I turn to Mama in the hopes that she’ll put Peggy in her place and help me hustle things along. But she just stands there, ignoring us both, her hands clasped and resting over her belly, and her eyes closed. If I didn’t know better, I’d think she was praying. I link my arm in hers as the receiving line begins to move again, and drop my head onto her shoulder when we come to another standstill. Mama reaches up, and I feel the heat of her freed hand as she tucks my hair behind my ear and strokes the side of my temple.

She pulls me closer and whispers, “So help me God, if you throw up in here, you’re getting a boot in the arse.”

When we finally reach the Walker family, I give Allie’s brothers some quick hugs and condolences, then make a beeline for Allie before she’s swallowed by another wave of semi-strangers.

“Oh honey, this must be so tough.” There’s not a hint of tears in her eyes or sobs in her body. I hug her tight.

“Could be worse.” Allie’s voice is distant and dreamy, the way it was during exams in university, before she had to drop out to care for her mother full time.

“You ate enough tranquilizers to choke a horse, didn’t you?”

She finally hugs me back with noodle arms. “You bet your ass I did.”

This is another good reason to have Allie by my side when I begin my painful descent into feebleness and whatever other oblivions await. She possesses a wealth of knowledge about the precise combos and quantities of prescription medications needed to render oneself comfortably numb yet meticulously functional. Or not.

“You have to come to the burial with me,” she says. “You can stop me from shoving Dad and my brothers into the hole with Mum.”

“Whatever you need, babe.”

“K, c’mon. Before my tranqs wear off,” she says through the corner of her mourner’s smile as she slips past me to receive a few final sympathies from more strangers. I go tell Mama and Peg that I’m going to the graveyard for Reenie’s burial instead of home with them.

“Feeling better, all of a sudden?” Peggy’s voice is too loud and too light, and despite the fact that my nausea has passed, my vision is still as squirrelly as hell. Peggy’s oversized head swims in a sea of yellow-green circles.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I feign clumsiness, and bump Peggy’s tits right where the peacock brooch is pinned, as I move to hug my mother, before I go help my best friend bury hers.

Even at the graveyard, Allie remains perfectly stoic, while I’m doing my damnedest to be a good, supportive friend and not look like I’m ready to crawl out of my own skin. I squeeze Allie’s hand and close my eyes while Reenie’s casket is lowered into the ground. As the minister prattles on about her special place in Heaven, and God coming down to wipe the tears and heal the hearts of her children on Earth, a couple of scruffy guys come along and start pushing dirt over top the flower-strewn coffin. I forgot how much graveyards give me the heebie-jeebies.