Make Them Regret It Chapter 41
Before I left, I went up the back hill one last time.
All five graves were neatly tended.
The roses beside my grandmother’s grave were in full bloom. In front of my older brother’s wife’s grave sat a small bottle of freshly made cherry wine. Beside my second brother’s wife’s grave was a memorial medal from the medical academy. In front of Gia’s stone was an unopened bar of chocolate.
My mother’s grave was still there, but her ashes were in Boston.
I placed a rubbing of the Lighthouse sign before the stone.
“Nonna, the rule has been made.”
“If anyone is ever shut in a dark place again, someone will come and open the door.”
The wind blew across the hillside, and the roses swayed.
I sat and talked to them for a long time.
I told them my grandmother kept my mother’s urn on the mantelpiece and wiped it clean every morning.
I told them the little girl at Lighthouse had learned to write her own name.
I told them I had spent every cent of the compensation money on the house.
As dusk approached, I rose to leave.
Halfway down the hill, the two chapel guards stopped me.