A Night Out at the Cemetery

Trigger warning: abuse

It was a fine Friday afternoon in San Francisco State University and all of us students had our own weekend plans and that included me. After all, I wanted to take my girlfriend named Julia Mõttus to Davis for two days, so all we had to do was to pack our bags; however, we had to pack lightly for the 2-day trip.

Julia and I had been dating for a while since the day we met each other at SF State’s very own GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) Club

“Roxie, are you sure you want to take me to Davis?” Julia asked.

“Of course, babe,” I replied. “First, I’m going to introduce you to my late grandpa at the cemetery and then we’ll go to a nice but affordable hotel in Downtown Davis.”

“I see,” Julia stated. “To tell you the truth, kallike (Estonian for “sweetheart”), I’ve never met your grandpa before. What was his name?”

“Easy,” I answered. “His name was Anatoly Glotov and, yes, he was born in Chisinau, Moldova. It used to be Bessarabia until communism came along. He once came from a wealthy family and his father used to be a mechanic while his mom used to be a nanny. Then as soon as Stalin took over Moldova, that was when everything went downhill. They took away his father’s business and everything else combined, including his mother’s jewelry and her designer clothes and even the whole mansion. Then the family had to move into a one-room house, where you could only either cook or go to the bathroom outside in the backyard.”

“Ewww!” Julia grimaced.

“Yeah, but that’s not all,” I explained. “After they moved into an extremely tiny house, that was when his father started drinking. Then he turned from a combination of a doting husband and loving father into an alcoholic abuser...and a hateful one too, so he stopped bringing flowers, clothes and jewelry to his wife and started beating her up instead. He also beat his own kids, especially my grandpa himself, whom he used to lock up in a dark basement and then tell his friends that my grandpa was a very bad kid. Then one day, the torture got so out of hand that my grandpa decided that he finally had enough, so he ran away and ended up living alone in the streets for a while. As for his mom, she lost her job as a nanny and had to get another job as a maid who, like all other maids back in the USSR, had to scrub the floors without any rubber gloves. Then when my grandma came along, then despite her parents’ disapproval of my grandpa, she ended up marrying him in secret...and yet her parents still didn’t like him until he started a family...and that was when they finally calmed down and started to accept him as their son-in-law. Then he emigrated to America with my grandma and their kids in tow, where they eventually had to move away from New York to California by car for four days.”

“It sure was a tough journey,” Julia stated.

“Yeah, sure was,” I agreed. “Anyway, no time for stories. Let’s get packing.”

It wasn’t until early evening that we finished our packing and then we got into my 2020 Ford Ranger truck prior to driving away from our school. As soon as we drove off, we decided to drive through the Golden Gate bridge, during which we began to admire the views of the sea as well as Pier 39 (including Fisherman’s Wharf, where my grandpa used to take me to a lot when I was a little kid) for the last time until Sunday. While we were driving, we were exchanging conversations with each other, even as I popped in different CD’s from Enya to Loreena McKennitt. It was plenty of hours until we reached the cemetery in Davis, and yet as soon as we arrived, it was already nighttime.

“What the hell is that?” Julia wondered.

Then all of a sudden, so many ghosts began rising from their respective graves. We screamed in horror as we attempted to run away from the ghosts, at least until one obese ghost came and managed to shoo them away. Then the rogue ghost in question looked at us for a moment before…

“Francinochka!” the ghost gasped in shock.

“Grandpa?” I asked. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, my darling!” my grandpa’s ghost said in excitement as he attempted to hug me to no avail.

“Is that your grandpa?” Julia asked.

“Yeah, that’s him,” I said. “Grandpa, this is my girlfriend named Julia. Julia, this is my grandpa.”

“Nice to meet you, old man,” Julia muttered.

“You date this girl?” Grandpa asked.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “We met each other in our Gay-Straight Alliance back in my school some time ago and now we’ve been dating each other since.”

“Gay dating no good,” Grandpa replied in his ever-broken English. “But you good boy!”

“Actually, Grandpa,” I said, “I’m nonbinary now.”

“What’s nonbinary?” Grandpa quizzed.

“It’s a gender in which you don’t identify as a male nor female,” I answered.

“Excuse me, are you hungry?” another ghost asked as she came up to us.

“Well, yeah,” I replied. “I’m in the mood for some McDonalds.”

“Me too,” Julia admitted.

Then when the ghost went to McDonalds and then came back to us with our food in tow, then the other ghosts began lighting up the entire cemetery while Julia and I continued to chow down our meals.

“So, Roxie,” Julia said, “how is your brother?”

“Oh, you mean my ex-brother?” I replied bitterly. “He was very evil and literally enjoyed seeing me in pain. He beat me, he called me names, he tried to rape me a few times, he terrorized me, he tried to kill me numerous times, he screamed in my face that I was fat and ugly, he tried to make my parents buy me lots of extra-strength diet pills and he even abused me for trying to study for the sake of my community college graduation. And you know what’s worse? My parents kept letting him off the hook all the time instead of protecting me. Then one day, my dad finally kicked him out, but he didn’t do that because he was worried about me. He only did it because my ex-brother refused to contribute to the family when asked. And that was when I cut him out of my life forevermore.”

“That’s very rough!” Julia said sympathetically. “Well, when my vanaema (Estonian for “grandmother”) was in high school back in Soviet Estonia, her dad was a drunkard who always beat his wife or kept stealing her money for alcohol and then one day, her mom decided to buy her a nice dress for her graduation ceremony and then when my vanaema put it on, her mom told her that she looked very beautiful and yet it was short-lived when the father came up to them and asked for money, even trashing everything in the apartment when his wife said that she didn’t have money. And then when he saw the dress that my vanaema was wearing and his wife admitted that she was the one who bought the dress, that was when he started tearing the dress off of his daughter and when his wife tried to pull him off, he started beating her until his daughter took a shovel and hit his head from behind, killing him instantly...and yet her mom took the blame, so she could send my vanaema to Tallinn University while the mom herself had to go to prison. Anyway, your ex-brother is wrong and disgusting! You’re not ugly; you’re very beautiful!”

“Wow, thanks!” I blushed as I hugged Julia and vice-versa.

Then we continued to talk until we grew very sleepy, so the ghosts helped us put our matress, duvet and pillows in the trunk of the truck; when it was time to change into our sleepwear, I let Julia go first and when she eventually came out, she was wearing a pink-colored ankle-length nightgown with cap sleeves, smocked bodice, a billowy tulle skirt portion and a subtle hint of rhinestones gracing the sweetheart neckline, respectively.

“Wow, Jules, you look beautiful!” I beamed.

“Aitäh, mu armsam (Estonian for “Thank you, my love”),” Julia purred sweetly.

Then it was my turn to go, so in addition to doing my business (after which I had to wash my hands), I donned a Princess Serenity-inspired nightgown with a smocked bodice, extremely billowy ankle-length skirt portion, elasticized cap sleeves that I could wear on/off my shoulders and small gold-colored rings gracing the square neckline, respectively. Then when I stepped out of the bathroom, that was when Julia felt her jaw drop.

“Vau, sa näed väga ilus välja (Estonian for “Wow, you look very beautiful”)!” Julia squealed.

“Thank you, my beautiful love,” I purred tenderly.

Then as the ghosts led us to my truck and Grandpa was able to help us climb up to our makeshift truck bed, that was when we began to tenderly hold hands in our lying position.

“Thank you, Grandpa and other ghosts and good night,” I chirped. “And you, well, we’ll go to our chosen hotel for sure tomorrow , where we can grab some breakfast together. Would you like that?”

“Of course, I’d like that,” Julia chirped.

Afterwards, we began to cuddle with each other, even smothering each other with our sleepy kisses and kissing each other’s necks in our process...until it was time to drift off to our dream realm.

“Ma armastan sind nii väga (Estonian for “I love you so much”),” Julia cooed sleepily.

“I love you too, my darling Julia,” I purred sleepily.

Then as soon as we bid each other goodnight, we drifted off into a deep sleep and slept peacefully throughout the night.