A Taste of Blackberries

The community has stepped up to help take care of Jamie’s family, and cars are lined up outside the house. The narrator’s mother is helping with the kids while Jamie’s parents prepare for the funeral. When Martha is over, she tells the narrator that Jamie is dead, “[l]ike that baby bird you and Jamie found and tried to feed but he died anyway” (65). She says that Jamie is in heaven now, with the angels. When it’s time for Martha to go home, the narrator declines his mother’s offer to go back with her. He doesn’t know what to say to Jamie’s parents and doesn’t want to be around all the crying visitors.

On the way to the funeral, the narrator thinks back to what Martha said about Jamie being in heaven. He thinks, “It didn’t seem possible for heaven to be so wonderful that you weren’t even lonesome for the people and things you knew before” (69). He starts to numb himself to everything, willing himself not to cry. He wants to be strong for his friends like Heather, who might need his comfort. He distracts himself by focusing on the beautiful flowers in the funeral parlor chapel.