Food at a Funeral

[00:00:07] Welcome to Scary Story Podcast. My name is Edwin, and here's a scary story. Food at a Funeral. My aunt was one of those people who, how can I say this, was not very well liked because of her ways.

[00:00:27] She had certain mannerisms and aspects to her personality that people simply didn't connect with. When she would be talking to a neighbor or to the store clerk, she would begin to shout as she talked,

[00:00:40] so much so that I would leave the store and wait right outside the door when I was little. She met no harm, of course, but it did create some uncomfortable situations. My cousins barely even noticed it though. In a way, they started acting kind of like her,

[00:00:56] which eventually led us to only seeing each other whenever we were on vacation visiting the East Coast. I could tell they were just trying to be nice, but everything from the way they would eat to the way they answered the phone

[00:01:08] was always so odd. Loud, rude, and strange. Sometimes I would spend the entire day at their neighbor's house with another girl I had made friends with while I was there. Her family once made a comment about my cousins, similar to what I was thinking.

[00:01:25] They wanted to know what was up with them without asking me directly. One of the more traumatizing experiences when I was growing up happened there, at my aunt's home.

[00:01:37] It was a few days before Christmas, and my mom had sent me to stay with them while I went to visit my dad's side of the family.

[00:01:44] They had agreed to have a type of reunion at my aunt's home and die, not knowing exactly how bad things could get. Agreed to go and stay with my weird cousins.

[00:01:54] They were all excited one morning and kept following my uncle around the house as he went to the bookcase by the door and grabbed a gun. And he started loading it on his way out. They all wanted to see.

[00:02:07] They went off into the barn when the oldest of the three cousins brought in one of the two pigs that they had. He then pulled the rope to the outside of the barn door. My cousins all smiled and stayed quiet as my uncle got the shotgun ready.

[00:02:23] With that, they yelled and hollered jumping around as the bullet landed right in between the pig's eyes. All I could see was the stain of the splattered blood all over the wall behind it.

[00:02:36] When I looked closer, I saw even more stains, dozens of them, many animals that they had killed before. They all stuck around when they were taking out the insides of the poor animal. I couldn't stomach it.

[00:02:51] I faked a smile and ran straight to the room where I was staying. I shut my eyes and wondered how long it would be until my parents got there.

[00:03:00] Out of the other cousins, I think I was the one that they liked the most because I would always laugh at their weird jokes and I always humored them whenever they had a story to tell about school or about their board game club.

[00:03:15] They would get so into the story as they were telling it, even the parts that were obviously made up. I mean, no, someone didn't lose a game of batgammon and then stabbed the other guy in the arm with his pocket knife.

[00:03:28] But I acted as if I believed them and they seemed to like that. Mom had my aunt on the phone one evening after I had gotten home from school.

[00:03:37] She asked me to sit down as she tried to tell me some news about their family, but she was still on the phone. My aunt seemed more angry than sad at the situation, which of course was odd.

[00:03:48] Because later I found out that her husband, my uncle John, had gone to sleep the night before and never woke up. It took me a few minutes to understand what my aunt was angry about. But eventually I heard her complain about the viewing.

[00:04:06] She was concerned about how many people had signed up to go see her dead husband, even though she didn't know many of them and she didn't want to hear from them.

[00:04:16] I didn't mean to start any rumors or anything, but supposedly they started discovering children that my aunt had no idea about. The casket will be shut. Nobody will see him. They want to take his stuff? I'll give them his stuff. Just watch. My aunt was really angry.

[00:04:39] A strange woman like her and then angry over something at a time when she should have been mourning the death of her husband was even more out there than I thought she was capable of. I think she felt threatened.

[00:04:52] You know, like when suddenly you discover that your lifelong partner had other children on the side that you didn't know about and suddenly they all start showing up. I mean, it was obvious that she might start thinking that all they wanted was a piece of the pie.

[00:05:05] You know, a slice of the inheritance. After all, they had a lot of land and their farm was worth a small fortune. My cousins were alright, but they kept asking for me to go over.

[00:05:19] Mom said that I should so she bought me a grey hound ticket and off I went another bus trip to their place. They greeted me like they always did. Right at the door of the bus, bothering the rest of the passengers that were also trying to get out.

[00:05:35] But their dad had just died so I gave them a break and ignored the comments of those that were around us when we hopped in the truck and drove to their farm.

[00:05:44] As expected, my aunt was in a terrible mood the whole day, so I decided to keep my distance. This time she was complaining about what she was going to serve when everybody came over.

[00:05:55] She did not like the idea of having to cook for people for something like that, a funeral. That it was inconsiderate of everybody to show up and then expect that there would be food there. That it was humiliating for her to serve her dead husband's illegitimate children

[00:06:12] and the other women who were going to be trying to take his money. My cousins did not like seeing her like that, so they also stayed out of the way for most of the afternoon until people were starting to show up. My aunt was still in the kitchen.

[00:06:26] You could hear her prepare the food with such anger. The knife like a hammer against the chopping board. The meat grinder chomping on the bones, struggling to finish the ground meat. My aunt would grunt with anger every once in a while

[00:06:43] and the sounds would leak out into the front porch where we were along with the rest of them. The sun was setting when my aunt ran to her room to change out of her stained shirt

[00:06:54] and came back in an equally stained but less noticeable black pants and shirt. Another woman who I didn't know but had seen around the house several times helping out with a farm started walking around the room full of hungry guests

[00:07:09] that she passed around ground meatballs and tomato sauce along with small bowls of a thick soup. I knew what went into the food at their house, so I barely touched any of it, as always.

[00:07:22] More people arrived as my aunt, now tired of everybody and of cooking the whole day was sitting alone at the corner of the porch just watching everybody eat and talk to each other. She would completely ignore those who came up to her and want to talk to her

[00:07:38] but everyone knew how she was so they just let her be. Eventually they all started lighting the lanterns on the side of the porch since their father would be buried on site by the oak tree, which I didn't know was legal to do.

[00:07:55] My three cousins stood up suddenly and looked up right at me. I stood up too before realizing that everybody would be expecting me to help with carrying the casket to the oak tree as we all walked together. It was such a surreal scene, even as an adult now.

[00:08:14] Many of the guests that were there I didn't know. Most of them were also strange and quiet. We went to the living room wondering who else would be helping carry the casket down the dark walking path with us.

[00:08:29] My uncle was not the lightest of people yet nobody seemed to question us despite our differences in height and noticeable lack of strength. We put the box on our shoulders and brought it back down briefly when we passed by the front door.

[00:08:45] We stepped down the porch stairs in silence watching my aunt waiting for everyone to pass before she stood up from the dark corner of the porch where she had been sitting.

[00:08:56] I watched her stand up and grab her own hands behind her and begin following the group behind us. We didn't need lanterns in front of us. The moon was out and lit the small hill in front

[00:09:09] casting a shadow in front of the large oak tree at the end of the dirt path surrounded by nothing but tall grass. As we were making our way up the hill I looked over to my cousin, the younger one

[00:09:24] also helping the casket from behind like me. He was lost in thought. Just as I was about to look away, he looked at me too and adjusted the box over his shoulder.

[00:09:38] He put the weight of it on one arm as he adjusted his grip of his left hand. And so we all walked into the shadow of the tree until we got to the patch of dirt and set it down.

[00:09:53] We all knew that the casket was way too light. But we never talked about it. The following story is called Out Late and it is coming up right after this.

[00:10:18] I was a typical quiet person in college so when I met Ezekiel and started hanging out with him and his friends I even surprised myself. They liked going out and meeting girls and they knew a ton of people and always had something to do.

[00:10:40] Ezekiel was one of those people that did well in school and still managed to stay up late having fun. But we also had a lot of awesome conversations. When he needed a fourth roommate in one of the houses that they were about to rent, he asked me

[00:10:56] to rent it was going to be less than $400 which was probably a third of what I paid in the dorms without the meal plan. I talked it over with my parents, both of them kind of knowing how Ezekiel was

[00:11:09] and only worried that I would fall behind in school if we ended up having too many parties. After thinking about it a little bit, I decided on moving in and that's what I did.

[00:11:20] Looking back, I think it was a mistake. Not just for me but for Ezekiel and one of his roommates. You see, in the dorms we at least had people watching over us and maintaining some type of control.

[00:11:36] Living in a house where the rowdy members managed themselves was a bad idea. Especially when the others did not seem to take college too seriously. I knew it was going to happen but I thought that maybe I could deal with it and take advantage of the cheap rent.

[00:11:53] Anyway. It was a Friday night and I had just gotten home from my last class. I was wanting to go to my room and watch something on Netflix to fall asleep. Finals week was coming and I was not doing too well.

[00:12:06] A couple of my classmates and I had agreed to meet up the following day, early in the morning, to study for our statistics class. It felt like I had to relearn absolutely everything from the start.

[00:12:19] And even thinking about the amount of stress I was feeling now makes my palms get a bit sweaty. Jared, the craziest roommate of the bunch, was standing out by the front porch with a red solo cup in one hand. Greeting me with a high five.

[00:12:35] For some reason it always felt like he was mocking me since I wasn't exactly the party type. I high-fived him back and answered some of his questions about a class that we had together. But he had missed again.

[00:12:48] What did they cover? Did she send the PowerPoints and when's the next quiz? You know, same questions. I tried to think about what I would do because if they were about to have another one of those kickbacks at the house, things were bound to get loud once more.

[00:13:06] Jared interrupted my thought suddenly. Hey, we're all going out in a bit. There's a party at Beck's house. Want to go? I mentioned Finals week and he nodded. He then turned his face back toward the street in silence. He kind of whispered it.

[00:13:24] Well, if you want to stop by, you know where we'll be. He just didn't seem excited anymore. There was something in that voice that made me feel sorry for him. Then again, most of my friends used to say that I'd feel sorry for everyone.

[00:13:41] It's just that Jared was a good guy. But he was just messing up. He had told me that it would be his last shot at school before the academic probation warning he had gotten would wipe him out from our university. And he had already given up.

[00:13:58] We all knew that it bothered him, but we never really talked about it. I really wish we would have. I had been in that same spot before and it was a terrible feeling, let me tell you.

[00:14:15] I kept thinking about it for most of the evening until I woke up to the sounds of Ezekiel coming back home at around one in the morning. I went back to sleep almost immediately until I was woken up again. This time it was around 3 a.m.

[00:14:31] Jake, I heard from the window. I stopped breathing for a bit just in case I heard my name again. Jake, were you there man? It was Jared's voice. I walked over to the window and opened it up. It probably got locked out again.

[00:14:53] He looked up at me from the side of the house. My eyes hadn't fully adjusted yet, but he looked completely sober. He smiled and said, Thank you man. I'll open the door, I said, sighing loudly as I closed my window. Jake was just standing still looking up.

[00:15:15] I walked down the hallway and stepped down the stairs and opened the front door and then just waited. I looked around the porch before turning on the light since they would for sure wake me up completely.

[00:15:28] Jared, I called out to the side of the house where my room was. I stayed outside for about a minute before deciding to keep the door unlocked and went back to my room. I don't remember when I fell back asleep.

[00:15:43] I woke up before the rest of the guys obviously and after grabbing a snack from my cabinet in the kitchen and getting ready to leave for my study session, I reached for the door. Only to notice that it was still unlocked.

[00:16:03] It was a little before noon when I got a swarm of text messages. It was a lot for me to piece together all at once. It took a few days to get it together. Jared had decided to go back home early from the party

[00:16:16] and had gotten a ride from one of the girls that was there too. But on their way back, they went off the road and crashed into a tree, killing Jared instantly. I mentioned my experience to Ezekiel and the other group of friends shortly after

[00:16:38] and Ezekiel said that yeah, he had also heard Jared that night. I noticed that I had gotten up to let him in. To this day, nobody has an explanation for it. Scary Story Podcast is written and produced by me, Edwin Covarrubias.

[00:17:05] You can get in touch by finding me on social media at EdwinCove, that's E-D-W-I-N-C-O-V or email me at hello at scarystorypodcast.com. I love reading and listening to stories so if you have your own, just share them with me.

[00:17:23] If you're up for it, check out my other podcast called True Scary Story and that's where people share their own paranormal experiences. You can find it by searching for True Scary Story and finding that purple cover with the white letters. You can't miss it.

[00:17:38] Thank you very much for listening. See you soon.