Mirna Chen dabbed the damp tissue to her eye. "It was a beautiful funeral."

Her father, Mel Butler, walked somberly beside her, clutching her left elbow as if to steady her walk across the parking lot. "Yes, it was. Looked like most of the old neighborhood was there, today."

"A lot of people cared for him," Wei, Mirna's husband, said from beside Mel.

"Probably wouldn't have if they knew he was gay," Mirna said, sounding somewhat bitter.

"I don't know if that really would have mattered, " Mel said, adding, "besides, I doubt if word of that got out anyway."

"I think the funeral director did a great job of making him look as natural as possible after the accident. I really couldn't tell the difference," she said with Wei nodding without comment while loosening the black tie around his neck.

The sun was beating down pretty harshly upon them all as they slowly made their way across the lined pavement toward the wooden stairs that would take them up to Mirna and Wei's apartment, further draining the family members that had attended the afternoon funeral.

"We can be grateful that he's out of pain now," Mirna said.

"I was surprised to see your step-mother there," Wei said.

"Yeah," Mirna agreed, her voice suddenly turning bitter. "Brought the bitch out of her gin-soaked stupor and into the daylight. I'm surprised she didn't burst into flames the moment the sun hit her."

Mel chuckled. "Mirna, let's not go there, okay?"

"Dad, even you have to admit that she was the last person you would have expected to see there, considering her stance on homosexuals."

"Yes, well..." he replied noncommittally.

"I still can't believe that he's gone," Mirna said, again dabbing the tissue to her eyes. "It seems like only yesterday that..." she began to say before all at once crying out in pain. "Goddamnit, Billy, if you stab my foot with that damned crutch one more time I'm going to deck you."

"Oops. Sorry," her brother, Billy Butler, replied sheepishly, though knowing damned well that he had purposely targeted her foot with the rubber-tipped end of the weapon that was helping him cross the parking area. In fact, this had been the third time he had made a successful jab at her as she walked to his left, and he was rather proud of his accomplishments.

"Sorry, my ass," she insisted with a quick glare. "You're doing that on purpose."

"I am not," he defended, falsely. Since tormenting his older sister was one of his greater pleasures in life, Billy made it a habit of doing so as often as he possibly could without going so far that he would be slugged.

"Careful on the stairs, son," Mel cautioned with a well-placed hand to Billy's back for support.

"With any luck he'll fall and break his neck, too," Mirna claimed vindictively.

"Now, Mirna..." her father warned.

She turned to him, wearing a smile. "I'm only kidding, dad. Billy? Do you need my help?"

He cast her a quick frown. "Not on your life. The last time you helped me up the stairs I almost fell and broke the other arm," he told her while adjusting the cast engulfing his right arm supported by the sling hung around his neck. The arm was feeling extra heavy after only a week and he was anxious for the remaining five weeks to pass so that he could get the damned thing taken off. Even the plastic boot on his left foot was getting heavy. In both cases, though, he only had himself to blame. In fact, considering the severity of his accident on the freeway a week ago, he thought himself to be in pretty good shape.

"Yeah. How about that," Mirna mused aloud with a smirk upon her lips.

With the help of Mel on his right and Wei on his left, Billy managed to successfully navigate the treacherous wilds of the staircase to the second floor. Lacking the ability to hold onto the railing with his right hand made it a bit difficult for him, and with the unsteadiness of using a crutch for the left half, Billy was quite unsteady when going up or down. Therefore, he stayed to the apartment as much as possible these days.

"Oh my God, not again," Mirna complained after reaching the upper landing. "Billy, I swear, if you get any more flowers I'm going to open up a nursery and sell them all."

"What can I say? He loves me,” Billy commented with a broadening smile as he spotted the lavish bouquet of white roses in a clear vase standing before the door halfway down the balcony.

"I said it before and I'll say it again;" Mirna proclaimed, "there's just no accounting for taste."

"Your jealousy amuses the Royal One," Billy told her.

"Dad, please tell me that it's not too late to abort this one and try for another brother," Mirna told her father with a glance around Billy.

Selected text © 2011 Timothy Lee