Kallsen Autumn Kallsen Mr. Neuburger Eng.

Com 101 - 137 6 September 2011 Narrative Essay Biker Funeral

Mark was the typical biker guy, long hair, beard, bandanna and always on his Harley. He was the kind of guy that at first glance you would turn around and go two miles out of your way just to avoid contact. When you got to know him, it was a whole another story. If asked, he would give you the shirt of his back and if he didnt have one would make sure you got one before he even considered getting himself one. Mark was a huge people person, and he didnt care about age, gender, or your background. He would make sure that he befriended you. Mark was a member of Bikers Against Child Abuse (B.A.C.A), and thats where I met him. He was such an eccentric guy that the kids would make sure they were in his group during counseling sessions and on the days we went on trips they would try to get into his list, although they were chosen by drawing names. Mark was just a natural born people person and motivator, and he made it his duty to make at least one new friend everywhere he went. He would be what the phrase the guy everyone would love to hate was talking about. Although he had a good attitude and always was so positive, not everything was heading in favor of him. He was overweight, had diabetes and unfortunately, and had prostate cancer for the last five years. It wasnt looking so good. One day we were talking and I asked him how he can be so happy when everything is going down hill. He replied, Im happy because I know

Kallsen things will start looking up one day, and it may not be for me but someone around me and thats what does it. We just sat there in silence for about ten minutes, and then he just got up and left. A couple months had passed with out anyone really seeing him, and then on November 17, 2009 we got a call saying he had passed away in his sleep. I was upset but knew it was his time. When we got the information about his funeral, I knew I was going. It turned out he had planned the funeral himself to make sure it would be a happy event. As we pulled into the funeral home all you could see was bike after bike. It was a little scary being only one of ten cars and probably fifty or more bikes. The music playing when you

walked in was Highway to Hell, and I had to laugh to myself because this was the oddest funeral I had ever been to or even imagined. It seemed everyone was in leather opposed to normal funeral attire. It was so packed half of us had to watch the funeral on small TV monitors placed around the funeral home. Everything up to this point was a little odd, but little did I know what was to happen next. As the preacher started to preach, the first words out of his mouth were, Well shit. I dont think any of us expected this. I didnt even know that preachers cussed but this one sure did. After he spoke others began to just walk up and talk about Mark, and lets just say they made the preacher words look like something a small child would say. I looked around and was wondering if I was the only one who noticed that none of this sounded like the Mark I knew, but I didnt even know any of the people around me, so I just went back to watching the screen. When I looked back up they were proposing a toast to him and were handing out shots of whiskey. I said to myself, Wow this is getting extremely weird! but I knew it was about to end, so I just sat there with my friend Amanda waiting.

Kallsen When they said that it was done and everyone had said there goodbyes, although for

some odd reason it was a closed casket, we followed the bikes and the bike carrying the casket to the gravesite. When we had arrived; there was a black and blue Harley with flames sitting there next to the head stone. After everyone had settled in around the grave, I glanced at the headstone and immediately gave it a second look. It said in loving memory of a great man Markus James Bollinger and the birth and death dates. I quickly put everything back into place and realized that we were at the wrong funeral. I started to shake my head in embarrassment, how could I do such a stupid thing! Luckily for me Amanda had never met Mark so she would never know what had happened. I looked around at the women crying and the men looking blank, and knew I couldnt draw any more attention to me or they would surely realize I dont belong here. So I used my great so called acting skills and joined in, and just followed the others lead while still keeping it low profile. They lowered the casket into the extremely deep hole and for some reason started to pour alcohol on it, so me not trying to stand out took the small cup from an older lady standing next to me handing them out and did the same. When I realized that it was starting to get fun, I had a twinge of guilt but just as quick as it came it was gone. When I was hoping that this funeral was finally over they lowered the Harley on top of the casket. I was in so much shock that they were burying the bike with this Mark guy, I couldnt even speak. Next thing I know Amanda looked at the man standing next to us and asked why they just wasted that bike on a dead guy. I felt my body go numb because I just knew that it was over. It turned out that everyone had heard, and started to look at us with their evil stares. I panicked not knowing what to do, so I ran and grabbed Amanda by the arm dragging her with. When we finally reached the car after what seemed like an eternity of running, I knew I had to tell her what

Kallsen happened, although it was embarrassing and I knew that I would never live it down, but first things first we had to get out of there.