grave secrets

Most people call this girl by her first name. Closer friends call her by her shorterned version of her name; namely the end bit of her name. Hardly anyone- other than her Mandarin teachers- call her by her chinese name. Not that its a bad name, its rather pretty actually. It even has political undertones to her name. But still, its a name only her close friend and family use, usually when they say her name in full to make a statement. For sure, “William! Stop doing that!” sounds less weighty than if you’d say “William Klinsman Tan Wei Da the Third… if I were you…” You get the idea.

Few people know this but this girl was named for The Father’s late fighter pilot best friend who died while on a mission/exercise of some coast off Scotland back in 1976. The weather was bad, the plane didn’t have the gadgetry that it does now and he crashed into the cliff-face and died instantly. His body- or what was left of it- was salvaged, placed into a steel box and then placed into his coffin; guarded all through the funeral. They had a standing bet that the person who married later would get to name the other person’s first born; and since he died before The Father even got married, The Father named this girl- his first born- after his best friend; her chinese name, anyway.

Yesterday, was said late best friend’s 32nd death anniversary and the family made their annual visit to the cemetery to lay flowers. As usual, they bought flowers from the old lady who has a flower stand at the cemetery; as usual, they got lost trying to find the right tombstone, having driven round and round the very huge place. And as usual they made the same jokes about him maybe having gone to do undercover work or entered into some witness protection program- no one, afterall, ever saw the body. The Father, even after all these years, harbors that sliver of hope that his best friend would one day walk through the doors and back into his life.

Funny thing friendship, no?