Down Among the Dead Men_ A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician - Michelle Williams [75]
Clive was not overly impressed when I had asked him about the on-call over Christmas, and I fully understood that he must have had an absolute gutful of doing it over the years. He started to tell me about how he had been called in for a forensic post-mortem at 6 p.m. one Christmas day, and that he had brought his pudding with him, along with a paper hat, cheese and biscuits, and a cigar, and had enthusiastically partaken of these in the office while he was waiting for the police to arrive. My spine ran cold at the thought of this happening to me, but I also felt I could not let him down, and that he half expected me (all right, three-quarters expected me) to take the stand this Christmas. With Graham no longer around as a working body, and Maddie fairly new on the scene, I knew I was trapped and the responsibility was going to lie with me.
Maddie had yet to arrive for work, because she had an appointment that morning and was not going to be in till a couple of hours after our normal 8 a.m. start. With no PMs that morning, Clive and I sat in the office, me with a face that could sink a battleship at the thought of working Christmas Day, and Clive reminiscing about Christmases past, almost like a modern-day Scrooge. Always pleased to see Maddie, I cannot explain the feeling of relief when she walked into the mortuary late that morning. Clive continued with his Scrooge impression and Maddie gave me that ‘What is he on about?’ look as she sat down. Clive must have seen this, as he started to repeat his stories to Maddie about covering the mortuary over Christmas. I could see that Maddie could read the pain on my face and she interrupted Clive confidently. ‘So who is supposed to be covering this year?’ she asked brightly. The room went silent; I was not about to offer my time, and neither was Clive.
‘I haven’t yet done the rota,’ Clive replied. ‘As Graham’s no longer with us, I need to think about things carefully.’
What came next out of Maddie’s mouth was music to my ears. ‘I’ll do it. I hate Christmas. As long as somebody is willing to cover New Year’s Eve and Day, I’m happy to do the Christmas period cover.’
I wanted to jump out of my seat and hug her. Clive’s response was not as swift though, until I reminded him that I, too, had only been with them a short time when I took on the responsibility of the out-of-hours service. And the fact that I then said I would support Maddie in any major problems over the festive season probably clinched the deal with Clive and he agreed since this took him out of the equation completely. Total and utter relief on my behalf. I knew Maddie would not be in contact with me on a work basis unless it went completely Pete Tong, and this doesn’t happen often as the dead, despite rumour to the contrary, do not go anywhere.
So, Christmas Day arrived, and Maddie did ring early, but only to wish us Merry Christmas. I invited her to join us at my parents’, but she had her mind set on staying in and wasting the day. Maddie was a huge learning curve for me: I think it seemed so odd that not everyone celebrates Christmas. We don’t exactly do it in a religious way, for the reason that the Christian churches believe it should be celebrated, but I was not about to argue with the public holiday and the sense of family love it gives us.
Luke and I, again dressed in our Sunday best as has always been the norm when it comes to the Williamses on Christmas Day, walked to my parents’ with the dogs after our short morning together enjoying each other’s presents and breakfast at home. We settled Harvey and Oscar on the sofas once we arrived, then waited