To eternity, to serenity.

Little wet tears slid off the black silk skirt that Diana had thrown own. It was a gift from Erica, one of those little thrift finds she was always ecstatic to hunt down. Nothing from Diana’s own closet was appropriate to wear to a funeral. Black wasn't her color, deep red lipstick was. Firey orange was. Mustards and browns and golds like autumn. Erica was the one who liked black. Black like midnight, like cats who crossed the road. Even died her hair black. Something like winter, maybe, with trees that lost their leaves.

Perhaps that was why the little broach enchanted Diana’s puffy eyes, the radiant jasper. A solid red sheen that could challenge a ruby. Of all the things for her mother to insult her with… a broach. Kept in a box at the back of her closet, exactly where the will instructed on the final page. An afternote to the rest of the grim affair. The only thing with it in that crinkled package was a framed photograph and sand.

Diana immediately smashed that frame - Erica pulled her away from the glass, but even now she wanted to throw it out the car window. It and that picture. A meaningless little picture. Her sisters got to split the house and she got a picture and a trinket. Good thing the windows were busted in the old station wagon Erica fixed up to drive, else it would have been on the road miles back.

"You okay?" Erica leaned over to ask. Concern on her breath.

No. Her hand clamped over the broach. The brass fitted ornate metalwork dug into her palm. The chill of the stone reverberated up her arm. “How are we gonna pay for rent? I at least thought... mom might give me enough for that.”

Erica swallowed, her jaw shook as she focused on the road. “We’ll survive sweet’eart. We always do.”

How could she be so sure? A deep breath cooled down Diana’s shoulders from their boil, and she opened the glove box. Taking the picture out that Erica insisted she keep. Keep to burn maybe.

Poor Erica’s hands were all cut up from the glass, she reached over tenderly to touch Diana’s knee. Despite the wounds.

“I never got a look at it.” She pouted behind the wheel. “You just said it was strangers in the picture.”

It might as well have been two strangers. “One of them is my mom, when she was young. The other one is a stranger.” Another young woman, early twenties. Maybe thirty if they held it well. Not that it mattered.

“Well look on the back. It’s gotta have a name on it right?” Erica chimed. So chipper, how was she able to do that? Bounce back from despair. Even after everything they had been through? Erica had been through… 

Diana flipped over the photo with stale eyes, and there in heavy cursive was some writing. Not a name, but some sentences.

On behalf of she, she who committed wrongdoing against her kin.

On behalf of she, who prayed in her final moments for forgiveness.

On behalf of she: the gift of Serenity.

A blank stare. All Diana could meet the little fancy words with was a blank stare – before she shook with rage. Flapping the photo against the windshield, where it plopped into the dashboard. Curling up in that old ripped seat, her nose assaulted by the old cigerattes from the previous owner. “How dare she! They get everything! And I don’t get pennies! Just mind games!”

The car swerved, the shock electrocuting through Erica’s shoulders as she pulled over. “Babe don’t scare me like that!”

But nothing she said consoled her love. Not for over an hour, and then the rest of the ride was silent until they arrived home.

---

Erica hung her coat, and scarf. Then took Diana’s coat from the limp arms and shoulders of the woman she adored. She couldn’t blame the woman, grief was horrible in the first place. But now they were both abandoned.

Should she talk about the time her father died? About the large affair of the funeral, so dramatic. Every cult member chattering and crying with each other.

Except for Erica. Everyone knew she was a dirty sinner. She went to the funeral anyway, and regretted it. Only one voice approached the whole ceremony, her mother’s. All she said was these quiet words. “We have nothing for you. Leave, you’re a stranger now.”

The loneliness was overpowering. Even now, but the way Diana rubbed the back of her neck, Erica just knew now was not the time to talk.

The two weren’t home an hour when a knock came to the door. Diana was too slouched into the sofa to move, so Erica fetched the door.

A delivery man? “Package for Erica S. That’s you? Please sign.” He said quick.

Erica opened it neatly on the kitchen counter, just something to cut through the silence, the stretching of tape. Inside was a pack of a thing, and it looked familiar. She squinted, picking up the twine thrown pack. Crinkled paper, stained and worn. 

The woman in black had to swallow. Why did it resemble the package they had found in the closet?

A letter was attached, she opened it first.

“Dear Erica Sornhern Jr.,

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you of the unfortunate passing of Erica Sornhern Sr.”

And her eyes refused to continue on reading any further, for her knee gave out. Her legal name splashed on the letter, next to the words “unfortunate passing.”

Diana shot up from the sofa, “Erica what’s wrong?”

“My- my…” Her voice stuttered harshly, her chest shook. No, not again! No! “My mother died.”

The white on Diana’s face flushed even paler. She rushed over to her love, held her. Now they both were in the throws of grief.

The nightmare continued on.

She shook, shed her tears, but then a determination fired through her. No, this wasn’t the answer. It couldn’t be, she told herself, grabbing the letter, finishing every word to the dot.

“While this time may be trying-“ no, that wasn’t what she needed “Services were held on the 13th” Yes yes, no one invited her. Of course… but.

“She died the same day.” Erica mumbled. “The same day as your mom.”

Diana pulled back. “What? What do you mean? How?”

Erica made sure to read the print again, “In the morning, just like yours…”

Her love, her beautiful love, for the first time in days wore a face that was not destroyed by grief and anger. Instead, a curious gaze fell upon her. “What are you saying?”

What was she saying? It was coincidence, just coincidence… but, Erica turned her hands to the rest of the package. Delicate paper wrapped over something… like a photo frame. She ripped open the twine and paper…

A broach. Green with dark jasper, but otherwise it was an exact clone of Diana’s. And a photograph in a frame that was plane and black and exactly the same as the one Diana had smashed. Faster than light her hand threw apart the frame and found the text on the back.

On behalf of she, she who committed wrongdoing against her kin.

On behalf of she, who prayed in her final moments for forgiveness.

On behalf of she: the gift of eternity.

Diana trembled as she held the photos together. “Did they even know… but then, why leave us these?” She looked down to Erica’s limp hand. “And you got a broach too?”

She had no words to answer her love’s question, she turned the picture to it’s front, and her eyes realized that heartbeat. The woman next to Diana’s mother was… her own mother. When she was young.

How did she not notice her own mother’s face? How had their mothers met? They lived on two different sides of the contentment.

Questions swirled in her mind, but she had no answers. All she had was the unbearable need to sob.

 ---

Diana held together the two photos. A rock behind the two women read “Echo Park”

In front of her read a little plaque, rusted and covered with dirt and vines. “E—o Par-“ But the message cleared when her foot smeared aside the dirt. Echo Park.

“Are we sure this is the right place?” Erica’s voice cracked, looking over the pond that lapped with trash and sludge in each gentle wave. Waterfowl pecking at coke cans while wading through algae.

She held the photo up again just to be sure. “Yes, it’s just… time hasn’t been the kindest to this little place.” and neither had the keeper of the grounds. The brush was out of control, full of weeds. Kids played in a batting cage nearby, but the park was quiet. Empty.

There was a strange smell in the air too.

Erica stopped just next to a rusty playground. “I found something”

Her love stood over what appeared to be flat grass, but when Diana stepped closer, she saw the circular indent in the ground. Covered by a manhole. “Why do I still feel like our sick excuses for maternal figures are just screwing with use beyond the grave?”

A manhole, just a regular manhole. Rusty and unassuming in the middle of a park. Yet, Erica stood over the plane little manhole, holding the green broach. A little indent in the metal matched up perfectly with the size. She pulled out her picture of their mothers, facing the image forward, twisting it around toward the pond. “Right here. They took the picture right here. If there’s anything for us it would be here.”

Really, would there be any reparations for all this bullshit. Diana sighed, this was strange. Why would either of their mothers have cared enough to put so much effort in? It made no sense?

Yet, they had this picture. Two women from two different sides of the country. When did they ever meet?

Erica carefully placed her dark broach over the manhole, slotting it into the perfectly carved spot. Diana hesitated, before following suite. Just like Erica’s, the little red broach fit perfectly into the slot.

They waited seconds, then a minute. Then a few uncomfortable minutes. Erica stood with a fist at her heart. Diana felt the fire on her breath, the curses she would send to their mothers. Let them roll in their graves. Nothing. They really left them nothing but a goose chase.

But before she could spit curses at their ancestors, Erica gasped. Her body swirled around. Diana turned, and was caught off by her own jump.

A door. A white door, in the middle of the field. An old doorknob made for petite hands. The two women looked to each other, Erica’s coppery brown eyes. Diana’s crystal blue with rings.

And they nodded.

Their hands reached together, opening the petite little knob with layered hands. The door swung open on it’s own. Quietly, without a squeak, and a shimmer radiated from within. A deep glow that looked the same as the misty cloud covered skyline just after a sunset.

There was no telling what was beyond that glow, but their hands stayed intertwined as Diana asked “You really want to go through?”

Erica nodded. “We have to. We have nothing else.”

“We have each other. That’s enough for me.” Diana gripped her love’s hand firm. “But if you need to go, I’ll always go with you.”

The smile Erica wore could challenge art itself. With intertwined fingers, the two loves stepped through the door.

To eternity, and to serenity.