For many years now Castel had worked at the O.d.a.a.t. funeral home. When he first started he had shyly asked what that stood for and the receptionist raised an eyebrow, nose in the air as she huffed and pointed to the top of his current work orders for the day which said One day at a time funeral home and loved ones permanent placement center. After that he made a point to read all that was given to him and keep his questions to himself less he upset anyone ore then he had to, he was a maintenance man and as such it was obvious he was to do what he was hired for and keep to himself. It didn't really bother him after a bit since he actually preferred his privacy which soon was obvious to everyone on staff the longer he worked there. And being as shy as he was he just did his best to do his best to only let his hard work be seen but he himself never seen or be underfoot.
Castel kept to himself so often he was given all the jobs like cleaning the linens, arranging the floral displays, cleaning the coffins in the display room, maintaining and watching over the viewing rooms while those waited for their dearly departed to be cremated. Not that he would say anything but he actual enjoyed doing these jobs, especially when watching over the viewing room, he would sit and draw the people as they stood there saying their goodbyes and paying their respects to the one who had passed from their lives. Some times he would be asked to stand in as a pole bearer for a funeral and he always kept a clean dress shirt and slacks around just in case. Things were very quiet most days and sometimes on his breaks he would draw those in mourning, people always reacted differently to death and passing, some would cry, others just stood there numbly.
There was one lady who threw herself on her father in laws coffin and sobbed and sobbed before they loaded it all the way into the hearse. Her heart was so shattered because she had lost both in-laws in a matter of a years time. Tho no one would have wanted to see her father in laws face, even the mortician had had a hard time rebuilding where the side of the face had exploded outward do to an aneurysm onset in the area behind his eye that no one including him had known about in fact the day he died the woman had found him on the bathroom floor dead from it and felt if she had known she could have saved him. Castel had been working and they had needed another pole bearer so he was requested to do so by the funeral director on that day. Walking out to prep the casket to be loaded in the hearse and then carried to the grave site he had found her still on the casket and tho he was never comfortable around people he sat down on the ground beside the casket gurney and talked to her very quietly about the trees and the flowers as well as the time of year. She went from sobbing uncontrollably on top of the casket to finally calming down and sitting besides him to talk about chrysanthemums and roses.
After that she would send him a rose on the anniversary of her father in laws death thanking him for all his gentle undemanding kindness and she did that til she passed away from a head injury several years later. The family was planning to have a quiet ceremony and they had invited him to come because she would have wanted it. When he asked what they were doing for the burial they said they were coming to the funeral home he worked at to make the preparations. It made sense and it made him glad because this way he could see her off properly. She had been kind to him and he hoped he could do something special for what ever they chose, tho he knew alot of the caskets were in the 5 and 6,000 dollar range still there were some here simple but nice ones in the 5 to 600.00 range.
Working in the funeral home had its ups and downs, not the people who were the clients but the other folks who worked there mainly the salesmen, particularly the salesmen the owner thought would bring more financial revenue to the funeral home.
He prepared himself for his shift and grabbed his drawing pad and headed into work, he didn't like to drive and almost always chose to walk when he could.
He loved the flowers and the sky, the seasons, the air, the world around him, it all begged to be drawn and loved in each moment. As he neared the funeral home he saw there was already a mess in the show room and hurried in and dropped off his drawing pad and set to work cleaning it all up. Checking the list he saw there was several more viewings today for the higher end caskets then set to work prepping and really making them shine.
As soon as a sale rep entered he would clear out glancing over last min details like drapes, flowers, and the way the lighting hit the caskets making them feel warm and the perfect forever home for the ones moved on from their loves.
As he cleaned the display room for the fourth time that day, was it the fourth time? Castel had lost count. he wasn't sure who he was more upset at the funeral assistant director for showing up in pajama bottoms and bunny slippers or the clients that they had had in and out all day long. The A.D. knew what the work dress code was he had been here for 6 months, however he was the typical owner's family nonsense. And in that man's mind Castel was nothing but a peon to be seen but not acknowledged. Castel worked with that, and threw himself into his work. Better to be seen and not talk, then deal with how he treated the clients. He didn't hate the man so much as he seriously disliked his actions. He was a manipulative creep who hit on anything that interested him in his own smarmy way, but he was good at sales maybe too good and folks always seemed kinda in a fog when ever he was done talking to them and they always bought whether they could afford it or not whatever he wanted them to buy. This man actually made the other sales reps look good and had stolen several of their sales right out from under them. But because of his pull and his relationship to the owner no one ever stood up and said anything. If anything, by not saying anything they practically told the guy that it was totally ok to act like this. Castel wished he knew how to confront the man, but was too shy to do so and quite frankly thought like everyone else he would lose his job if he did.
Checking the list once more he saw that the woman's family would be viewing the mahogany coffin, he knew that no one had that kind of money but prepared it extra special anyways. Placing a lovely french silk that was deep jewel blues with silver flourish embroidery on the top of the casket knowing it would offset the mahogany perfectly. Then he placed 6 roses in her favorite colours offset with babies breath in a heart shaped vase on top of the jewel blue silk.
Setting the lighting with soft hints of pale pinks and purples he then cleaned everything up and smiled sadly at his work. They deserved something nice even if they were just looking.
Hearing the A.D. rolling in he was very embarrassed and saw the family talking to the man in his pajama bottoms and slippers. Castel shrugged it off but then noticed the guy actually hitting on the deceased woman's sister. Castel shook his head as the A.D. caught his eye and glared then waved his hand at him and shooed him out of the show room while smiling and laughing as if death was a time for happiness. And that the perfect funeral package would solve all their problems. Castel dared one more glance at the family now very immersed in the A.D.s seemingly effortless and well charmed spiel then once more over the casket, he wished he had one more moment to draw this, maybe in his own way putting this show piece together he was saying goodbye.
Letting out a long sigh he moved off the floor of the show room and once more he worked his way to the little store room off the side of the show room after putting away the current things he had just used to prep the current showcased coffin he crawled into one of the display coffins that they had in the little room. If you didn't work there you wouldn't even know the room existed, It could hold 30 coffins comfortably and there was a rather decent sized work area for repairs as well, much of his time was spent in that work area but he never minded. He liked the fact that this coffin was tucked in the back and it was personally one of his favorites but that was probably because it was rarely shown. It was too plain for the A.D. selling tastes but it suited Castel's simple yet artistic taste just fine. The deep almost dirt reddish brown wood inlay on the outside was simple yes quietly ornate and it had little engravings on the inside of the coffin. They were little intricate pieces of art there were like numbers or letters and each one like a picture of a single thing. Those engravings called to him so on his breaks he would go and lay inside the coffin drawing those engravings, almost imagine them glowing as he studied them one by one.
The engravings seemed to float around him as he quietly drew them over and over again, the flourish he used began to change and he could almost reach out to touch them. Moving a hand up to touch one as it seemed to actually float by he gasped because it said his name shaking his head he realized it was only the A.D. calling him, screaming at him actually so he let out a long sigh and slipped back out of the coffin tucking his drawing pad under the pillow in the coffin and shut the lid. Slipping back out of the room he met face on the A.D. whose face was a red as a balloon and honestly look like he had been stung with how swelled his face looked, oh Castel had seen him mad before at little things, anything and everything in fact. "You ...disgusting piece of filth..you disturbed my 10,000 dollar Mahogany casket with the rose satin inlay sale with your little light show! What the fuck is wrong with you? You know I was working this sale, you did this on purpose! Get out, get out and never come back!" Castel stepped back completely confused and blinked at him. "I did what? I ..light show?" The A.D. hissed at him as it sounded like air escaping from a helium balloon looked a lot like it too. Castel worried for a moment that the A.D. was going to throttle him and then turned away as if he was calming down only to have the A.D. turn back and clocked him hard in the jaw with his left fist. Castel saw stars and rocked back on his heels as he feel backwards thru the doorway. His brain scrambled for sensible thought as he fought thru the pain in his jaw nerves very much on fire from the blow as he landed square on his bum. He held his jaw and struggled to get up only to find the A.D. on top of him trying to continue to hit him over and over. "Stop..Lying" he gritted thru clenched teeth. "You have always looked at me with such disdain and I knew it would be a matter of time before you pulled something. But I'll show you...you'll never mess with me again. Hell you'll never work in this town again."