Meeting by Chance Staying by Choice

Mortician School

"Hey Oliver, can you walk the cats for me today?" Lana asked while collecting things and putting them in a purse.

"Anything for you. But may I ask where you are going to be at that time?" Oliver was in the kitchen making some cupcakes, more than necessary. He was currently icing some, which was about a dozen and then there was about two dozen more in the oven. By the aroma in the room, it smelled like he was cooking vanilla ones.

"I've gotta go to school. I'll be back in a few hours though, probably around 2." Francois joined them in the kitchen, grabbing a cup of coffee.

"Oh? What are you going to become?" Francois was drinking his coffee but spit it out when Lana replied;

"A mortician." She said causally. "It's kind of gruesome but it's not that bad, I quite enjoy it."

"Does Matt know about this?" Francois asked, this was practically the first time that he talked to her. 

"Yeah, Matthew knew about it, so Matt knows about it too I assume." Lana made a cup of coffee to go then gave Oliver a hug goodbye before heading off to school. Today they would be watching a mortician prepare a body for the funeral. A tall man with sliver hair, pulled back into a pony tail, a long one, came walking into the room. The instructor had the class go to one of the three funeral parlors in town to watch then morticians. Lana choose one that looked a little run down and was glad she did, this man looked amusing. The man with sliver hair introduced himself as Undertaker, he wore black slacks, a gray button up shirt with a black vest. On top of his head was a top hat with a black ribbon wrapped around the base then went off the back of the hat and down to Undertakers butt. He also had the most mesmerizing green eyes, brighter than any green eyes she had ever seen.

The Undertaker had the few students introduce themselves and tell a joke. If one succeeded to make him laugh then he would allow everyone to see the process. When he got to Lana, the Undertaker looked at her eyes and mumbled something along the lines of strangely colored iris'.

"Introduce yourself." Undertaker crossed his arms.

"I'm Lana Klein." Lana stuck out her hand to shake Undertaker's but he just smiled and told her to tell the joke. Undertaker had a look of challenge on his face, thinking that Lana couldn't do it, the others couldn't so she couldn't do it, could she. Lana looked him straight in the face ans said in a German accent, "Jokes about German sausages are the wurst." What Lana didn't know was that she looked anger as she said this. Undertaker began laughing, Lana's face was just too funny, and the German accent made it top notch.

"Alright Lana, you win." Undertaker shook her hand. He then started on the procedure. As he disinfected the body, he explained the proper way to do things. He disinfected the mouth, eyes, nose and other orifices. The next step was to shave the corpse, in which this was a male with a full beard, then he would need to be shaved, if his family had wanted to keep the beard then it would stay but in this case they did not want to keep it. Next he broke the rigor mortis by massaging the major muscles, if he didn't then the muscles will be tight and increase extra vascular pressure, diverting embalming fluid away from where it needs to go. Next he closed the eyes. 

"Typically the eyelids tend to sag back in it's socket, so a small piece of cotton is placed between the lid and the eye to round it out. In some cases a plastic eye cap is used for this purpose. Eyelids are never sewn shut but may be glued shut in some cases. The features need to be set before embalming fluid is introduced, because that fluid will 'set' the body fairly rigidly, making it difficult to do it afterwards." The Undertaker explained as he set the eyes just as he said to do. A few students took notes and others looked like they were going to be sick, which meant they would probably change their career choice soon. "Next is to close the mouth. One of two steps are typically used. One is sowing the mouth shut with a suture sting and a curved needle going through  the jaw under the gums and back up through the septum, typing the string too tight should be avoided to give the jawline a natural appearance. Another way is an injector gun, like a mouth guard or a dental prosthetic, the mouth form holds the jaw together according to the natural bite and alignment of the jaw, but this method also  includes less room for human error. Afterwards a small amount of cream is used on the eyelids and mouth, making sure that they won't dry out, giving them a natural appearance.