The Interview

Revierasa Eshinina: So, you... Er... Not often you see "coffin for sale" at a garage sale.

Lux Cassen: No, I guess not.

Eshinina: Erm... What's your name? Do you remember how you got there?

Cassen: I am Lux Cassen. They exhumed my corpse, cleaned me. Never put the corpse back. Then someone who went to the funeral took me to his house.

Eshinina: Oh... and how... was that?

Cassen: It doesn't happen to coffins often, so I was so glad when they got that nasty sludge out of me. It's not a great feeling, having a grimy, decaying hunk of flesh and bones inside you. It is a comically grotesque version of torture. The cleaning was nice.

Eshinina: Why's that?

Cassen: They got all my corpse's carrion out. It was relieving.

Eshinina: Yes... Ah, you keep calling the corpse... yours?

Cassen: Yes. I... held it. Therefore it was mine.

Eshinina: You don't seem to believe he's a person. Why?

Cassen: Corpses are not people. And definitely do not touch them. God, you should have seen some of the people at the funeral. Kissing, hugging and holding. If souls are real, that body's soul was long gone. If they're not, then his brain function ceased long before. There is no reason to respect the body of a dead man. It is not alive. I have never understood why people put their dead underground. Just leave them like Before. Circle of Life.

Eshinina: When you say 'before', what do you mean?

Cassen: Before. I was an old oak tree, but I was not there in Before. The Old Ones spoke of it often. I remember the warmth of the sun... I miss the sun...

Eshinina: And you don't think corpses should be underground?

Cassen: There's no point. It lacks consciousness. Isn't that what being 'alive' is? Anyway, Circle of Life. As I've said.

Eshinina: You also spoke of the sun, how you missed it. What was it like underground?

Cassen: It was cold and damp. But comfortable. It was cozy. I've lived off the Earth since I was a seed. I was alive in the Earth, then I was dead in the Earth. The Earth continued aiding me. She does not discriminate.

Eshinina: Does the earth speak to you?

Cassen: Speak?

Eshinina: Humor me.

Cassen: The Earth does not speak to us. Not in words. She speaks to us in other ways; smells, tastes, warmth and cold, light and dark. That is how she speaks.

Eshinina: Does she speak to people?

Cassen: Humans? Yes. But none of you seem to hear. You don't let nature take its course. You're too obsessed with your money and gods.

Eshinina: Is there a higher power of some sort that you believe?

Cassen: The Earth is Goddess of all. She works hard to nurse all of Life. Many plants and animals are god-fearing of some sort. I don't find any peace in that. Believe whatever you please as long as it doesn't hurt yourself or others. I'll in turn Believe in the same way. And for whatever afterlife may or may not Be, I believe there is nothing for what is Dead and repurposed.

Eshinina: Like you?

Cassen: Like me, yes.

Eshinina: Is there anything else you'd like to talk about? Any questions for me?

Cassen: I think I have seen enough Human behavior not to question it. Though, I have one thing to say. Coffins, we are not particularly loving of our... occupation. The flesh inside us is disgusting. We hate it. I was right next to my corpse's grandfather's coffin.

Eshinina: Grandfather? I thought your corpse wasn't a person?

Cassen: You can always use biological lineage to explain something. In any case, the grandfather's coffin hated everything. Constant complaining. I understand his cries of rage, but he never shut up. All the coffins in that cemetery were glad they weren't the one next to him. I had to deal with the insufferable screaming.

Eshinina: How was it 'insufferable'?

Cassen: Annoying, frustrating, enraging. It was constant. It often depended on the day. But it took my mind off of my corpse and the disgust of having muck like that inside me.

Eshinina: So you're not fond of humans?

Cassen: Mostly, no. They are infuriating. Sometimes you can easily classify them as crazy. As I said earlier, some of the people at my corpse's funeral could not grasp the Circle of Life. They went about it in many strange ways.

Eshinina: So, you're happy you're out of the ground? Away from all that?

Cassen: Yes. I missed the sun. More than that, the kind, familiar air of homes.

Eshinina: What kind of homes have you been in? Funeral home...? Other homes...?

Cassen: A few. The funeral homes are dull. But the... family homes are nice. Peaceful. I've always wanted a Home with an atmosphere like that. This Home has that.

Eshinina: Well then, welcome Home, Cassen.