Mirror // Van McCann

52. So This Is It

16-February-2018

The physical therapist guided grandma to do another loop around the nursing home. I followed along with my hand on her gait belt in case she fell. She was getting stronger by the day. The exercises were doing wonders on her health. At the beginning, she was only able to do one loop. And then one loop became two, and now we're on her third loop. I was incredibly proud of grandma and how far she's come.

Once the third loop was compete, we went back to her room so she could catch her breath. All that walking was tiring on her. While I waited for her to recover, I pulled out my phone and was surprised to see a text from Joyce. How did I miss it? I guess I was so concentrated on grandma I didn't feel my phone buzz. I opened the text message to see what she needed.

Joyce: *Van's parents are here. They're here to exhume his body and bring him home.*

I was happy they were here to bring him home but another part of me was being selfish. A part of me wanted Van to stay here. If they took him, I'll be left with nothing. I quickly texted her back.

Jess: *When are they exhuming his body?*

Joyce: *Today at 1 PM.*

Jess: *I'll be there. Thanks for letting me know.*

1 PM was cutting it too close. That didn't give me much time before I had to watch Ryan but perhaps he'd understand and make an exception. I suddenly realized that this was something he might be interested in as well. We were starting to be on good terms again and I didn't want to ruin it by not telling him so I texted Ryan.

Jess: *Van's parents are here to exhume his body today at 1 PM. They're going to bring him home. Is it alright if I'm late to your house?*

Ryan texted back almost immediately.

Ryan: *I don't mind Jess. I actually want to be there too. I'll stop by after school.*

"Is everything alright?" grandma asked, snapping me back into reality.

"Yeah. I mean no. Something's happening and I gotta go. I'm so sorry," I said quickly, grabbing my stuff.

"It's alright, I understand. I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded, said goodbye, and left. It was almost noon so I quickly drove to the cemetery. As I parked the car, I could see Joyce with two other people who I assume are his parents. I could see heavy equipment around in preparation for the task at hand. I got out of the car and walked up to them. Joyce saw me and waved.

"Jess, I'd like you to meet Van's parents. This is Bernard and this is Mary. Bernard and Mary, this is Jess," Joyce said. I took a good look at Van's parents. I've never seen them before but I can see the resemblance and I have to agree with Van that he looks more like his dad.

"Ah, so you're Jess. It's nice to finally meet you," Bernard said, smiling and shaking my hand. I stared at him wondering what that was supposed to mean but realized they probably saw Van's note for me in the lyrics for Overlap. I blushed and quickly looked at Joyce. I told her I didn't know who Van was and here were his parents acting like we've met. Joyce looked at me, confused, but said nothing.

"It's nice to meet the both of you," I said, shaking Mary and Bernard's hands. "So I assume you got the package then?"

"Yeah, we got it back in December. It was a wonderful surprise, thank you!" Bernard exclaimed.

"It wasn't just me," I explained. "Ryan Fuller was the one who found the CDs, Joyce knew where you lived, and I was the middleman between the two. It took three people to make it happen. So what did you think of the songs?"