Hardest battles

"She said she'll be here shortly to thank everyone for coming." he said, his words coming out a lot bitter than he had intended.

"I think everyone will understand if she cannot adhere to each and every rule of proprietary. It is never easy to bury a family member at such a young age. And she has already had to bury two." Mrs. Dawson spoke in a sad voice, as she sat down beside her son. "I just don't understand!" Steve began, very frustrated. "Why? Why does she have to go through all this? Hasn't Alina been through enough with her father and mother? Why Alex too?" His voice cracked and he was shaking by the time he finished the sentence.

Mrs. Dawson wrapped a soothing arm around her son and said, "God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers." "I will never accept a god who could let this happen." Steve thought internally, but did not say anything. "I haven't seen the other one, the one with the blue eyes. I wonder if he is okay." she said suddenly, pulling Steve out of his thoughts.

"Max. He was standing beside the grave the last I saw him. He's probably still there." he said, "I'll go look for him." he added, standing up, but Mrs. Dawson pulled his arm and shook her head. "You need to let him grieve. Both of them. No one else can understand what they are going through right now." she said.

Steve huffed in disagreement, but sat down nevertheless. But he was too restless, tapping his foot and looking abruptly from side to side. Mrs. Dawson stood up with a sigh after a few minutes. "I better go and check everything. I'll ask someone to pack some food for Alina and Max too." she said and walked away. Steve gave an absent-minded nod and continued to look around, searching for something to do.

He was never one to sit idle, especially when his mind was racing, like now. Steve was a man of action, he best thought when his mind didn't have too much time to dwell on useless things. After a few minutes, Steve decided that he had had enough. That he could not still idle even one more minute. "I think I'll go look for Max after all." he murmured to himself and was getting up when he caught sight of Alina coming down the stairs. Her face was impassive as she walked, looking more like a robot than a human.

She looked at him as he walked to her. Her face remained expressionless and her eyes looked dead as she asked, "Where is your mom?" Even her voice sounded dead. Steve chocked back a sob at seeing Alina like this as he said, "She's in the garden. Where lunch is being served."

"Lunch. . . . . " Alina drew out the word as though food was a foreign concept to her, but she nodded and walked towards the garden nevertheless. Steve followed closely behind. When Alina reached Mrs. Dawson, she was immediately hugged by the latter. But what was weird was Alina gave no reaction. She didn't push Mrs. Dawson away, but her hands hung beside her lifeless. She finally spoke when they broke apart, "How is the food and everything." Mrs. Dawson was very surprised to see Alina looking so lifeless, but she made no comment.