Free The Quaker Café by Brenda Bevan Remmes Page B

horse-drawn wagon at the bottom of the staircase that descended from the piazza and the main entrance to the house. Journalists hovered around with small groups of lawyers and various county officials in the front yard. Liz and Chase slipped in the side patio doors and walked up the back stairs. LuAnne stood awkwardly in the corner of the living room, lost in a roomful of dignitaries. Liz sidestepped the crowd to get to her.
    From the other side of the living room next to the door, Billie waved at them frantically. “Come here,” she mouthed, and pointed at the empty space beside her. Liz grabbed LuAnne’s hand and motioned to Chase to follow her as they wedged their way through the crowd.
    As they watched, the casket bearers moved the casket out of the room onto the piazza. Maggie followed like a bride awaiting the cue for her entrance. Billie discreetly held up her hand to stop the rest of the line. The choreography was in place: this was Maggie, all Maggie, the last of the Kendalls, who now stood alone at the top of the stairs to Cottonwoods watching the descent of her father’s casket for his final journey. Cameras flashed from all angles. It was the most published photograph of the day and appeared in all the state papers the next morning.
    Once the casket was securely in the wagon, Billie motioned for Senator Winston Gray to join Maggie . With his enviable full head of richly dyed brown hair and his closely cropped beard, he took his place to Maggie’s right as the line began to move.
    Miss Ellie was next in line on the arm of her son, Josh Cartwright. Josh worked with the State Department and lived somewhere around Washington, DC. It had been years since he had been in Cedar Branch. Liz remembered meeting him only a couple of times. Ellie’s two girls, Susan and Cathy, were further back in the line with their husbands. Chase and Liz walked with LuAnne between them.
    Billie and Gill followed . Liz had never seen Billie in black before, but today she conformed to dress etiquette. Her black chemise dress bore a large silk pink flower on the right shoulder and there was a pink belt around her waist. She also wore pink sunglasses and heels. Liz couldn’t remember having ever seen Gill in a suit. A small man, he looked quite dapper. A pink tie added bit of flash. He and Billie made a handsome couple.
    In contrast, Liz felt pretty uninteresting in a knee length good-for-any-occasion black polyester dress . The only salvation was that it was draped in chiffon that gave it a bit more upscale appearance. With an attractive head scarf and a long string of pearls, this was her fallback outfit for any occasion.
                  The procession walked the four blocks to the Methodist Church with How Great Thou Art ringing through the town. Maggie stayed just a few steps behind the casket. Jackie Onassis had nothing on Maggie Kendall, other than a few million more mourners. As they approached the church Liz saw at least two hundred people standing outside. Folding chairs had been set up and a microphone system was in place. Chase nudged her and nodded to the roof line below the steeple, where a large white bird perched reviewing the parade.
                  “Look at that,” Chase said. Hawk?
                  Liz looked up. “Couldn’t be. Owl, I think.”
                  The casket was rolled through the double doors of the church and up the aisle to the front as the Jerusalem Baptist Choir sang “Just a Closer Walk with Thee .” Their soulful tones echoed out into the churchyard.  
                  Behind the reserved rows, the pews were filled with members of the black community on the left, and the white congregation on the right. Liz wondered whether they had been seated that way, or if a process of self-selection had placed the two races on opposite sides of the aisle. A small three piece band of a keyboard, the drums/cymbals, and a saxophone, assembled in