The Scarlet Sweater

Epilogue: The Revelation of the Scarlet Sweater

It had been six months since the events at the cemetery. Jeni was doing well. She had enrolled in the “Those Sexy Victorians” literature course at Ole Miss’s online college and “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”at MIT’s online college. Needless to say, she was adjusting quite well to the past year’s events. Your average person might have been devastated by the deaths of both her lovers, her entire family, and her daughter. That person might take a nomadic year (or lifetime), traveling and living in a box he/she carries around on his/her back. He/She might find himself/herself in a deep depression that ends only when he/she takes his/her own life. Luckily, Jeni wasn’t a normal person. Sure, it took her about two-and-a-half months to mourn the deaths of everyone she ever held dear, but then she (like our favorite queen) “let it go.”

Jeni graduated from high school [with honors… she gave a (plagiarized) speech that she stole off the internet… she just never learned, did she?]. After graduating, Jeni moved to the most magical place on earth… a place called Salt Lake City. She got a job working at the printing house, where she printed copies of The Book of Mormon… EVERYDAY! It was a good life, but she soon realized that her life was dull and incomplete. She needed to better herself through education so she enrolled in some online colleges.

After being in college for sixteen days, Jeni realized that her assessment of her life was mistaken. She wasn’t depressed because she had ended her education upon graduation… She was depressed because she had never actually finished reading The Scarlet Letter. She sprinted out of her apartment, attempting to locate the nearest BORDERS. Unfortunately, it took her six-and-a-half hours to reach the realization that there are no more… Luckily, Jeni is a glass-half-full kind of gal. She would just rent the movie from one of those popular movie rental places… BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO. She set out, yet again, in search of something that no longer existed. Gradually, Jeni grew more depressed as she realized that all of her favorite stores were no longer in existence.

Filled with despair, she decided to plan an excursion to her old high school… Luckily, she wasn’t taking any REAL college classes and she didn’t have a REAL job so she just left. She drove for seventeen hours straight. Once she reached the location of so much torment, she got a visitor’s pass and made her way to Mrs. Baker’s room. *Knock knock knock.*

“Mrs. Baker?”

“Ye-YOU! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?”

“I was just wondering if maybe I could borrow one of your Scarlet Letter books…”

“WHY?”

“My life is just so incomplete! I NEED to finish the book!”

“Uh… Okay.”

Mrs. Baker slowly made her way to the cabinet in which she stored the books. Handing Jeni the novel, Mrs. Baker smiled (sort of).

“Just… Just keep it.”

“Thank you!”

Jeni smiled and sprinted from the room. Mrs. Baker let out a huge gasp and flopped down on her couch. Her worst fear was that Jeni would come back… her worst student. She didn’t expect the confrontation (when it eventually came) to be so civil or so quick.

Jeni sped to the cemetery where she ran to the graves of Nic and Daniel. Throwing herself upon the still infantile grass, she smiled (while tears streamed from her eyes).

“I’m going to read to you guys. We never got to finish The Scarlet Letter. We may as well do it together.”

She opened up to page one and began to read, but she hadn’t realized how boring the book was. Jeni soon found herself nodding off. She laid down in the grass, clutching the book to her chest.

“G’night Nic… G’night Daniel…”

She began to snore, alerting the caretaker of her presence. The old man, Otho was his name, wandered over toward the dead child wing of the cemetery (where Nic and Daniel had been laid to rest). Upon seeing the sleeping girl, Otho was reminded of his daughter who died of familial idiopathic basal ganglia calcifications. Oh, Elspeth he thought. You went too soon... Kids need to know they can’t just wander into my cemetery all willy nilly! I should teach them a lesson!

Otho ran back to his little house on the edge of the cemetery and grabbed some supplies (a shovel, some work gloves, and a casket… the usual stuff). Hauling all that stuff back to Jeni’s sleeping form, he prepared himself for what he was about to do. He placed the girl in the casket, sealed it, and began to dig. Once he had dug a sufficient hole, Otho dragged the coffin over to the edge and kicked it in. He began to shovel the dirt back into the hole and continued to do so until it was filled.

Reaching down, the old man patted the ground, under which Jeni was “sleeping.”

“Have sweet dreams unusual sleeping child.”

And she did.

THE END