Aspects of Death

Setting: A stone bench near the rear of an empty, cold church.


Mors: A funeral has just passed. The mother and sisters were crying. The men had set their expressions grim, jailing their own emotions til the safety of solitude. A single little boy asked a question to his father, a question that made this fierce looking man break down and sob like the women.

-pause-


A simple question, really, "Why?" One that has so many answers, so many direct solutions, but none that people can comprehend.


-pause, as he collects his thoughts once more-


I believe that one of my colleagues holds that death is a necessity, simply another stage in life, another stop on the path. Another believes that those who die had been weighted down by their sins and evils until their will to live simply broke.


-a long pause as he looks at the body of the young girl on the alter, no more than fifteen, surrounded by flowers and pools of scented oils as she awaits her final caretaker to tuck her into her final bed. he sighs-


What, then, when life is not truly lived? What evils could one such as this have done, I wonder, to cause her death?


A thought occurred to me some time ago, sitting here in this chapel, watching all the lonely people go through their day, listening to the preacher's words on life. It is a thought that scares me and gives me strength all at once, as I walk through the trials of life.


-a pause. he looks away from the corpse and down at his hands-


What if people simply die?