Lodie plopped himself down on the cold tile floor and peeled
off his rubber gloves with an irritated sigh. His hands hurt and he hated the
way the latex made his prune-y fingers smell after a long day of dealing with
dead bodies. Embalming was nasty business.
The deceased came to Lodie in all
sorts of grotesque conditions. There was the unnaturally obese man who had
quite literally eaten himself to death. The ferociousness of his final binge
tore through not only his stomach but several inches of his upper intestine as
well. The sight of thirteen partially digested hamburgers turned Lodie off of
fast-food chains for months.
Then there was the woman who met an
unfortunate demise when her car kissed a hundred-year oak just past the Sable
River. Attempting to make her head appear like it was still attached was quite
the challenge and he didn’t quite understand the family’s insistence on an open
casket given the circumstances. However, to this day, it remained the one work
Lodie was most proud of.
Though they did not frequently make
their way through the silver swinging doors into Lodie’s domain, he found
working with the bodies of children to be the most refreshing. Sure, it was
tragic and untimely, and Lodie did not enjoy the sounds that the grieving
families inevitably made in the reception area, but to an elf living in a human
world, at least the size was familiar.
Lodie came to Medleson Funeral
Parlor almost completely by accident. A very unlucky accident, he felt as time trudged
on. It happened on a spring day as Lodie and his family were traveling to the
Elfin Sanctuary for the triannual celebration of the Lotus Festival. Lodie
loved this time of year! He was so thrilled at the prospect of seeing his
cousins from Destinshire and just thinking of the incredible foods that awaited
him made his mouth water with anticipation. Oh to taste the sweet and tartness
of an apple-blossom crodent or lazily sip the syrup from a ripe sacumansa! Lodie
could hardly stand to think of it now. Human food was bland in comparison to the
wonders of a proper elfin feast.
Lodie’s mother had warned him of
the dangers in making the pilgrimage to the sanctuary. Elves and humans had
more or less coexisted peacefully since the Treaty of Conciliation nearly
thirty years prior, but old beliefs can be slow to die and some humans still
considered an elf found on their property to be their possession. The portal
that Lodie’s family would travel through to reach the festival made several
stops along human routes and he would need to stay close to the group in order
to be safe. Once the portals closed, they would not open again until the
following year when the Lotus celebration ended.
Frankly, Lodie had found his mother’s
caution to be annoying. He was by all standards a grown elf and, though this
was his first journey to the festival as such, he surely could care for himself
without clinging to his mommy’s apron. Or so he believed. Naiveté has a way of
humbling those within its grasp.
The first portal stop was uneventful,
as was the second and the third, but by the final stretch, Lodie was looking
for a bit of excitement. He knew the portal stayed open for exactly seven
minutes which, at the time, seemed to provide ample opportunity to look around
the funeral parlor. Lodie had seen many a live human in his day, but a dead
one? That would be something to regale his cousins with over dinner tonight.
While Mama was distracted by the
ever-arguing twins, Lodie slipped away from the huddled group and through the metal
swinging doors. It was dark, as elves tended to travel at night to avoid human
run-ins, so Lodie felt blindly for a wall switch. As his fingers found the
toggle, he heard a click and his eyes were flooded with yellow light. The room
was sterile, wall-to-wall tile with white walls and ceiling. The far side of
the room was banked with upper and lower cabinets and a countertop that was
surprisingly uncluttered. Lodie’s eyes traveled to the center of the room where
a metal gurney stood. An elongated lump lay covered in a white sheet and Lodie’s
heart quickened. Under that sheet was what remained of a human after their
spirit had chosen to find a new resting place. Lodie hardly noticed his steps
as he was suddenly tearing back the covering to find himself face-to-face with
a real, live (well formerly live) corpse.
This man’s skin was grey, not like
the pinkish or brownish hues he’d observed from living humans. The body was, in
what Lodie would soon learn to be, the last stage of funeral preparation,
before hair-styling and make-up attempted to paint artificial life back over
the unmistakable death. Lodie reached out to touch the cheek. It was unnaturally
cold and he felt a chill run down his own spine as he instinctually recoiled. His
gaze traveled down the man’s chest, where a small incision blemished the
otherwise uniformity of a torso. Lodie was taken aback by the apparent
wholeness of the body. He didn’t expect death to look this undisruptive.
Lodie was so preoccupied in his
discovery that he didn’t immediately recognize the sounds in his ears as his
own name. When his brain finally registered the desperation in his mother’s
voice, Lodie turned quickly on his heels and bolted out the swinging doors. He
arrived in the hallway just in time to see his mother’s eyes disappear behind
the portal wall. He had been left behind.
