The Women of Honey Hollow Pt. 12

Epilogue

A few years later Grace stopped to see Mike and found him in bed apparently sleeping. From the slight smell of decomposing flesh she knew that he wasn't sleeping but in fact had died in his sleep. She called for the authorities and they took the body away for examination.

Grace called Jasmine and Julie and asked them to come to Mike's house right away. It was only a few minutes when they arrived to find Grace crying softly to herself on the porch. She was naked as was the custom in Mike's house and the removed their clothes also.

"What's the matter Grace, what's happened, where's Mike?" they asked and Grace told them what she had happened.

"I guess I took my clothes off in respect to his memory, it just didn't seem right to be dressed and be in his house. I wanted you two to know before it was made public, I thought it was only right being that we have always shared so much." They all cried and held one another as they mourned the passing of their friend.

After they pulled themselves together they thought they should go inside and look for anything the might give them some idea what Mike would have wanted to be done. As it turned out they found an envelope containing instructions on what was to be done upon his passing. There was a list of phone numbers for his kids and explicate directions what to do with his remains. He wanted to be cremated and if his kids didn't want his remains they were to be scattered here in the valley as they saw fit.

They decided to wait for the results of the autopsy before calling anyone because everyone would want to know what happened. It wasn't long before Grace got a call from the ME and it had been determined that Mike had suffered a heart attack and died quietly in his sleep.

Grace let Julie and Jasmine know and they proceeded to make the phone calls that needed to be made. Grace called Mike's kids and had many questions about what happened. Grace said she would scan and e-mail the document she had found with Mike's instructions. They thanked her and asked if they should come out there to make arrangements or could they make them from back east. Grace said that if they wanted her to make the arrangements she would do that since she knew everyone that was available to make it happen and would let them know when things were set. They agreed to that and said they would arrive the day after tomorrow.

Julie and Jasmine had called all the women that Mike had made love to over the past twenty years and everyone was saddened and shocked to hear the news.

Grace had Mike cremated and arranged a memorial service. When she saw how many people were showing up she spoke to the funeral director and they decided they would need a bigger room than what he could provide so they decided that the town hall meeting room would be better.

Mike's children arrived and thanked Grace for all she had done and were amazed at the crowd attending the service. There was barely room for everyone as they listened to speech after speech extolling what Mike meant to everyone. His kids didn't know what to make of it and finally it was time for his son to talk to the crowd.

"I am sorry for your loss. It appears that our father was as much a part of your family as he was ours and in many cases probably more so." A chuckle spread thru the crowd as he said that and he suspected that there was more to the statement than he knew.

"I am gladdened to see how much our father was loved and respected in this valley that he loved so much. I think that he would want to stay here with all of you so we have decided to leave his remains here to do with what he wanted. Thank you all for accepting him into your lives."

A few prayers were said and we broke up to attend a luncheon that had been prepared. We got a chance to talk with his kids and we said we would find a proper place to scatter his ashes and if they wanted to attend they would take care of it tomorrow before they left. They said they would like that and Grace said that she thought the land he took such good care of the past 25 or so years would be the perfect place. What his kids didn't know is that the funeral director had filled 30 or so envelopes with ashes and had given them to Grace before the service. She had given each of the women that Mike had made love to an envelope to do what they wanted to with it.

The women had decided that they would take Mike to their land and let him be a part of their lives forever.

The next morning when his kids showed up at Mike's house they were surprised to find everyone nude in his yard. They walked up to Grace and asked what was going on and she explained that Mike had adopted a nudist lifestyle and they were honoring his time on this earth. They were reluctant to join them but they soon felt uncomfortable being clothed and shed their coverings.

Grace took the urn and stood apart from the gathered people, tested the wind direction and slowly let the ashes trickle from the urn. The breeze taking the fine powder where it wanted.

Everyone clapped and cheered in celebration of his life rather than mourn his death.

The End