Free Why Did She Have to Die? by Lurlene McDaniel Page B

white, yellow, and green glimmered in the sunlight as it poured through the car window.
    She thought the grounds were beautiful and peaceful, shaded by weeping willows. Vases of flowers stood like exclamation marks, in row after row. Elly’s anxiety grew as their car curved past fields of plaques and simple headstones. She wanted to see Kathy’s, but at the same time, she didn’t. One of the girls in her support group had told her, “I think I accepted my mother’s death when I saw her gravestone. Up until then, I kept thinking it wasn’t real.”
    The car halted and Mrs. Rowan pointed across a wide expanse of lawn toward an ash tree. “It’s over there, to the right of the tree. Do you want me to come with you?”
    Elly decided to go alone, and she crossed the green lawn. She glanced to the right and left at names she didn’t know. The warm summer sun beat on her bare shoulders. She’d worn an embroidered white sundress because Kathy would have been pleased to see her wearing something besides her usual funky garb.
    Elly saw a bronze plaque, ringed by an etching of bronze flowers. Her head thudded.
Kathleen Anne Rowan
, it read, along with the date of birth and death. That was all. It was so simple. Tears formed in Elly’s eyes.
    Her hands shook as she stooped and traced the raised letters with her fingers. She laid the bouquet very carefully at the bottom of the marker, just under Kathy’s name.
    Elly breathed in the smell of freshly mown grass. A brilliant blue sky spanned above, decorated by puffy white clouds. The sound of sprinklers broke the quiet.
    “Good-bye, Kathy. I love you.”
    Elly rose slowly, wiping the back of her hand across her cheek. “I wish I could talk to you.” She backed off, knowing that her mother was waiting in the hot car. She should go. She’d said her farewells. She started toward the car, and then turned once more to see her sister’s grave.
    In the distance, a sprinkler spun. As the rays of the sun shot through the water, something wonderful happened. A rainbow formed, perfection positioned in the air above Kathy’s grave. The sight made Elly catch her breath. She watched as the shimmering droplets caught the sun and spilled their beauty onto the grass below.

    * * * *

    The strains of “Happy Birthday” faded. Elly leaned forward and puffed heavily at the fourteen candles on her birthday cake. The flames died, and her mother flipped on the kitchen light. Mr. Rowan and Joy applauded happily.
    “Not bad, Elly. You got them all in one puff,” her father said. “I always said you were full of hot air.”
    “Daddy!” Elly wailed, but she beamed at his teasing smile.
    “Let me cut it,” Mrs. Rowan said, sliding a knife through the thick chocolate frosting.
    Elly remembered other birthdays. Kathy had always teased, “You’ll never catch up with me, little sister.” And Elly had always answered, “Well, you’ll be thirty before me.” Only months before, Kathy’s birthday had come and gone. They’d tiptoed around mentioning it, but the atmosphere had weighed heavily in the house. Now it was Elly’s special day and she’d invited Joy to share it with her.
    “I want to open my presents.”
    “Presents?” Mr. Rowan teased. “What makes you think you’re getting cake
and
presents?”
    “Open mine first,” Joy urged, thrusting a brightly wrapped box at Elly.
    She tore the paper off and squealed with delight. “A new CD! Thanks, Joy!”
    Elly’s parents had given her a gift certificate for new clothes that morning. She wasn’t expecting anything else. But her dad pulled out a second box from beneath the table.
    “Gee, for me?” Elly couldn’t conceal her surprise.
    Mr. Rowan shrugged. “Just something I picked out in one of those fancy stores. The saleslady said it was the height of fashion.”
    Elly imagined him entering the women’s department of a store, his big, broad shoulders amid all the feminine, dainty things. The image touched her heart. Elly tore