Baby Blues

Chapter Two:

The cemetery was a sea of black and white. Their hands filled with tissues and their eyes filled with tears. Eloise was in my arms safe, her giggles and smiles were what kept most of the people around us from totally breaking down. She was the filter of our sadness and we were grateful for her.

"Are you sure you don't want me to take her for a bit Harp?" my father says through his big sunglasses that people usually wear to funerals to cover their tear shed faces.

"It's okay dad, I got her," I tell him and the truth is I hadn't been able to leave Eloise's side since the dreadful day happened. It scared me to loose site of her let alone give her to someone else to take car of.

"Harper, you do know we can help too. Claire wouldn't like you to be like this. She would want you to -" my mother starts but I cut her off before she can finish herself. My sisters name burned and my eyes began to well with tears at the mention of her.

"Claire also said she would come home for her mum! She didn't and I can't let her out of my site in fear. I have to live with this broken promise and it is slowly eating at me and Eloise is all I have left of her," I yell at my parents while turning to walk away. They will never understand how much Claire's broken promise meant to me. She was meant to be here to watch Elle grow up and now she's gone, and I'm stuck with a six month old at the age of nineteen.

"We gather here today in memory of Jason and Claire Styles, loving parents of Eloise, very loved son and daughter. First we would like to invite Jason's mother Helen up here to say a few words," The priest says as a tear cheeked Helen stands up to make her way to the stage.

"Jason was a very easy first child," Helen begins, tears overflowing from her eyes. "He was always the one that we could trust and the one we knew would be a responsible heir for his father's company," Helen stops for a second to let out her tears, giving me a moment to fix Eloise from getting restless and helping her get comfy and keep her from crying like the rest of us.

"Jason and Claire left us with their gift and their treasure in life, little Eloise is six months old, and she has lost both her parents. They should be here for her and it kills me knowing Eloise wont get to know her parents and learn from them," Helen starts again, her lip quivering slightly as she spoke. "Jason was the best first son you could ever ask for, we were so grateful for the time we had with him and he will forever live in our hearts," Helen finishes and starts to make her way down the stage, her eyes red and her legs shaky.

"I would now like to invite Harper Shields to the stage to talk about her loving sister Claire," the priest calls and my heart shatters. I turn to my mother who looks at me with concern, my mother and father both didn't have the strength to talk at their own daughters funeral and left it all up to me. Honestly I didn't even know if I could do it, but for Claire I had to as one last goodbye. I handed Eloise over to my mother and made sure she was okay before I made my way slowly up the stage.

"My sister Claire, wow she was a character," I start my speech off, looking here from this stage I could see just about everyone looking up at me with tear covered faces. "She always used to be like a second mother to me, always being like the cool mum. She snuck biscuits out for me when mum had strictly said no, she danced in the rain with me even after our mum warned us that if we went out we would wash our own clothes for a weak. Goodness she even wrote my English essay for me once. Claire never failed to help and we all knew she would make the perfect mother to Eloise," I say through the microphone, proud of myself for holding in my tears. "She should be here and it hurts to think that she's never going to see Eloise grow up, I'll never hear her laugh again and I won't get to hear any more Friday night date stories from her. But as Helen said, she will always be in my heart," I finish, by the end my tears are uncontrollable. I look up to admire everyone gathered here and from my side of the family to Jason's family. As I walk down the stairs from the stage, my heel gets caught in the timber wood of the step and I feel myself falling. Only I didn't fall the ground and someone caught my elbows and stopped my fall.