[Ridiculous]

The priest began the service, reciting the proper funeral rites and prayers. A minute in and another guest entered the chapel, black hair in dreadlocks, but otherwise dressed in typical funeral attire. Some of his family looked annoyed at the tardy attendant but Aisley didn't have the heart. She had been hoping for late arrivals, she couldn't believe that the funeral party was complete.

She studied the heads in the crowd as the priest read the Bible. Different priests selected different passages to comfort families, but generally many of them were repeated. Aisley had heard these passages before, and she smiled at the familiarity. She was comfortable with death because she was surrounded by it, but many people weren't. Mr. Iwanski always exaggerated this; one of his main motives was to help the families of the deceased accept the death of their loved one. He liked to be there to comfort them.

The priest finished his passages and asked if anyone wanted to come and say a few words about Mr. Prince.

[Kaliko]

A few people went up to talk about William's uncle that had passed away. But no one stayed up there for too long or had anything too substantial to say. William's father went up and gave the driest speech of them all. After that was Uncle Steele, who put a little more heart into it. At the end, he finally alluded to something about his actual life. "... I hope now he and Esme can finally be happy together..." And with that, the Uncle took a seat.

One of the last people to go up was Jasper, despite a look from his father. He was quiet for a moment before suddenly jumping into a story about one of the days he had visited his uncle in the mental hospital before he died. Almost everyone shifted uncomfortably as he told the story. His father looked almost ready to stand up and go get him. But he didn't. William rubbed his head a little. Dinner with the family tonight was going to be grand.

But overall, the story was rather touching and well thought through. It gave the uncle a little color and personality despite the background it painted for him. Jasper never said it, but if the pieces from the story were put together it sounded like he had died of heartache from the death of his Esme. Surprisingly, the story didn't end on a dreary note. But from the look his father was giving him as Jasper went to sit down, it looked like Jasper was going to have a dreary night.

[Ridiculous]

Ailey's favourite part had finally come. She loved to watch people as they talked about their beloved deceased, it was touching and curious all at once.

One by one family went up, and Mr. Prince was honoured. A younger looking boy stood up and gave a speech about his uncle's heartbreak, which was a beautiful finish.

Aisley smiled, this small little service ended up being just as touching as all the rest. She moved from the chapel quietly, exiting through one of the side-corridors and into the service room. The caterers had already come and gone, and the food was set up nicely.

Aisley noticed a nice platter of shiny red strawberries and pinched one off the plate discretely, chewing on it while she checked everything was in proper order.

[Kaliko]

So once the service was over, everyone started making their way to grab something to eat. They mingled and talked quietly, mostly about other matters. It looked like the only one who wanted to talk to Uncle Steele was Jasper, which worked out fine since Jasper's father was subtly ignoring them.

William did the minimum socializing that was required before snacking on some of the food that was available and texting on his phone. This worked out well for awhile before Uncle Steele and Jasper started talking to him.

"You're what-?" William asked.

"I'm coming to dinner!" Steele repeated happily.

Yep. This was going to be a long night indeed... So William tried to stay in his own world, not noticing a lot of what was going on around him.

[Ridiculous]

Aisley watched the family gather together, making small talk. She would occasionally visit the catering table and pinch another strawberry away, but otherwise she kept to herself.

She watched the priest comfort some family members, and Mr. Iwanski speak to others. But her favourite person to watch was the man with dreadlocks. The family seemed to dislike his company and avoid him, but the gentle boy from earlier would talk to him.

He seemed like a very colourful character, very strange. These were the type of people Aisley was most attracted to, she found herself oddly enamored with the abnormal, the awkward. She could best relate to those who never fit in.

She found herself smiling as she watched the man declare happily he was coming to dinner, his exuberance contagious. The family around him seemed less than pleased, except the younger boy, who smiled along with him.

[Kaliko]

Steele and Jasper didn't leave William alone. Uncle Steele began asking the boys about college and life in general. Eventually he got William to contribute to the conversation.

When it was time to leave, everyone slowly started filling out. Jasper went with his parents. Steel and William went to their own cars. But William's phone had dropped out of his pocket when Steele had given him a big goodbye hug. Now it was laying quietly on the ground next to the strawberries.

[Ridiculous]

As the guest started leaving, Aisley nodded pleasant farewells before starting to clean up the service room. She began clearing away the used paper plates by the flower tables, when she saw a cellphone on the ground by the catering table.

She inched towards it, aware that it should be returned to its owner but disliking the human interaction that would require. She looked around the room and saw a few people still lingered, and hoped they noticed it before she reached it.

No one did, so Aisley sighed and picked it up. Now she had to ask people about it. Maybe if she could find Mr. Iwanski he would do the questioning for her. She looked around for him, but he was chatting with some guests at the front.

[Kaliko]

William didn't notice and soon he was driving away. He wouldn't notice that he had lost his cell phone until later that night when he was having dinner with the family. He couldn't find it in his car, so he called the funeral home.

[Ridiculous]

Aisley had turned the phone into Mr. Iwanski and promptly forgotten about it. She knew he would take care of it.

She had finished cleaning up the catering from Mr. Prince's service, and even though it wasn't good conduct she put all of the leftover strawberries in a bag to take home. There was quite a few, when Mr. Iwanski saw her with the bag he chuckled but otherwise said nothing about her sweet-tooth. He allowed her to take home food that was leftover from services sometimes because he personally hated wasting food, but his wife would grumble if he ever brought leftovers home.

Aisley spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the service hall and chapel and helping Mr. Iwanski go through all the paperwork. He had quite a few burials to attend to this week.

At around six the phone rang. Mr. Iwanski always attended to the phone calls, he was well aware of Asiley's dislike for human interaction. He passed Aisley some forms to be labeled and mailed off as he picked up the phone with his free hand.

"Oak Hill funeral home, Mr. Iwanski speaking, how may I help you?"

[Kaliko]

So William introduced himself, explained the situation, and described his phone.

[Ridiculous]

Mr. Iwanski nodded as Asiley continued to file. "Oh yes, your the owner of this phone then? Would you prefer to come retrieve it sometime later this week, or would you like me to have my assistant drop it off at your house?"

At the mention of assistant Aisley looked over to the older man, worry evident on her face.

[Kaliko]

"That's alright," William replied. "What hours are you open tomorrow?"

[Ridiculous]

"From 9 to 6pm." Mr Iwanski said, and Aisley breathed out a sigh of relief.

[Kaliko]

William told Mr. Iwanski he'd drop by in the morning to pick up his phone, thanked him, and hung up.

[Ridiculous]

Mr. Iwanksi hung up and turned to Aisley. "The young man who left his phone will pick it up tomorrow morning. I might have an appointment with a client then, if so can you make sure he gets it back?"

Aisley nodded and began sticking stamps to the envelopes.

Mr. Iwanski smiled and yawned, stretching out his skinny pale arms into the air. "It's getting late, you can head home soon if you would like. We can finish this off tomorrow."

Aisley smiled gently. "Okay, I'll just finish these last envelopes and drop them off at the post box on the way home."

[Kaliko]

The next morning, drove back to the funeral home and arrived at about nine thirty. He was still a little frazzled from the night before, but it had been a nice drive and the funeral home was quiet unlike his house.

Instead of a tux, he wore simple jeans and his college sweatshirt since everything else was still waiting to be washed. The college he attended wasn't too far away; maybe thirty minutes.

So he walked over to the main office and invited himself inside.