him stroll past the pews.

She turns her head to Walter and looks across his white button-up. She sits her hand on his and gasps, her eyes widening when she feels how ice-cold and hard his skin is.

***

Judith sits next to Malcolm on Fiona's three-seater. The plastic wrap crinkles as she fidgets into a comfortable position, and he snickers, a smirk sitting on his mouth.

"You laughing at me," she asks, and he nods.

"It's colder than usual now, but during the summer, it gets so hot that this thing will stick to your legs," he says, and she scoffs humorously. She leans back and sighs. "Hey, I'm sorry about your Dad. I never met him, but Ja'liyah said he was a solid cat."

"Thank you," her voice softens, and he nods. They watch Isaiah run past the box TV and out of the front door with his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, did you see my sister when she went to your neck of the woods," he asks, and she remembers what Ja'liyah told her.

Judy, just look after Malcolm. You dig?

"Yeah, I did." Malcolm's lips part as if he wants to speak, but nothing comes out. "She talked about you more than I talk about Stevie."

"And I'm sure she told you I'm a fire-setter?" Judith furrows her eyebrows at his question. His expression is plain – almost annoyed.

"No. I mean, she said you're rowdy, but I figured you're up there with Stevie," she explains. "You're a pyromaniac?"

"That's what my doctor said, but that was years ago, and she doesn't know how to let stuff go." Judith opens her mouth to respond, but Vera screams from outside, and they flinch on the couch.

Judith and Malcolm jump to their feet, passing the TV with I Love Lucy playing at a low volume, and the women rush out of the kitchen to join them.

"Jackie," Vera wails as they crowd onto the porch. She's kneeling in the grass over her hamster with Stevie standing far behind her, both in their funeral clothes. She veers her head to look at her brother with her teeth gnashed, and she screams, "You killed him!"

Her voice echoes, and he looks at their mother. Vera pushes herself to her feet, then dashes toward her brother. She lunges at him, his eyes widen, and Sheryl takes the bottom of her black dress in her fists and sprints down the steps.

She races toward them as Vera tackles her brother to the grass. Sheryl huffs and puffs, her long dress swishing with the wind. She releases her grip when she reaches them, takes Vera's shoulders, and yanks her onto her back.

"He killed Jackie," she yells and sits upright as he does the same. She's struggling to catch her breath before Vera leaps toward Stevie. He scoots back, but she's restrained again when her mother pushes her.

"Judy – uh, Stacey – oh, my God," she mumbles in frustration.

"Vera," Stevie says, and Sheryl nods her head to him.

"Yes, thank you! Vera, get off your dress while it's repairable, and act like a lady," she whisper yells. Stevie hesitantly pushes himself to his feet as his sister looks at their mother with shock in her dark brown eyes.

"He killed my hamster!" He dusts the seat of his slacks and meets his mother's stern gaze.

"I didn't, Momma," he forces the words from his mouth, shaking his head with his hands up. "I just came over here 'cause I saw her, and I wanted to ask where Isaiah was."

"He's lying!" Sheryl sits her finger on her respective lips and sucks air through her teeth, silencing Vera.

Fiona opens the screen door and steps into her living room. It slams behind her.

"Vera, what's wrong with it?" Stevie walks behind Sheryl as she steps toward the hamster, and Vera stands up to join them. She follows them, and they stand over it. The bottom half is missing and cut with jagged motions.

Sheryl gags, takes the sides of her dress, and runs toward the porch with the twins following her with their eyes. She whooshes past Judith and Malcolm, and they share a glance before strolling down the steps. Stacey follows her inside.

Judith and Malcolm approach the scene, and their eyes light up with disgust, the color draining from their brown faces at the disfigured hamster. They've seen Jaws and The Birds but nothing could ever give them goosebumps the way the sight of the animal's corpse does.

"Where's Isaiah," Malcolm asks, and Stevie shrugs.

"I came 'round here to find him. I don't know where he went," he tells him. Judith sits her hand over her mouth, and Vera tightens her hands into fists at her sides. "Why?"

"Because he probably did this." Vera whips her head to Malcolm, and Judith looks at him out of her peripheral. Malcolm gestures his head toward the road at the edge of the driveway. "Let's go by his grandma's house."

"I'll help you bury him," Judith says, sitting her hand on her sister's shoulder as the boys head toward the road. "Um, you good picking him up? I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Yeah." She sniffles, and tears trickle down her cheeks. "I'll see if Fiona will let me use two popsicle sticks from her garden stuff."