The White Sheet
By: Cassandra Erskine
It had seemed strange from the beginning. I should have noticed right from the start, when I was told a body had been delivered, because I almost always get a call to examine the body at the scene of the crime before it is brought to the morge.
I had just walked into my morge when an employee of mine approached me and said that a body had arrived and was waiting for me on my postmortem table. Then the man left. That, I noticed was very odd, but I continued heading inside. I saw the body waiting for me on the table, completely covered in a large white sheet. No one was around. It was just me, my equipment and the body.
I prepared all of my postmortem tools that I would needed and then I was ready to remove the sheet. I took a deep breath as I walked over to the body, then took the sheet in both hands, ready to reveal the face of the victim.
Then as I pulled back the sheet, my world began to fall apart. As I uncovered the head of the body, I quickly backed away with tears streaming down my face. There before me, was Detective William Murdoch. His face was pale and his dark brown hair was a mess and out of place. All that was going through my mind was, No this can't be. It's impossible. Then my knees started to give way, so I grabbed for the nearest chair and sat down. Then I pulled up to the table and bent over William's body, crying. "No…" I would say on occasion when I breathed out. His skin was cold like the snow. He was gone, but I wouldn't believe it. So I continued to cry. And then after it had seemed like forever, I woke up.
"Julia! Wake up!" I heard. Then I felt someone shaking me. I opened my eyes to see that tears were running down my face and that I was trembling. I was in the morge, at my desk. I must have fallen asleep there the night before. Then I looked around to see who had woken me up. And there, staring down at me was a living, breathing, and warm to the touch, William Murdoch, who looked seriously concerned about me. "What's wrong?" He asked. But instead of answering him, I jumped and gave him a hug. It felt perfect. Then I whispered, more to myself then to William, "Nothing. Everything is alright now."
Then realizing how inappropriate I was acting, I let him go and took two steps back, while wiping my eyes. But William had a smile on his face now. "So, what's the occasion?" William asked, referring to my random hug. Then I sat back down and thought about it for a second. Then I replied, "I had decided that it was long overdue." William's smile got bigger as he scratched the back of his neck. Then his expression calmed down a bit and he asked, "Was it a bad dream?" "Yes." I admitted, looking down at my feet. "Would you like to talk about it?" William asked. I thought about this for a moment, on one hand it would make me feel better to talk about my dream, but on the other hand I wouldn't want William to know that I had dreamt of him. So I decided not to tell him. And then we got on with the rest of our day.