Bart arrived at the morgue late that afternoon, after the family had come and gone. They’d done all of the things families do at a time like this--picked out a casket, flowers, all of those things. He imagined there had been tears and confessions of regret, but any lamentations Ella’s father was having, he fully deserved.
Ella was dressed in a lovely red gown, and her hair was styled as if she were going to an award show. Looking at her lying there on a table in the back of the home, where the embalming was typically done, it was hard to believe she was actually alive. The sedative had essentially put her in a death-like state where all of her bodily functions were operating at a minimum. It was sort of like a computer that was asleep, waiting for the mouse to be jiggled. For Ella, animation would resume once the sedative began to wear off in another two days.
