Kevin was grateful for the awning that the funeral director had set up even though he had to share it with his former wife. The awning protected him from the pouring rain which only accentuated his feelings of grief and devastation.
Fortunately; Kevin didn't have to sit close to Karen because the area under the awning was far from crowded. There were no surviving siblings of the deceased to say good bye to their sister. All of the cousins, aunts and uncles had become estranged so they would not have wanted to honor their youngest daughter even if her death had not been so shameful. There were no friends.
Fortunately; there was no second husband or the boyfriend who had replaced the replacement for the second husband to glower menacingly at the first husband as if he had oppressed them for being black. There was no black, bastard son by the second husband that had replaced the boyfriend who had stolen Karen from Kevin. Only the grieving parents and grandparents were attending to honor the young woman who had been so shattered by the loss of her newborn baby that she had jumped off the Vista bridge.
The first funeral had not been quite so lonely. Their son had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps on his eighteenth birthday to get away from his abusive step father. As if in homage to Rudyard Kipling, their son had fallen in battle, wounded rather than killed, on Afghanistan's plains. When a relief force finally arrived to rescue any survivors, they had found that their son had rolled on his rifle to blow out his brains before the local women could cut up what remains. The other wounded had not been so lucky. There had been a full honor guard complete with a seven gun salute. The American flag that had draped the coffin had been carefully folded as ceremony demanded than given to Karen along with their son's medals.
Kevin had been overwhelmed with guilt as well as grief at that first funeral. He had understood that his son would not have died such a gruesome death if Kevin had not been so determined to burn the bitch. Unfortunately; a father's refusal to pay for college had left their son with few choices.
The grief and guilt had been even more intense at the second funeral. Their oldest daughter had fled her mother's abusive, live in boyfriend who had replaced her second husband. Kevin and Karen had finally understood why she had ran away when her pregnant, teenaged corpse was finally found in a dumpster. There had been trials that had compelled Kevin and Karen to be together after that second funeral. One trial had been for the murderer who had killed their daughter. The other trial had been for Karen's former boyfriend who had raped their daughter.
In spite of his antipathy and smoldering resentment, Kevin found himself appraising the woman who had been his wife for a dozen years. She looked like she had been ridden hard and put away wet during the decade since their divorce. However; Kevin was honest enough with himself to admit that Karen looked better than he did. While her face looked haggard and her hair was graying, she still had the waist to hip ratio and the all important boob to butt ratio to provoke a man's interest. In contrast, Kevin had gained fifty pounds and lost most of his hair. His obesity only hinted at the health problems that included the pacemaker that kept his heart beating. While Karen would no doubt still have no difficulty attracting a new suitor, Kevin had resigned himself to being alone since his second wife divorced him a few years ago.
When the brief eulogy and the brief prayers were over, and the coffin had been lowered into the grave, the two pairs of grandparents went their separate ways. There was too much anger and resentment for them to comfort their in laws. There was too much grief and disappointment for them to comfort even their own children. Kevin was left alone under the awning with Karen.
As he watched his former wife watch the rain so forlornly, Kevin realized that she didn't have an umbrella. For some reason, he finally felt compassion for the woman who had ruined their lives and ultimately ended their children's lives by cheating on him. He was amazed to find himself offering, "would you like to share my umbrella as I walk you to her car?"
Karen seemed to be dazed and confused as she looked around frantically. "I rode with my parents. They left without me!"
