Only by Chance in Cripple Creek

Kelly felt numb. It was all too surreal. She knew she was at a funeral, but she still couldn't grasp that it was her best friend, Tara, who lay in the coffin. The officer's words burned in her mind: It was an accident, he had said. Her foot must have slipped. She fell off a cliff. She shouldn't have gotten so close to the edge, he said. His words played over and over in her head until she felt like screaming. She knew that trail was one of Tara's favorites, and even though she had some fear of heights, Tara loved hiking the Colorado National Monument. Kelly stood by the graveside, oblivious to the sounds surrounding her, and kept her gaze on the hole in the ground. As she watched Tara's casket being lowered, she tried to imagine how her friend could have fallen. The officer thought it was an accident, but deep down, Kelly knew her friend wouldn't go to the edge and cause her own death. She vaguely heard the last words that were spoken as the Elders compassionately ushered the mourners away. She lingered, but they soon encouraged her to leave too. As she walked away, she looked over her shoulder one last time. She paused and watched the remains of the freshly dug earth being shoveled gently over Tara's final resting place. It was at that moment she felt her friend's presence.