By Tera Shewchenko
It was a particularly slow Saturday at March Funeral Home.
Orla had let her eyes drift away from her work to watch the snow falling in thick flakes outside the window. Located on a reclaimed cemetery, the mid-tier establishment had a generous forest plot that allowed for outdoor services—and a picturesque office view.
The front door chimed open and she peered through her holo-screen at a family piling into the waiting room. There were five of them in total. Two tired-looking women in their late forties, a boy and a girl who looked to be fifteen or sixteen, and an elderly man wearing a scowl.
As they shook the snow off their clothes, Orla waved the screen away and put on her practiced “condolences” face. Friendly, but not overwhelmingly bubbly. Neutrality, she’d found, was what most people wanted from her.
“The Delany family?” she guessed.
“Yes,” one of the women replied. “I’m Harriet’s daughter, Charmion. This is my uncle Wallis, my sister Hortensia, and her children Jupiter and Saturn.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She smiled politely at each of them as they were introduced.
“We wanted to come ahead of the service,” Charmion said, rubbing her temple.
“On account of I don’t want my sister being a late-night snack for some spoiled alien brat,” her uncle growled.
Orla blinked. “Most Buitgiers prefer we don’t use that term,” she corrected politely. “However, if you’d like to make different arrangements for your sister, I’d be happy to help.”
Happy was a strong word. She’d have a mountain of paperwork to fill out, but reprioritizing was part of the job. With a clap of her hands, her screen reappeared, double-sided so the family could see what she was doing. Using the neural link behind her ear, she navigated to Harriet Delany’s file. Wallis’s eyes burned into her forehead as she searched.
“Hmm.” She frowned. “It says here that Ms. Delany specified she wanted the Organic Treatment. Is there a reason you want to change it?”
“Organic,” Wallis scoffed. “It’s disgraceful.”
“But it’s what she wanted,” Saturn argued.
“We can’t afford the alternatives,” Charmion added solemnly.
“There is always the option of cremation,” Orla offered.
“How much?” Hortensia asked.
“Around 8,000 guilens,” she recited by heart.
“Sixteen hundred Earth dollars,” Saturn translated.
Charmion sighed.
Orla returned her gaze to the file uncomfortably. If the family was from Earth, there probably wasn’t anything she could offer them that they’d be able to afford. Most people only left the Mother World if they couldn’t afford to stay.
“They’d pay us six times that if we chose the Organic Treatment,” Hortensia pointed out, glancing at her children.
“And you would receive land on the Buitgiers continent,” Orla added. “Most people use the money to build a house.”
“I’m not selling my sister,” Wallis objected. “How could she have agreed to this?”
But Orla thought he sounded uncertain this time, letting his eyes drift to Jupiter and Saturn as he spoke.
“Uncle Wallis, please,” Charmion argued. “Mom wanted better for us. You were there when she made the arrangements.”
Wallis looked furious for a moment. Then he bowed his head. “It’s not right.”
“It’s not right,” she agreed. “That’s why Mom wanted to give us the chance to build a life where we have other choices.”
Wallis stared at his feet. “There are no better options?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Orla told him.
It struck her, how trapped they were in this option. Even as a supporter of the Organic Treatment, she could sympathize with the difficulties Earthlings faced. Her own grandmother had opted for cremation, a choice her well-off family hadn’t needed to think twice about. One Orla remembered being disappointed in.
However, this wasn’t her family and it wasn’t her choice.
She searched all their services, removing all the extras she could. Cremation really did seem to be the cheapest. Even a simple burial with only a clean shawl to cover the body cost 3,000 guilens for every year they wanted the body in the ground. After the payments stopped, the body would be sold to a Buitgier at a discounted cost. Not helpful.
Determined, she called other funeral homes, lower-tier establishments she hoped would be able to offer a better price. Nothing was in the family’s budget.
After about an hour, she admitted defeat. “I’m sorry,” was all she could say.
Even Wallis didn’t seem upset, only sad. Orla thought that was worse.
“We’ll take the Organic Treatment,” he conceded.
Six days later, the Buitgier came to claim Harriet Delany’s body. With their winged arms and hooked beaks, they always reminded Orla of birds, though they had scales instead of feathers, and usually adorned themselves with brightly colored ribbons.
Buitgiers had large families with complex structures, but it was almost always the egg-layer who had the honor of collecting the human body. Buitgiers didn’t have sexual dichotomy as humans did; all members of the species could ovulate, so humans usually referred to them neutrally.
Communication was haphazard at best, even with a translator, but this parent was especially enthusiastic, showing off the live hologram of their soon-to-hatch egg.
“My sun-drop is lucky. Grows up in health to consume human remains.”
Orla smiled, cooing at the baby with genuine warmth. It was true, the child would grow up stronger and live much longer than they would without a human body to feed on during development. Something about human composition gave the children a boost that traditional Buitgier livestock did not. To them, it was a miracle. She was happy for the Buitgier family, and more than willing to donate her own body to the same cause.
Her donation would nurture new life while freeing up space for the living on their overcrowded planet. And the human families were well compensated. She’d always thought it was a good system.
But as she watched her colleagues roll out Harriet Delany’s body, she wondered for the first time if it was a fair one.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
difficult choices, portrayed with feeling.
Oooh, this was an interesting story! Very thought-provoking, great job!
Very original. I’d like to see more stories about Orla and her business.
I like how you handled this. You’re not afraid to step into uncomfortable territory.
Very original and different story line. Good job.
Very interesting and original. I want to read more.
LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!
Very thought-provoking. Great story!