COMPASSION

Chapter 7

Catherine's Coffin

Tom Havard is furious with God. He is outraged and humiliated with what just happened in the Embalming Room with his wife's corpse. He is swearing and cursing at God and smashes his fist into the car dash as he speeds toward Saint Mary's Cemetery. He pulls into the parking lot and runs toward the Stone Grotto and approaches the monument with Jesus Christ on the Cross. His face is beet red from the Drink and Anger and he falls to his knees before his Lord crying and weeping. He stands up and screams at the Statue.

"Why didn't you stop me!
'
"Why didn't you warn me!"

"You let that Evil Monster make a Fool out of me!"

"I broke my solemn Oath!"

"You're never there when I need you the most!"

"When I died in the Hospital I expect to meet you but I meet the son of the Monster!"
Now when my wife dies which was to be the Happiest Day of my Life this Horrible Evil Woman appears in my wife's house at the kitchen table. Then when I am embalming my wife's body That Monster possesses her body and Humiliates me.

All you have done today is Torture me.

Why!

What did I do to deserve this? What if Catherine finds out what I did to her corpse? This is too much to take. Are you trying to drive me mad?"

Tom turns from the Cross and screams, "What does that Horrible Bitch want?"
Tom gets back in his car and speeds off to the Dental Office. Tom is driving in his Black Plymouth Coupe heading for Dr. Parmo’s Dental Office to pick up Catherine and take her to his home where both of them will live. Tom pulls into the parking lot and enters the Dark Brown Brick Dental Office Building where he is met by Mrs. Asaki. 
 
“Can I help you?” Mrs. Asaki asks her visitor.
 
“Yes...Is my wife is here Catherine Havard?”
 
“Oh yes, Mr. Havard she is in the surgery room.”
 
Dr. Parmo enters the reception area and greets Tom, “Welcome Mr. Havard. I am Dr. Parmo. Your wife is resting comfortably in the surgery room.”
 
“Thank you, Doctor, for seeing my wife on such short notice.” 
 
“It was my pleasure, Mr. Havard. I also was your son Joe’s Dentist. Boy, he is a big boy. He should have been a football player with his size.”
 
 “Joe does not have any fight in him. His Mother made him soft. Now Tommy my oldest son he should have been a Linebacker...he loves to mix it up. Can I see my wife?”
 
“Follow me, Mr. Havard.”
 
The Doctor leads Tom down the hall and into the surgery room where Catherine is sleeping comfortably in the Molar Dental Chair. Tom wakes his wife from a deep sleep and tells her, “The boys are fine...they are making your funeral arrangements. Father Tragic was at the house and blessed your body. The people from Manions Funeral Home came and took your body to their funeral home just like you told Tommy to do if they ever found you dead on the floor. Everything is going great. Donna bought you a new dress and they are all going to Manions at twelve noon time to get a casket for you.”
 
“Tom you have to try this chair out. It’s the most relaxing chair I have ever sat in.” 
 
“Maybe next time I am here for a check-up. Tom turns to Dr. Parmo, “What do I owe you for today?”
 
“Your money is no good here. I would like to see the two of you after the Funeral. I want to talk to you about your son Joe’s future. I was trying to arrange a special meeting for your son and introduce him to someone I thought he should meet but I ran out of time. I can’t talk to you now because I have other patients to see.”
 
“Thank you again, Doctor. We are going to head for home.” 
 
The Doctor escorts the couple to his reception room to say goodbye. The waiting room is packed with patients. Some holding their mouth and moaning in pain. There is a Football Player wearing a Navy Blue Top, White Pants and Black Cleats.  His  Jersey has the number 22 on it. There is also a young eleven-year-old African American Boy with a gunshot wound in his chest sucking on a lollipop.
 
The Doctor sees the grim room filled with the Newly Dead just arrived. His Heart is breaking but refuses to show sorrow or pity and he will calm the room down the best way he can.

"Listen I am Happy to see my new patients here and Mrs. Asaki and I want to make you all welcome. I will work as fast as I can to see you all. Is it okay if I see this young lad next? The room unanimously agrees.
 
The Doctor bends down and asks the boy, “What is your name?”
The boy replies, “Daquan…my tooth hurts. Can you help me?"
 
“That is a good name the Doctor replies.” He takes Daquan by the hand and leads him to the surgery room.
The Doctor turns away from his patients and starts to silently cry as he leads the boy to surgery. 
The Doctor promises Daquan, " I give you my word you will not feel any pain." 
 
Tom and Catherine carefully step past the crowded waiting room to go to their car for the trip home. Tom opens the office door for Catherine and they head for the car.
 
Catherine sees the Black 1950 Plymouth Coupe and is surprised, “ I sold this car after your funeral. I could not drive so there was no need to keep it. How did you get it back?”
 
“I have my ways to get what I want,” Tom tells his wife.
 
“Where are we going now?” Catherine asks?
 
“To your New Home.”
 
“We have a home?”
 
“Yes, and we will be there very soon.”
 
Catherine sits in the car and moves next to Tom and starts kissing him wildly. She can smell and taste the whiskey on his mouth.
 
Tom pulls away, “What are you doing?” 
 
Catherine asks, “Have you have been drinking.”
 
Tom replies, “I just had one.”
 
Catherine tells Tom, “I don’t know what it is but when you woke me up when I was in the dental chair and I saw you I never felt more turned on. I wanted you to make love to me then right in the chair.”
 
Tom cannot tell his wife the reason she is aroused is due to his lovemaking with her corpse back in the Embalmment Room so he changes the subject, “Wait until you see the House, I think you will love it.”  
 
“Why is the fog so heavy? You can hardly see the road.” 
 
“It is always this foggy this time of year”  Tom replies.
 
Catherine turns the car radio on and listens to the music then tells Tom to pull the car over to the side of the road. “ I think I am going to be sick.” She steps out of the car and starts to vomit pink embalming fluid onto the ground. She wipes the fluid from her mouth and looks at her hands. “What is this?”  she asks.
 
“I just finished embalming you and I might have used too much fluid.” 
 
“You embalmed me?” A look of fear and confusion comes over Catherine.
 
“It’s the law. I did not want another man touching you so I possessed the Mortician at the Manion Funeral Home and embalmed you. I hope you remember I am a Licensed Mortician.” 
 
Catherine starts crying as the thought of her death again comes over her. The couple gets back in the car and Tom reassures her once she gets settled in her new home things will eventually get better. They drive on a road and Catherine sees the street sign “Cemetery Street.”  
 
Tom turns off the road and drives through a Large Black Wrought Iron Gate barely visible in the Dense Fog.
 
“We're here!” Tom parks the car and gets out of the car and opens the passenger door so Catherine can get out and see her new home. They walk to the front porch and up the steps to the front door. Tom opens the door and picks up his wife and carries her over the threshold.
 
“Close your eyes and don’t open them until I say so.” Tom carries Catherine and puts Catherine down. “ Okay open your eyes.” 
 
Catherine opens her eyes and finds herself in total blackness. Tom is in another room and calls to Catherine to join him. He pulls a chain on a desk lamp and the room is illuminated. It appears to be a Library Room with an oak wooden desk and an oak wooden chair.
Behind the desk are walls with rows of books. Catherine walks over to the books and sees they are yearly journals numbered individually starting with the year 1958.
 
“I spend part of my time writing in my daily journal. You look exhausted do you want to see where you will sleep?”  Tom asks.
 
Catherine quietly nods her head, “Yes.”
 
Tom leads his wife upstairs to the bedroom door and opens it. Catherine looks inside and sees two coffins on the floor. One black and next to it one brown with brown dirt around the coffins.
 
“Mine is the black one and you have the brown one?” Tom tells his wife.
 
“You remember you picked a black coffin for me. The boys will pick a brown one for you,”  Tom tells his wife. “Why don’t we both get some rest and we can talk later.”  Tom opens his black coffin and gets in and lies down. He motions to Catherine to do the same. “You should leave the lid open until you get used sleeping in it.”
 
Catherine opens the lid and stares at her coffin. “Don’t you have a bed?”
 
“You didn’t bury me in a bed you buried me in a coffin.
You will get use to it...now get some rest,” Tom falls fast asleep.
 
 Catherine reluctantly steps inside her coffin and lays down. Fog and cold enter the room so Catherine pulls the lid closed and goes too sleep.