Shimmer: …I’m not his…wife…
Shimmer had no clue why she was talking out loud, but those words alone were enough make her think, along with you, slightly shaking the paper with everything that’d been said. All those years of abandonment, those years of solitude…because he didn’t think he had what it took to be supportive. But two months ago you yourself learned that you could be supportive. That you were there for your friends during their time of need. Perhaps Smoke Stack knew this, maybe that’s why he continued to write to your mother before her death because he’d thought you’d have the potential to pull off what he couldn’t do.
At last you collapse to your knees, releasing all the past issues with your father all at once. You could barely hear it but Shimmer herself was crying with the twins in her arms, thinking about Rock Star’s decision to leave you in the hands of all your friends, including the one that she’d never guess would be her best friend.
But at that point, you shake off the tears, grab your bag, and walk slowly towards the grave. You stand before the grave of the late Yellow Rose, and kneel down. Shimmer stood behind you but giving your space.