Post Mortem

“Well I ain’t picking it up.” Marcella gave a disgusted glance as Tim and Alisha glared at a dead rat just laying in the middle of the aisle between the boxwoods and the inkberry holly. She past by and went on her way to complete her tasks in the greenhouse. She was usually fastidious, everything had its place, but that changed when it came to animals. She refused to handle the rabbits, and that made a dead rat carcass a double no.

The rats came from the river that ran along the back of the center. There was a fence, and now there was a storage area, but it used to be swamp. The rats had diminished since the creation of the storage center, but they had not entirely vanished. Occasionally, one found its way over to the center to chew on bags of fertilizer. Usually, the problem was groundhogs, or the occasional wild rabbit, but right now it was a dead rat.

“How do you think it died?” Tim asked. His voice was distant and devoid of emotion as she stared at the dead animal.

“Who knows. Maybe it ate something poisonous, or old age, or something. Does it really matter?” Ashley was holding a snow shovel. Winter was far away, but the shovel was wider than a typical spade. It would make catching the dead body easier. She extended her arm placing the shovel closer to Tim.

“What do you want me to do with that?” Tim glanced at the shovel, then at her.

“Take care of the rat obviously. You’re the new guy. It’s your turn.”

Tim grabbed the shovel reluctantly. He placed it in front of the body, winced, and pushed. He only managed to shove the corpse. It shifted, turned even, but refused to get on the shovel.

“You didn’t get it.”

“Really, I thought it was all taken care of.” He tried again. This time flipping the corpse over. It was matted on the side it had rested on. Hours of rigor mortis had solidified its state. Both of them cringed.

“Give me that.” Kevin pushed his way through, grabbed the shovel, and scooped up the dead rat like it was nothing.

“I was just about to do that.” Tim had taken on a defensive tone.

“Sure.” He didn’t speak further. He just swung the shovel like it contained nothing more than dirt. Ashley and Tim backed away giving him, and his cargo, a wide birth, but they followed after him once he had grabbed the body.

“Where are we going with it?”

“We,” Kevin emphasized the word to illuminate the humorous state of affairs “are going to throw it in the dumpster.”

“No burial? Just a quick deposit in the garbage?” Alisha quickened her pace as she followed.

“That’s silly, and it would probably be happy in the dumpster. Don’t you guys have other things to do besides follow me? I wouldn’t even be doing this if you two could handle your shit, but you needed to make a big deal out of nothing.”

“It’s a dead body. It’s gross.”

“It is gross, and that’s why Mason would want it out of the middle of his fucking store. Customers won’t even know we had this problem this morning. Now, let’s get back to all the other shit we have to do.”

He deposited the corpse in the dumpster and thrust the snow shovel back in Alisha’s hands.