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It was a perfectly creepy night to be in a graveyard. Eddie squeezed my hand, and my heart skipped, though not quite as many beats as when the owls began to hoot out their greetings. Late March was still a little chilly, so I pulled my shawl around my shoulders and snuggled into Eddie’s embrace.
We hung back while Wayne and Matilda took a walk through the tombstones like they were young lovers strolling through the park, and not a zombie and her sullen love about to say goodbye forever. The dim lamp lights threw long shadows over the graves, and every little movement was amplified tenfold. I tried to tell myself to suck it up. There was nothing out here that I should fear, especially after having a zombie live in my closet. It was no use.
Chloe had gone with Benny to get ice cream for us all. We had convinced Benny to drop us off a block from the cemetery, insisting that Honey’s mom was coming to pick her up there shortly, and we just wanted to wait with her.
Matilda’s grave was sunken in. I was surprised that no one had noticed it. Of course, her tombstone was off along an outer edge and down a hill. We found a couple abandoned shovels near an open grave that had been recently prepped for an upcoming funeral. Eddie and Wayne stripped out of their suit jackets and rolled back their sleeves before scooping out enough soil so that Matilda could crawl back inside her coffin. A moment that should have brought me supreme joy left me stale and disheartened.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” I asked suddenly. “You could take turns in mine and Wayne’s closets.”
Matilda slipped off her prom mask and blinked up at me. “Janie, that’s sweet, but spring is coming. There’s no way I’d survive the heat.”
“I could clear out the deep freeze in my basement. We could find a local butcher and get you a steady supply of chicken blood.”
Matilda laughed. “I wish I’d had a friend like you when I was alive.”
“We can work this out,” I insisted. My eyes began to water.
“No,” she sighed. “It’s time. I don’t belong here anymore. It’s okay. I’m ready.” She reached up and squeezed my hand. “Tell Chloe thanks again for me, would you?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
Eddie’s soft brown eyes looked up at me in a silent apology. I pressed my lips together and nodded again before backing away so that Wayne could have his last goodbye too.
He pressed a gentle kiss to Matilda’s lips and then took her mask. “I’m keeping this forever,” he said.
They spent another minute, just looking at each other one last time. I imagined they said all they needed to during their initial reunion in my bedroom. The weeks in between had just been stolen time, time that other couples in their situation never got back.
Finally, Wayne stepped out of her grave, and Eddie set to work with his book and the little Matilda hair doll. When the light slipped out of her eyes, and she was finally at peace, he crawled out to join us.
Eddie and Wayne shoveled the dirt back over Matilda’s coffin, and then we stood over her grave and sighed and sniffled out a series of pitiful sounds. Wayne placed the crown he had swiped off of her prom picture on top of her tombstone, and we all went to wait for Chloe and Benny up the road.