Incomplete.

The walls felt like they were radiating cold. The basement seemed like an icebox. An icebox full of coffins placed in perfect rows. I knew which was hers even though they were all identical and closed. A bare bulb hung from the ceiling illuminating the concrete walls and vinyl tiles on the floor covering the concrete there too. My maternal grandparents bought this home thirty years ago the day she died. I lived in this basement as a baby with my mother and father before they could afford a home of their own. The yellow phone with its tangled cord still hangs on the wall.
I stood staring at the boxes that held the empty decomposing vessels. I knew the man was behind me, he was standing in the corner. I knew he’d threaten to expose her. I knew he wanted to see me to cry. His piercing black eyes stared into mine as his hand grasped the lid her body laid beneath.
“Please, that’s not how I want to remember her. Step the fuck away from that.” He ignored me.
I turned away.
Another casket had been opened and a light shone above it. A skeleton in a tattered dress wore a plastic mask on her skull. Her mask portrayed her face perfectly. Just like it was in 1963 when her husband died in her arms. Perfect red lips and stiff black hair. As clear as a fake complexion could be. Jacqueline Onassis stared at me through the empty eye holes and although her head was empty I still listened when she spoke to me.
The yellow phone rang. On the line I heard a gentle voice softly speaking foreign words. I listened because I knew I was only in a dream and these dreams are the only way she can still talk to me. I will listen to everything. I will feel everything. I need to take it all in before I end up like them in their satin lined coffins.
I need to hear her. This is why you have to let me sleep.

She’s trying to tell me something. It’s almost December and I still find ladybugs on my pillow in the morning. She sang me their song, my grandfather still does if I beg him to. When he sings it sounds more like a dirge and his brown eyes are milky and his body is old.