G3

The Story Begins — Original Pilot

By Marzena

Chapter 3: Funeral

"That we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes part of us."

Daphne Gordon let the words of the priest fade out on her. She didn't want to hear them. She didn't want to face this new reality where they were burying her mother deep down in the ground of the Central City cemetery. This just wasn't right. This just wasn't real. This just wasn't happening.

"But seeing death as the end of life is like seeing the horizon as the end of the ocean..."

What was that old goat talking about anyway? Like death was a good thing. Like she shouldn't be sad, like she shouldn't mourn. Like death wasn't the end. But it was! Duffy Gordon would never ever see her mother again and while there were tears streaming down her cheeks, she glared at the old priest for suggesting that she hadn't suffered a great loss and that she shouldn't see death as something horrible.

Her father didn't look too comfortable either, dressed all in black instead of his signature color, red. There were tears in his eyes and he kept staring towards the deep dark hole in which they had lowered Dale Gordon's coffin.

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal..."

A heartache no one could heal. Yes, that was a little bit more like it. Sniffing, Duffy moved closer towards her father who, without looking up, put an arm around her, holding her close, like he wanted to shelter her from all of this. But he couldn't. Nobody could shelter her from reality.

The others were here, too. Her parents' friends. She didn't know them very well. Mandrake the Magician, yes, she remembered meeting him once. She'd been a little girl and had been sitting on his lap, giggling at all the magic tricks he had performed especially for her. But the others? The little boy she'd never met before. The huge black guy was Mandrake's close friend, but she didn't recall meeting him before, and neither did she know his son, Lothar Junior, LJ for short. She didn't feel very comforted by their presence but she was still glad they were here. It certainly meant a lot to her father. Back in the day, he and Mandrake had often worked together. And although they hadn't seen much of each other during the last few years, they were still good friends.

The priest was still talking. There were a lot of words like 'death' and 'life' and 'mourn' and 'God' in his sentences. But it meant nothing at all to Duffy. And from what she could see, it meant nothing at all to her father, either. This priest was talking about Dale Gordon as if he'd personally known her when he had never ever met her until she was already dead. Someone else should say something.

Then Mandrake finally stepped forward as if he had read Duffy's thoughts. He didn't wear his hat today, and his dark eyes were filled with sadness. He then spoke with much warmth about Dale Gordon who he'd known for years now, and his words touched Duffy far more than those the priest had said before. He spoke about Dale as a person, but also about Dale as a mother and a wife, as a partner to go on missions and share adventures with, as a friend who would never leave your side, a woman worth knowing and a woman standing up for herself and her family, for putting others first, a true heroine, someone who would always be in their hearts and who's leave a big empty hole now that she was gone forever. Someone worth remembering, someone they would never ever forget. And Duffy, picturing her beautiful, kind and brave mother, felt her heart going out to Mandrake for saying things like that.

There was no one here from either Flash's or Dale's families except Duffy. There weren't any siblings, and Flash's parents both weren't that young anymore. They lived right across the country and they couldn't be expected to travel that far. Dale's mother had died a few years ago of cancer and Dale's father had taken seriously ill after hearing the horrible news and still was at the hospital. So it was only a very small group that was in attendance at Dale Gordon's funeral, consisting of Flash and Duffy, Mandrake and Lothar and their kids and a few of Dale's old friends from school and former co-workers.

"We need to say goodbye, sweetheart," her father gently whispered in her ear, his bright blue eyes and his cheeks wet from crying.

Startled, Duffy looked up and realized that it was time to walk over to the grave and say their goodbyes. She had to take a deep breath to calm herself. To go over there, to stand there, to look down at that coffin... it would make it all so real, so horribly, horribly real...

She swallowed hard and forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, stepping closer towards the open grave. And that's when she felt her father walking along beside her, his strong arm still wrapped around her. He was holding her close and somehow she knew he wouldn't ever let go of her.

"I'm right beside you, sweetie. Just take it easy and take your time."

"Thank you," she mumbled, stepping close to the edge, her vision blurring again when she looked down on the white coffin.

There they stood, father and daughter, side by side, looking down into the open ground, the sky gray and cloudy above them. But they didn't notice that, and neither did they notice they chilly wind, or Mandrake hugging his little boy, or Dale's old friends weeping into their handkerchiefs.

Glancing at her father, Duffy noticed that he was saying a silent goodbye to the love of his life. Concentrating, Duffy did the same. There was so much she wanted to tell her mother, so much she needed to say, so much to apologize for, so much she wished to share. But in the end, she chose to keep it simple. Somehow, Dale Gordon would know what she wanted to tell her, and somehow, Dale Gordon would understand everything, even the things she didn't say. So a simple, heartfelt goodbye just felt like the right thing to do.

"I love you, Mom," were the last words she whispered, and then she and her father stepped away from the grave, leaving Dale Gordon's body behind in the dark, dark ground.

Author's Note:

The things the priest said I mostly took from a funeral quote site.

Although a funeral scene wasn't necessary in this little piece of work, I just felt like Dale deserved one. She never had one on the show.

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Article

Author

Chapters

1: Escape

Flash Gordon seeks to reach his wife and daughter, who are being held by Ming the Merciless.

2: Prisoners

A sulking Duffy endures the horrors of captivity.

3: Funeral