A red dress. A promise. A punch line he set up six months in advance and never got to see land.
He picked the color. He picked who had to wear it. He picked the room it would happen in.
He gave himself one thing.
He Finished With Four Words to the Casket and His Sister Yelled Something From the Back
“So, anyway. This is for Jack.”
He looked down at himself.
“I hate it.”
And from the very back of that chapel, Emma Vance called out:
“YOU LOOK GREAT!”
And a hundred and forty-one people at a funeral for an eighteen-year-old erupted. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t sit up. Daniel had his forehead on the pew in front of us.
Theo shook his head.
“Thank you, Emma.”
And then he turned and looked at that casket one more time, and he said:
“You win, idiot.”
And walked back to his seat.
Afterward, Everybody Wanted to Talk to Him, Which Was Almost Funny Given the Eleven Minutes Before the Service
