Westview Cemetery
Atlanta, Georgia
That Afternoon
Lang supposed others might find the ritual macabre, but he really didn't care. He rarely left the country without coming here to the oak-shaded knoll where three marble stones faced a city skyline already blurred by summer's smog. He was never sure if the trip to say good-bye again to the three people he had so loved was a habit or some ritual to ensure a safe journey.
It didn't matter; he came.
Dawn, his wife; Janice, his sister; and Jeff, her adopted son and Lang's best ten-year-old buddy. There had been times when the tears flowed on a daily basis at the thought of his wife dying as she was devoured by cancer, or of the murderous explosion that had taken the other two. Now there was a certain peace to be had here among the silent inhabitants, a few moments to think without intrusion. It was the only place where he was immune to the demands of his profession and those of the foundation.
There had been a time when the two newer graves had commanded him to seek out an organization of killers. He had known he would know no rest until he did.
Beside two of the headstones he had placed the customary dozen roses like sacrifices on a pagan altar. By Jeff's marker were sunflowers. The kid had been fascinated by the gold petals around a face as brown as his own. It had never occurred to Lang that they would serve as Jeff's funerary decoration.
He sat On the dry grass, momentarily thinking of the uncertainties that constituted life. He watched an elderly woman in black lean on a cane as she hobbled up the hill followed by a chauffeur carrying gardening tools. He guessed she was headed for the azalea bushes a few plots over.
He stayed a few more minutes, until the clacking of hedge clippers and the woman's voice reached him. Then he stood, facing the three stones, saying farewell to the only family he had had. He turned and walked down the gentle slope where the Porsche waited on the narrow curving road.
He swiveled his head for a last look up the hill before he drove away.