Chris! I told you not to do that. That is going to complicate things. What in the world were you thinking? Now they think it is him. Well, that sucks. I'm sure you did what you could do, but that is never going to be good enough for the cops. They are going to see him as nothing more than a "snitch". CHAPTER 15 THE BANQUET AND THE FUNERAL "It is not fair to compare your mother to the love of God, but if you do, your mother takes second place." -Aline IT was a long and tough night. I woke up around 3 am to go and get a glass of water from the bathroom at the bus. I heard a noise and turned around, to see my auntie, Cati, in tears looking at me, looking sad. I said, "What's happening?" She hugged me, and said, "It is Mum. She is gone. She just slipped away." I thought, "We will make it though. You are my Auntie Cati, and no one will ever replace you. We will make it." It was just another thing. I got on the bus and went back to the hotel. The first thing that I did when I walked in was have a long, hot bath, to try to get some of the emotions out. I went to bed, knowing that I had to attend the funeral in the morning, wondering how I was going to make it through that. I knew that with the police searching for me, they would assume that I was the one that was going to attend the funeral. I felt like they would keep their eye on me. What made me think that the police wouldn't be able to protect the funeral? I knew the police were not protecting everything around this place, so why was I expecting them to protect the funeral? It was going to happen, and I had to face it. I was lucky, to be able to attend the funeral of my grandmother. It was a big feast and gathering. She was a wealthy woman. She owned a car, and a beautiful home in the middle of downtown Houston. It was not in our area. My grandfather was white, and owned a home, but his home was not in the middle of the city. It was in a separate, upper-class neighborhood. It was not in our "little town". But we lived in the "big" town. They would have a huge reception in their home, and they had enough friends to celebrate her life and what she had done to her children and her friends. They had a lot of friends. Not to take anything from the black community, but if they were to have the same celebration that she had in her neighborhood, where she grew up, they would have had 50 friends. It would be a big celebration, a big party. My grandfather would invite all of the people that he used to work with. That was it. She loved to spend time with friends and family. That was her. She would have given them a reason to celebrate. There was nothing left, she had everything. She had a home, a car, and security. Her own. She had nothing left to keep up. No job, no reason to get up in the morning, just to take care of herself. She was a rich woman, and had enough. Money is freedom. It can buy you everything that you want. You don't need anything more. The people in my community did not think that she had done anything extraordinary, but she did. She did what she was supposed to do. There was nothing more she could do. This is what she did. This is what God gave her. She was loved. She was loved beyond measure. This is what she was doing. She was having a big celebration. She had planned a big party for people. A lot of friends were invited. She loved having big parties. I think it was because of the songs and her love for soul and funk music. She loved to party and have fun. I guess she was the kind of person that would love you for the time that she was with you, not the person you were when she left you. I don't know. She was very, very kind. She would be on the phone for hours and hours and hours, talking to everyone that she knew. You'd hear her laughing. She would have phone calls and she would laugh. She would laugh because you'd be talking. You had to speak clearly, and you had to speak loud because she was deaf in one ear. She had a lot of friends that she would be on the phone with. She loved to speak with my cousins and my aunties. I don't think she did it as much anymore. She was tired and going deaf. It was hard on her. Maybe it was just easier to talk to some people by email or Facebook. When I was sitting with her for a couple of hours, she might put the phone down for a while. You had to be able to talk a lot, and be loud, to get her attention. She was a lover, and had a lot of fun. She was my friend, and we had a lot of fun. She was a caring, loving mother and a very loyal, kind friend. She didn't have time for people who were not close to her. She had fun. She had a lot of laughs with people she loved, not just her family. She loved to have a good time. I had no idea about that. She was a good person. She gave people a lot of support and love, and laughter, and affection. She gave the people she loved that. She had friends that she did not like. Sometimes you just have to let a person go, because she is not your friend. And a lot of people did not like her. Maybe because she was loud, or because they could not speak with her in their native language, or maybe she was not their type. She did not think she was better than any one of us, but she was good. She was a good person. They did a big burial. When the man started calling people to come and honor her, I felt like they should have had some kind of protection, at least for the time that we were there. They should have had some kind of protection. I was wondering how they were going to keep us safe. But it was not until after the funeral that I was told, "We are talking about protection for her." I asked, "We are talking about protection from the police?" I wanted to know, "Why? Why is protection needed?" One of the cops told me, "I can't say anything more, but when we are doing the testimony and everybody is looking at us, they are going to try to get close to you, and you need to watch for them." I said, "Okay. I know how I am going to feel like if I am approached by the police, because I am not going to like it. I won't like it one bit. But I'll say I did not do anything, because I have been doing nothing all night." I did not want to hear that one more time. I knew what was going to happen. I knew what was going to happen. I did not know how I was going to defend myself. They would make sure to find out who they were looking for, and they would start looking for me, I knew that. I was going to have to leave soon. I was going to make sure that when the police came, they found me. I was going to try to have them leave me alone. It was a funeral, and people were going to have to look at the police. They were going to have to look at the police, and look at me, and the police were going to leave. The police were going to go away. I would not have to do anything. I had the police leaving me. I knew that the police were just looking for the people they were looking for, and that was it. They would not be looking at me. I was glad that I was trying to have the police leave, and that they had not found me. I was going