The Cool Room by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 30

With Jonathan climbing in behind the wheel of the hearse and Frank sitting silently in the passenger’s seat, they drove away from the hospital and headed back to the funeral home. Emily, driving Jonathan’s car, followed behind. Pulling into the driveway, Jonathan stopped at its far end and, getting out, waited for Emily. He felt that Frank should be spared the experience of bringing the body of his wife into his own funeral home. Stopping behind them, Emily quickly got out of the car, hoping to get to the stretcher before Frank got out of the hearse. As they opened the rear door, both noticed that Frank remained sitting in the passenger’s seat – motionless. It would take some time before the shock of seeing his wife’s body would diminish to the point where Frank could, at least, begin to function. But for now, they thought it best to let him sit in the hearse where he could begin to grieve and perhaps process his terrible circumstances.

Jonathan and Emily did what they would normally do with any new client. They rolled the remains into the funeral home and to the cool room. From there, they filled out the proper paperwork, read the Medical Examiner’s report, matched the content of the toe tag with the identifiers in the paperwork, and slid the remains into one of the coolers. According to the report as well as the police documentation, a tree limb had fallen during the storm. Landing on the roof of Dorothy’s car it struck the top of her head, causing several vertebrae to collapse. Death was nearly instantaneous, sparing her any degree of suffering. But as suffering goes, it would only be the beginning for Frank. It almost seemed like they were working with just another client when they heard Frank walk in through the side door. They followed the sound of his footsteps as he climbed the staircase and closed his bedroom door behind him. Concerned for Frank’s safety, Emily asked Jonathan what he thought.

“Do you think one of us should stay?” she asked. Neither had ever spent a night in a funeral home, and the thought of doing so brought a shiver to both of them. They had always thought that working in the funeral industry was very much a science, but sleeping in one was not something either was inclined to do. After the day’s events, both felt the need to escape the tension that seemed to hang in the air like the sword of Damocles. Perhaps it wasn’t enough that they were housing the body of Frank’s wife. What if they returned in the morning to find that Frank, by some mechanism, had passed on as well? It is not entirely unheard of that when one’s spouse passes, the survivor soon does so as well. But this was something that Jonathan and Emily could not afford to consider. They could only handle one traumatic event at a time.

Deciding to leave, it was decided that Jonathan would go upstairs to check on Frank. His fear was that he might receive a response of silence and would have to open Frank’s bedroom door. With great hesitation, Jonathan walked the stairs as every step creaked underfoot. Although the stairway was carpeted, the house, being at least eighty years old, occasionally let out a groan, especially during the change of seasons when the humidity caused its structure to shift and twist. The house almost seemed to come to life, and now that it appeared to be in possession of a looming energy that was almost palpable, it began to express its own pain. Emily waited at the bottom of the stairway, wanting to hear Frank’s voice, letting her at least believe that he would be okay for the night. Should they return the next morning to find him at his desk, they would be certain that Frank had gotten through the night in one piece. Life, as it were, could go on from there and if Frank were so inclined, he could call on Jonathan or Emily for support – even if it was nothing more than a cup of coffee and a bit of small talk. At least Frank had someone to talk ‘to’. Returning to the first floor, Jonathan approached a very concerned Emily, and although their conversation was brief, he engendered her confidence that Frank would eventually be okay. He would, however, carry the pain of Dorothy’s loss with him for years. But there was work to do, and as if by divine intent, the power returned as they walked back to the cool room. As Emily retrieved the body they were to prepare, Jonathan made his way to the cellar. With the power having returned, there was no need to have the generator running, shutting off the cans of gas for another time. Hopefully, it would never be needed.