One I am not obsessed with death But it’s a bit hard to avoid thinking about death when your family owns a funeral home and everyone works there Including me My part-time job at the Walman Memorial Chapel my family’s last name is Walman includes cleaning and stocking the bathroom with paper towels and toilet paper I am also in charge of making sure there are always plenty of tissues for the mourners Dad calls me Purveyor of Paper Products I call him His Royal Highness of Dad Jokes But right now I was thinking about a totally different kind of paper I had just loaded up on craft supplies at my favorite stationery store I can’t wait to get started on my projects I said to Suzanna the owner as she slid all my purchases into a bag I bounced from one foot to the other I was pretty excited about the vellum I had found It was so delicate 5
almost see-through I’d also gotten some heavy card stock with pretty deckled edges and some fancy handmade papyrus I guess you could say I am obsessed with paper This was all because of Sam showing me how to quill last summer I couldn’t help but think how much he would have liked what I’d bought today He’d especially liked the delicate papers like vellum which was maybe why I’d bought it even though it could be incredibly hard to quill with I’m looking forward to seeing them when you’re done Suzanna said with a smile handing me the bag You’re getting so good I love sharing my quilling projects with Suzanna because she is always so enthusiastic And she was right I really was getting good Can you let me know when that foil comes in I asked I have an idea for Just then the big church bells outside bonged announcing that it was two o’clock Shoot I was supposed to be home by two The bells hadn’t even stopped bonging when I got a text from Mom Where r u Uh-oh My parents had wanted to send me back to summer camp like usual They are always so busy at the funeral home and they worried that once school was out I’d be bored and get in the way But I’d told them I didn’t want to go this year I had my reasons One of them was Sam though they don’t know anything about that 6 JOANNE LEVY
Anyway I am happy to work at the funeral home and make some money for my paper and other stuff Plus I am actually interested in learning more about how our family business works The deal was if I didn’t go to camp I had to do all my chores put in my hours at the funeral home and never ever complain about being bored Oh and I had to promise to be on time for everything Mom is a real stickler for punctuality as she likes to remind us all the time I said a quick goodbye to Suzanna and raced out of the store So fast in fact that I nearly took out a couple of people coming in Whoa sorry I blurted But then I saw who it was Miri and Sasha Great I had been hoping I wouldn’t have to see them until September I muttered an apology I really wasn’t feeling and tried to get past them Nope They blocked the doorway and just looked at me I pasted a smile on my face Oh hey How’s your summer going Can you believe we’re going into eighth grade Unbelievable right I am having a good summer I mean even though I’m not going to camp this year I’m helping out at the well at home I guess What are you two doing Having fun Finally I had to stop to take a breath Miri and Sasha just kept staring 7 SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS
Sorry I muttered even as I felt my face grow hot I clamped my lips shut Miri snorted and rolled her eyes She’s awfully chatty for a corpse isn’t she Sasha Here we go Right Sasha said I mean I thought corpses were quiet I didn’t realize they talk nonstop Do I even need to say it Miri and Sasha are the worst Sasha wasn’t done either She laughed at her own clever comment and then leaned in close She took a loud sniff of my ponytail And ugh she sure smells like death Disgusting You sure you’re not a zombie Evil After my speech in class about how I was going to be a funeral director when I grew up the two of them had come up with all kinds of mean nicknames that I am now mostly used to Sort of I’d washed my hair that very morning With the shampoo I’d made my mom buy after the last time Sasha said I smelled like rotting corpses The shampoo is strawberry scented A part of my brain drifted away and started wondering if dead people smell like strawberries And if they do how Sasha would know I’d never gotten close enough to the actual dead people at the funeral home to sniff them but the building didn’t smell like strawberries Or any other type of fruit I wanted to tell them both to shut up Also that like I’d told them a million times before my job at the funeral home doesn’t include getting close to dead 8 JOANNE LEVY
