The Mortuary Assistant

Chapter 1 - Happy Birthday!

Anna's POV:

Friday 5th November 1983

its been a week since mum died. I've been staying with joy since it happened. I cant be living in that house knowing what happened. I've spoken to a estate agent about selling the house, its going to take some time but joy said I can stay with her as long as I need. I've not been going to college, it's just too hard for me right now. at least they are being really understanding about it. I've just been sitting in the spare room joy is letting me stay in for the time being. staring out into the window, wondering why she would do such a thing.

I hear a knock on my door. I turn around and say come in. its joy. I smile at her "hey joy, what's up?" I ask her. she hands some tea and a sandwich. "I just want you to eat something." she says. I nod my head and take the cup and plate from her and begin to eat. "so, I know you're birthday is coming and I was wondering if you want to do something fun for it?" she say sitting on my bed. "I'm not sure if I want to" I say looking down. she grab my hand and smiles at me. my birthday is in a week, two weeks after mum died. it feels wrong celebrating without my mum. "how about I let you think about it?" she asks. I smile and nod. she walks out the room and closes the door. I turn around and look out the window. 

Wednesday 9th November 1983

I wake up and look over to the desk. looks like joy left a note for me, she's the sweetest. I get up and walk over to my desk. I sit down and open the card that was left with two little presents. It said "dear Anna, happy birthday, I hope you have the best day. come down stairs" I smile and open the two gifts left for me. It was a bottle of perfume and a hairbrush. I laugh and begin to brush my hair. I get up and put on my slippers and walk down stairs. 

I open the living room and see joy sitting on the sofa with a load of presents. I stand there shocked. "oh my god, joy, look at all of these!" I shout running to them and sitting on the floor. "I know, love, and they're all for you" she laughs. I smile up at her and begin to open them. after about an hour of opening presents we walk into the kitchen and make ourselves some breakfast. I was sitting at the table when I hear the phone ring. I answer it, it was my two best friends wishing me a happy birthday. I smile and tell them thank you. they wanted to meet me today but I wasn't sure about it. we always used to meet at the café my mum used to work at. they did say we could go somewhere else but it just feels wrong.

Me and joy eat breakfast. as we were cleaning up we hear a knock at the door. Joy goes to the front door and opens it. I hear two familiar voices and I hear the door close. in comes my two best friends Andi and Tiff. they both greet me with a hug and hand me presents. "awh you guys shouldn't of gotten me all this" I say smiling. "stop it, you're totally worth it" andi laughs. I begin to open them. after opening them I tell joy that we will be going upstairs to my room. She nods and we walk upstairs. they sit down on my bed and I put all my presents down on the floor by my bed.

They sit and stare at me. "what?" I say confused. "well, we are waiting to see if you want to go out or not" Tiff says smiling at me. "yeah, and I mean, we don't have to go the same place" Andi says tapping my leg "yeah I know, it just feels wrong not to, I mean, we've been doing it for so many years, why stop now?" I say looking down. "I think your mum would understand, babe" Andi says holding my hand. I smile at her and think to myself, I think it would be nice to get out of the house for a while. "you know what, why not" I say smile. they both cheer and tell me to get dressed. 

After an hour of me getting ready, we finally leave. we make our way to this new restaurant that Andi says has the best pizzas. we walk in and find a table. we order what drinks and food we want and begin to just chat. "so when are you going to see your mum?" Tiff asks sipping on her drink "I don't know to be honest" I reply "well you know that we can come with you" Andi adds smiling at me. I smile back "no, its ok, I think this is something i have to do on my own" they both smile as our food arrives. we laugh the rest of the afternoon. 

 I walk back to joy's house and open the front door. I see joy sat on the sofa walking the tv. "hi, honey, how was it?" she asks looking at the newspaper "it was good, we had the best pizza" I say smiling and sitting next to her "well that's good" she replies smiling back at me "well I'm going back to my room" I say standing "ok, sleep well" she says "you too" I reply walking upstairs. i open my door and flop onto my bed. wow what a day I think to myself. I put on my PJ's and get into bed and open up my note book. telling my diary everything about my day. I hope these next few days are a better one. 

Thanks for reading the first chapter i hope you like it so far :)