The show was about to begin, the assistant imagined. He had to work fast.
Under fluorescent lights, he combed her dry hair and situated her gown. He brushed foundation on her cheeks to give her more color, and he curled her eyelashes. He applied lip liner and then ruby lipstick. Using his fingertips, he drew her mouth to a smile.
The assistant heard footsteps approaching the room. He straightened, and he slipped the makeup and curler into his jacket pocket. He stood by her side and waited for the instruction to lay out tools.
The cadaver was ready for her dissection.
I guess love, or weirdness, knows no bounds.
I like the oddness of this story.
Nice!
Thank you to all who read my story.
Ah! That last line punched my guts. Great work.
Thank you, Mira, for reading. My intention was a gut-punch, so I’m glad I was able to achieve that with some readers.
Myneh – research…. or common sense (though that seems to be on the wane). The beautician stage of funeral homes is done after autopsies (not dissection) and not before. The body is actually washed down beforehand. And it’s a very poor use of the word “situate”. Arranged would be better – if it applied at all. Ignorance mistaken for weirdness, from what I see.
Thank you for the lovely review, Perry. Who said this was about the beautician stage at a funeral home? Research or the dictionary will tell you that the word “cadaver” especially references a body intended for “dissection.” So I pictured this more as a twisted prank by a med student, or just a creepy assistant who likes to manipulate bodies, before a med school dissection (not an autopsy).
But, of course, at 101 words a lot is left open to interpretation.
I don’t expect all or even most people to like my stories. I don’t like many I read myself, but I don’t think I would ever go out of my way to refer to another writer’s work as ignorant.
Excellent creepy-factor, Michael (as usual). Don’t let the bastards grind you down!
Bastard or no, on triple check I do take Michael’s point about the word “cadaver” being especially relevant to med school dissection and admit that the ignorance was mine, and apologize accordingly.
As to Christina, I’m sure the doctorate in linguistics can afford her some insight into the vernacular description an Irish man will have of the pig-ignorant appellation..
Nice story, Michael! The story’s creepiness is certainly not on the wane.