This family was in the funeral business, with the sign "Immeras Grief Care Company" hanging on their door.
Grandpa was the boss. And in both family life and "company" operations, his word was law. In addition, Grandpa also served as a priest at a small church at the end of Mink Street.
Uncle Mason used to work at the stock exchange, and Aunt Mary was once a fairly famous makeup artist, specializing in makeup for celebrities and even playing small roles in a few movies.
Their lives should have been of the middle-class level, and they had long since moved out and lived on their own.
However, due to Uncle Mason's investment failure, they not only lost their savings and property but also seemed to be in debt. Therefore, Uncle Mason could only take his wife and children home to... fulfill his filial duties to his father.
Grandpa didn't say much about this.
However,
he soon found an excuse to fire the original driver and the corpse makeup artist.
In Grandpa's words, the Immeras family didn't feed idlers.
Uncle Mason now drove the family hearse, with his subordinates Paul and Ron responsible for transporting the "VIPs".
Aunt Mary continued to work in her field,
still doing makeup,
and no longer had to worry about encountering ill-tempered celebrities picking on her or receiving complaint letters.
Their children, Mina and Rent, were in middle school.
Aunt Winnie used to be an accountant for a small clothing factory. After divorcing her husband due to irreconcilable differences, Aunt Winnie brought her daughter Chris back to her family home.
Fortunately, the Immeras family's house was quite large. Even though the basement was occupied by the "VIPs" and the first floor was a "mourning area", the second and third floors had plenty of rooms for everyone in the family to live in.
Karen and his cousin Rent once shared a room. But after Karen got sick, Rent went to sleep with Grandpa on the third floor. In addition, there was also an office on the third floor for Grandpa.
Besides, there were three rooms on the second floor, with Uncle Mason and Aunt Mary staying in one, Aunt Winnie in another, and the two cousins in the last one.
The atmosphere at home was pretty good, as Grandpa was quite authoritative, and no one dared to create any conflict under his watchful gaze.
As Karen approached the dining table on the second floor, Mina was helping her mother set the plates.
Seeing Karen coming down, Aunt Mary intentionally showed a mocking expression,
"Our young master can finally come down for breakfast by himself, no more relying on your loyal servant, Aunt Mary, to bring it to you?" she taunted.
Aunt Mary was the kind of person who liked to be sarcastic with a sharp tongue.
At home, except for Grandpa, whom she wouldn't dare to offend, everyone, from her husband to her children to Winnie to Karen were targets of her verbal barbs.
Karen showed a warm smile,
and sincerely said,
"Thank you, Aunty, for all the care you have given me these days, which enabled me to recover so quickly."
In "Karen's memory", Aunt Mary, although with a sharp tongue, had always taken care of him like her children. She had a soft heart.
"Um..."
Not expecting Karen, who was usually reticent and introverted, could utter such smooth and courteous words. Aunt Mary didn't sure how to respond. She could only purse her lips and say,
"Let's eat."
"Okay."
Karen sat down at the dining table.
Breakfast was sandwiches, fried eggs, and milk, along with some small sausages.
He took a bite of the sandwich
and chewed it slowly.
And even though he's only been here for half a month,
Karen had already started to miss blood sausage soup with three tablespoons of chili.
At that moment,
a car horn sounded outside the house.
"Daddy's coming." Aunt Mary said.
She washed her hands at the sink, and then untied her apron,
"Your guys keep eating, I'll go see if he has brought me any 'surprises'."
Normally, a husband returning home might bring an extravagant gift like a ring or a designer handbag or a simple surprise like a bouquet for his wife.
Uncle Mason, however, brought corpses to his wife.
To Aunt Mary, a regular person who died of natural causes would already be considered a "surprise". She hated dealing with those who died in unnatural ways, as it was very troublesome.
Karen put down the fork and subconsciously thought of himself as an adult who wouldn't sit idly at the table like the other children when something was going on at home. So, he followed Aunt Mary downstairs as well.
The first floor was quite spacious, with a small platform raised by three steps in the southeast corner for placing the coffins, called the "corpse station".
At that moment,
the two employees, Paul and Ron, were pushing in a stretcher covered with a white cloth.
Uncle Mason didn't come down. He was a bit snobbish. Although he had to join the family business under his father's authority, he mostly just drove and didn't often interact with the deceased.
In Karen's impression, although Uncle Mason wasn't that reliable when it came to investment and had squandered his family's wealth, he was a humorous and interesting person in daily life.
Aunt Mary walked up, lifted the white cloth, and had a look, and then she sighed in relief.
The corpse was that of a young man, and the death didn't look terrifying. Although the body was lying flat, his face turned ninety degrees to the right.
"Frozen to death?" Aunt Mary asked again, "Welfare Order?"
Although it was just the beginning of winter and the weather wasn't extremely cold yet, there were already cases of drunkards or homeless people freezing to death at the roadside.