Lock the Lid
My father was a local mortician, and actually we lived on the second floor of a local funeral home. We had our separate entrance, but I was spending quite a lot of time in the chamber. Once in a while I would bring a couple of friends to have a look at all the business, mainly desiring to scare them a bit.
The first story happened when I was about 12. My schoolmate, Jane T., drowned in the nearby pool. Her family arranged with my dad for the business, and the body was brought to us the next night. Surely, some of my friends, who somehow captured the word where she is, would whisper me all the time about secretly looking at Jane, mainly because she was one of the most beautiful girls in the class. The family announced that it will be closed casket funeral. One of the guys who was reportedly in love with her, even told me he is ready to pay me if he only would be given a chance to look at her.
Ok, I was quite hesitant, because my dad would always lock the parlor, and though I had a good idea on where the keys were kept, I really was afraid about being captured - once I was punished quite heavily for playing with a casket of some old lady - I almost had it dropped to the floor... But around 8 p.m. I saw my parents going away, with my dad saying they would return around 11 p.m. and that I was to go to bed at 9 p.m. My little sister was already in bed. When parents left, I quickly phoned my friend and he was at the house in five minutes.
Together we opened the door and went downstairs to the preparation room. There were, as usual, a couple of caskets and all the embalming stuff. I guess there was some rush, as there was some disorder around. I found the right casket and proceeded to open it, while my friend watched from close distance. I had the lid removed, and lifted the white shroud from Jane's face. I must say she was very beautiful even in death but of course very-very pale. My friend couldn't keep his tears. So we stood about two minutes, after that I've closed the lid, but somehow forgot to have it locked.
We both left the house and went to my friend's home talking about the deceased. I returned home about 10 p.m., and sighed with relief seeing that my dad's car wasn't on its regular parking place, meaning they hadn't return yet. Quickly I went to sleep and the next morning, overheard my dad
telling mom that two our neighbors informed him they saw ghost of Jane walking around at night! He said something like "I might have forgotten to lock the lid", and this was said without any special sense, like he was accustomed to hear such stories...
A month later I asked him on the matter, and he promised to talk later about this, but meanwhile this thing somehow got forgotten...
Copyright by Undertaker (2000).