Falling For The Mortician

Amarula I took a bite off of my chocolate bar . As I watched from a distance. Solemn silence , chilly weather and cries.But am used to it . The sweet bar was beyond my expectations.It had some enticing coconut taste to it. I didn't expect it would be that sweet . They all dispersed in silence , tears spoke volumes as to what pain the were in . Tiny drops of rain landed on my hand. I got up . " It was great serving you .Rest in peace my dear" I said . I got back into my car, time to head back to work , well actually I was at work right there watching mourners lay their loved one to rest . I am responsible for that, I cleaned her , dressed her , did her makeup and laid her in her coffin. I parked on the parking space. Silence greeted me right when I got out of my car . Silence of death. My office is packed to capacity , not with papers but with people and they are not alive . I greeted Sam . " how was the funeral?" " the usual ,pain ,tears , am glad they finally laid her to rest " " damn it must've been hard for them" " very hard , she had just gotten married " " I feel for her family, you did a great job , atleast they got to see her looking peaceful and beautiful" he remarked . " thank you , we worked as a great team Sam " That funeral, I mentioned earlier , was of one of my clients. A twenty four year old waitress , she died in a car accident on her way to the airport. She was drunk along with her husband , yes kids don't drink and drive , it's not worth your life. Luckily he survived despite the fact he was behind the wheel, sadly she died on impact declared dead at the scene. Her head was decapitated , her arm amputated by the guard rails. When her body arrived at the collection bay . I thought it were some pieces of wrapped up meat. Like she was picked up from the scene and brought straight to my desk . Am glad her family didn't see how she arrived at the funeral home they would have nightmares for decades. I really felt for the first responder .To see the freshly dead body was not something exciting , I hope he got therapy. I never believe I could give her a beautiful send off because of the state she was in. I cleaned her up, drained the remaining blood off of her and sew her body parts together at some point I had to add some clay to her to cover up the torn off flesh from her body . It took me eight days to finish her body , her family wanted her in her wedding dress looking as joyous as she lived .I just wished she would not have been drunk , she wouldn't be on my desk . I delivered my duty, did her makeup, carefully got her into the wedding dress with the help of my assistant Sam . She looked like a princess, I made sure she looked like she was sound asleep someday to be awaken by her prince . Her funeral was sad , I attended it watching from a far . My worry was the head falling off to the side her family wanted her in a glass casket for the open casket as her head laid on a pillow very tricky position they put me in. " the hospital called , " he said . I don't want to hear about them .Just not now or today .I need more time. " Am not even going to ask " I said dismissively . We have several bodies to bury we can't afford more bodies coming in until the ones we have are out. Overcrowding is why this home shut down from it's previous owner . I saved up some cash and helped him clean up we had to cremate some while others were buried in mass Graves . Many unclaimed bodies came we didn't have resources to fix the problem, my former boss had masses of debts he was slowly gambling the company's money . His gambling led to his arrest for fraud and murder over a deal gone wrong a drastic fall from grace from taking care of the dead to actually being a killer . A drastic fall from grace. With my little savings and selling of a few items I saved up it wasn't enough. I got myself a sugar daddy he scattered my brains with money I used that money saved it up and bought the Funeral home which now is under my name. Being the youngest African American Funeral home Director it's my title and I love it with a" Dr" on it . The funeral home was located in a dominantly white neighbourhood so you could guess my presence wasn't much welcome at first but as time went by the folks just had to deal with it . We began to saw beyond the race ,my hands do magic I can handle any body regardless of their skin colour . It was I they would come to ,to give their loved ones a perfect send off and go some solve some mysteries surrounding their death. I am also a pathologist. I became the sweetheart of the neighborhood that when I wanted to move to another town the citizens held a demonstration to have me brought back . I was taken from my new home by the Sherriff and brought back to my old home. Given a better house. There is no one that does a funeral like I do, yeah I said it Hence I earned the name Queen Reaper. From my devoted ness to my work as a grim reaper. My peers were out there on i********: having fun while I on the other hand I was dressing dead bodies and owning my own business it may not be some fancy job but it's worth it . I had love for my job , they had love for the gram totally different , their need to constantly look good and some would get plastic surgery only to end up on my disposal. The bankruptcy didn't scare me when we were able to pay up , the former owner agreed to hand over the facility if I paid his debts .A struggle yes , and I did it paid all his debts , got the documentations and boom I was the new owner of Gloria Funeral home . I had the place remodeled as well as more storage facilities included like refrigerators . The biggest set back is unclaimed bodies. They are piling up and it's worrying at some point. My phone rang. " Amarula , how may I help you ?" I said. " Ru, hey?" " Donna , " " Ru , I know you said no ,but please you are our only option" " Donna I can't take in more bodies , the graves are almost complete and the governor is on vacation . I can't take more " I said " just one more please" " Donna" " Ru, pretty please." I want to say no but she's my friend . Besides there is still room for one more . Just one more not any other than that. " okay just one" " thank you so much" I can't have the unclaimed bodies buried without the Governor's signature. The state's approval to bury them. Some are disfigured others just Jane/ John Doe's which have been in my disposal for years . I have had to get strict so I can stop recieving more bodies .Damn it's a sad world where people are dying each second. " A body is arriving"I said " But we are full" he replied " I told her so, " " Ru what about the governor , any word from him?" " the Governor's office is still crickets , they are jamming everything ,I would have already had this over and done with ages ago" " he will be back late tonight"he said " I hope so , " I went back to my office to fill in the paperwork and sign the death certificates for the family that recently lost their daughter .It's the hardest document to give anyone. As usual , there is never the best time , they will always mourn for their loved one and there you are with your big head taking a document that reminds them she's dead . Sadly it's my job ,I gave her the best funeral despite how hard it was to stitch and glue her body and fit her skin tight lace wedding gown . For the viewing before her funeral ,I hadn't finished stitching . There was a knock on my door. " Hey " " Hey Sam ,come in" He walked in nervously, he's two years older than I but am his boss . Our work relationship is close but professional. Sam is an ex convict. He was in a street g**g back in Chicago. One of his rival g**g member shot and killed his sister , Sam retaliated and butchered him in the middle of the night. He was 15 at that time was sentenced to life but fifteen years later the president woke up in a good mood and decided to pardon a few individuals , Sam was on the list. I knew him from working as a volunteer in prison .The church summoned a few volunteers to take food and basics to a Prison facility . When I met Sam he came of as an Intelligent guy, he was well educated , very optimistic and had realized his ways were not right. I went and sat next to him , he was by himself, so far among the few Caucasian men in a dominantly black prison. For a volunteer it was risky but I wanted to understand why a man like Sam would commit such a crime at that time I didn't know it was a g**g rivalry. He told me how poverty made him join a street g**g , they worked for a motorcycle club . One day a rival g**g killed his sister he fought back hard. He wished to have a normal life like any man out there , working , dating and happy. I would visit him him in prison , he loved reading books especially literature books and old romance stories . I would go with about five books borrowed from a library two weeks later he's already finished them . When he was released I was there to pick him , took him to the best diner , bought clothes for him .And got him a place next to mine . I wanted to keep him from falling back into joining the life of crime because he lacked something. He wanted to be a better man so I thought why not ask my former boss if Sam would join. At first he was reluctant , both of them . Sam was not okay touching dead bodies while my boss was sceptical about hiring an ex con, his tattoes were scary but I saw through Sam a man that saw his mistakes and wanted a new life. He finally agreed .Sam agreed to take the job afraid at first but he got the hang of it. And now he's cleaned up ,looks fresh and is doing amazing ,no drugs , and above all no gangs. We go to church together , and sometimes celebrate Christmas, he has his own place too as an independent man . Getting a job as an ex con is not easy . Donna joins us we are like three best friends.We go to drink together after work , have karaoke nights , celebrate birthdays. " Hope this isn't inconvenient?" " no , I was just signing a few documents here, please go ahead " I said. " I would like a leave ,my graduation is in three days ,I would like to ask for permission to head to Orlando" " Oh wow! Thats amazing, you can take the leave no need to ask Sam .Am so proud of you. " . " I should thank you for believing in me. " " you are welcome Sam " hey beautiful people, poppin in to say please don't reead this book it's probably my worst written book. Like pretty please, I don't want to be rude to anyone in the comments. I messed up so badly with the plot and I am learning from that. Much love to you, stay safe and have a beautiful day.