The Mortician's Son
-
Upload
ryan-snyder -
Category
Documents
-
view
216 -
download
0
Transcript of The Mortician's Son
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 1/11
“The Mortician’s Son”
by Ryan Snyder
Friday nights were my parents’ date nights, so many a Friday afternoon
my brother, Chad, and I were sent down the street to Ethel’s baby blue 2-story.
Her husband, Mo, was a pipe-smoking Harley man, who died when I was 5. It
was the first time someone I knew had passed away. The day after, my father
grabbed my hand and walked me into the funeral home.
He asked, “Ryan, do you know what happens to people when they die?”
“Sure, they go to heaven,” I replied.
My father paused, bit his upper lip and said, “Well, Mo just died, and,
well, he’s in heaven now.”
I looked him in the eyes and said, “I’m glad Mo’s dead. He was a bad,
bad man.”
Dad looked at me through his thick lenses, his brows furrowed, and
firmly stated, “Ryan, don’t say that about someone who’s dead. It’s not nice –
they can hear you.”
“I don’t care. I’m glad Mo’s dead.”
I don’t remember why I felt such a hatred for Mo. I only have two
memories of him: Once he teased Chad and I, calling us girls with a smirk while
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 2/11
exhaling pipe smoke through his nose. Another time his pipe was resting in a
black ashtray on the floor; Chad accidentally stepped on it and scattered ashes
across the carpet. Mo leaped from his plaid armchair, shook his finger at Chad
and cussed him out before Ethel could run in from the kitchen to calm him
down. But, the next time I went to Ethel’s house, I didn’t feel a sense of loss
when I saw his empty chair. When I saw Mo lying stiff on the embalming table,
his pale naked body beneath a white bed sheet pulled up to his armpits, to me
he was already gone.
* * *
Chad and I used to throw sacked lunches into our backpacks, sling them
over our shoulders, and walk through the funeral home with Mom. The garage
was connected to the funeral home, so every morning we had to walk through
the funeral parlor to be taken to school in our black ’79 Pontiac Grand Prix.
We’d pass an open casket at least twice a week. When Mom knew the name of
the deceased, as we called them, she’d tell us the person’s name and what he did
in town. Chad and I would look at him lying solemnly in his navy blazer and
red-striped tie, his hands folded one over the other, then wave and say, “Hi
Bob.”
* * *
I had to crane my head to see over the dashboard as my father and I drove
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 3/11
to Port Columbus International Airport in the white Pontiac station wagon. We
pulled into a parking lot of semi-trailers and my father backed the wagon up to
the shipping dock. I followed behind as he ascended the concrete steps to the
cargo office. Three people waited in line as I eyed the $.35 orange peanut
butter crackers through the vending machine glass. I slid my finger into the
coin return slot, just in case.
The clerk looked at my father and asked, “Can I help you?”
My father slid a check and a yellow sheet of paper across the countertop
and said, “I’m here to pick up an H.R. from flight 1047.”
The clerk nodded and turned to shuffle through a stack of papers. I
tugged at my father’s brown slacks and asked, “Dad, what’s an H.R.?”
He looked cautiously at the other customers, then leaned down and
replied in a hushed tone, “H.R. stands for ‘Human Remains’. We’re picking up
a body that came on one of the airplanes.”
The clerk turned back to my father and said, “Here’s your receipt. I’ll
meet ya around back.”
Outside, the garage door grumbled as it climbed its metal track. The
clerk pushed the rusty blue manual forklift out of sight and returned with a 6-½
foot wooden plank covered by a cardboard box. He pushed a button beside the
door and lowered the dock to the station wagon’s open rear door. The grown-
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 4/11
ups grabbed the nylon loops stapled into the wood, slid the H.R. into the back
of the wagon and slammed the door shut.
As we drove away my father turned to the back to console our new
passenger. “Hi, Marge! Don’t worry, it’ll just be a short trip back home.”
* * *
Occasionally I'd sneak into the funeral parlor alone to examine the
deceased in the casket. One morning in particular, a woman in her mid-
seventies rested inside. Her cheeks were powdered pinkish-tan, her mouth
wrinkled into a slight frown and her shriveled lips penciled in to their normal
size. Her white blouse was just a shade off the casket’s cream interior with a
pearl necklace looping atop her breasts. Her left hand, bearing a gold diamond
ring, was placed on top of her right; green veins tracked across her withered
hands. The smell of fresh-cut roses filled the air; Grandma was written in white
cursive letters on the red ribbon that hung from the casket spray.
My father crept in behind me, placed his hands on my shoulders and said,
“That’s Marilyn. She was a hair stylist in town.”
I wanted to touch her, to see what it felt like to touch a dead person, but
was scared. I wasn't sure what would happen if I touched her - maybe I would
die, or get the same cooties that the girls in school had. I asked, “Daddy, what
would happen if I touched her?”
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 5/11
He replied, “Nothing, she’s dead. She can’t do anything to hurt you. She
feels just like she’s alive, but she’s not.”
“Can I touch her hand?”
“Sure, if you want to.”
I nodded slightly with my eyebrows raised in uncertainty. My father put
his hands underneath my armpits and lifted me up so I was above her. I poked
her hand and arm with my index finger, the way I'd poke Chad’s little pouch of
a belly to tickle him, but this was different - her hand was cold, the temperature
of chilled water from the faucet; her forearm stiff, as if her muscles were flexed,
not ready for the casket lid to close.
* * *
One Sunday after Reverend Jerry’s sermon, I was walking beside my
mother through the church hallway when Joy, the Sunday School teacher,
firmly grabbed my mother’s hand. Her eyes were wide and she said, “Emily,
you’ll never guess what Chad said today in Sunday school. We were looking at
the nativity set, and I asked the kids, ‘So, what is the baby Jesus lying in?’ He
raised his hand and yelled, “Ooo, I know! It’s a casket!’” She grabbed her
knees and howled with laughter.
I didn’t know what was so funny.
* * *
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 6/11
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 7/11
I patted the kitty's head, just hard enough to make her open her eyes, and
excitedly asked, “Can we keep her Mom? Please?”
“Well, maybe. Let me think about it.”
The tiger-striped mother lay against the box wall, babes curled up to her
belly; she glared as we picked each one up for a glimpse of new life. I watched
Mom lift the charcoal grey kitten; her eyebrows rose as her green eyes reflected
like a morning lake.
“Awww,” she moaned while examining the little one. “Look, Ryan. His
legs only go down to his knees.”
She placed him on the ground and we watched the little ball of fuzz
hobble around the concrete stoop on his hind half-legs.
One night as I lay in bed, the X-wing Fighter wallpaper exploded in light
as heat lightning flashed across the dark sky. Leah, the cute kitty we brought
home, sat on the windowsill with her front paws tucked under her chest. I
thought about the day we took her from the farm – how we named her after the
princess in Star Wars, and called her twin brother, Luke Thywalker. I asked
Mom what happened to Luke; she said he couldn’t survive on the farm because
of his lack of legs.
I pictured the old man in the sky atop his golden throne, bones stacked
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 8/11
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 9/11
head out. His mouth and nose were covered by a crayon green gas mask; his
eyes glared intensely at me through his glasses. In a nasal alien voice, he
barked, “What?”
“Daddy, there's someone on the phone.”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know. Some man. He asked about the furniture.”
“Ok.”
As he shut the door, I realized I never knew what he did in the embalming
room. Every time I opened the door to try to peak, the door would creak and I
would hear the clank of his tools against the countertop, his quick footsteps
coming at me and his voice yelling above the machine’s drone. He wanted to
shield me from seeing the naked man on the table, and the hose jutting from the
four-inch slit along his inner thigh, with blood running in rivers down the table.
But I didn’t need to see what was happening to know I didn’t want to be a part
of it. It was that smell – the smell of chemicals so strong they singed my nostril
hair every time the door was opened – that made me glad I wouldn’t have to see
what he did behind that door until I was a teenager. And as soon as I made sure
the door was firmly shut, I exhaled and ran back to the house, trying not to
catch a whiff of formaldehyde.
* * *
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 10/11
8/8/2019 The Mortician's Son
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-morticians-son 11/11
I’d use to spell their names on the black felt sign for the front door; the sticky
tang flavor of the stamps and envelopes I’d lick as we placed death certificates
and veteran grave marker requests in the mail. They were the bifocals we’d
place in the armoire to donate to the Lion’s Club, the rings we took off their
fingers to give to their widows, and the folded American flags we handed to
their proud sons. They were the dead flies I’d sweep up with the yellow push
sweeper in the casket showroom, the pink carnations I’d pick up off the floor
after the pallbearers carried the casket to the hearse. They were the moist tissues
I’d empty from the wastebasket.