Lily Ada Solé i Viladecans / 4t d’ESO LLENGUA ANGLESA_2n PREMI James entered the funeral home. It was a gloomy, rainy day and he felt the same way. The room was packed with people he had never met. Weirdly, he found himself looking around for her, expecting to see her red locks tied up in a bow. He wanted to see her smile one last time. “Excuse me”. James turned around and saw a short man handing him a piece of paper. “Thanks”, he said as he reached for Lily’s obituary. He couldn’t help but laugh out loud when he saw the picture her parents had picked out. It was probably very inappropriate to be laughing at a funeral but he just knew that she would have hated it. In the photo, she was wearing her old school uniform, round glasses and brackets. A huge stack of books was in her arms. Her parents had always thought of their daughter as the perfect student and well-behaved girl she was back in grade school. They wanted to forget that she got diagnosed with major depressive disorder and then stopped going to high school shortly after. She was left completely alone, abandoned by her family who thought of her as a disgrace more than anything else. They would pay 300$ every month for the mental hospital just so they could forget that part of their lives. Obviously, when word got around about Lily’s death, they felt obligated to throw her the most extravagant funeral just to avoid rumors. James had met her the first day she entered the hospital. No one could forget a face like hers. His room was facing hers and he would watch her all the time. She probably thought of him as some annoying creep who wouldn’t leave her alone. They wouldn’t talk but he soon realized why she was there. She usually seemed fine, she would eat all her food and talk to most of the staff. But for periods of time, she would shut her door and her room would be silent for days, or even weeks. No one could get her to go outside or take her pills. Then, suddenly everything would be fine, and she started talking and laughing again. One day she asked James why he was there. He was so surprised that she was spea-
179
