{"id":1097,"date":"2022-07-14T19:29:03","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T03:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2022-07-16T11:36:40","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T19:36:40","slug":"the-morgue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=1097","title":{"rendered":"The Morgue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Chapter Five in \u201cDecades with the Squad,\u201d by William Palmer Jervey, Jr.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It began as a simple suicide, if any suicide is really simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The elderly recluse went out into the yard one summer evening, sat down in a chair in the shade of an old oak tree and put a pistol bullet through his head. He was still seated in the chair when discovered later that night. The usual hubbub that follows a shooting ensued. By about midnight the coroner decided that the body should be taken to the morgue for autopsy. Nothing daunted, we loaded him up and away we went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We arrived at the morgue around 1:00 a.m. The loading dock was sealed off from the world by a massive steel door that descended from overhead. A nearby sign gave directions to those bringing in bodies after hours. They involved walking around the other side of the large building, entering a certain door, and ringing a certain bell. These things I did, and a sleepy man opened the door, regarded me sourly and said, \u201cWhatcha want?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019ve got one,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He either grunted or groaned and with a twitch of his head indicated that I should follow him. I did, through a passageway that would have gladdened the heart of the producer of a horror movie. Seemingly endless, dimly lighted, cobwebby, with a network of pipes overhead that sometimes were so low we had to duck to get by. I am sure we were observed by spiders, mice, rats, probably bats and no telling what else. Finally, we arrived at the inside of the overhead door. My guide pushed a button and with a clanking, grinding sound (punctuated by assorted squeaks and rattles) the door opened. It sounded like the gates of Hell might sound, I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next, my guide unlocked the refrigerator, provided us with a tray and beckoned me into the office. Here I filled out the log and was given a toe tag. At this point I wondered if he might help us put our unfortunate friend, who was rather large, in the tray. My guide\u2019s eyes bugged out in terror, and he responded with animation that I didn\u2019t think him capable of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI ain\u2019t got nothin\u2019 to do with it!\u201d he screeched and dived behind a filing cabinet. He would have been happier in the ranks of the unemployed, perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We put our friend away. It was cool and peaceful in there, if somewhat close, and he had plenty of company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Coming home we didn\u2019t talk much. We did stop at 7-11 for coffee and an apple Danish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Life goes on!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter Five in \u201cDecades with the Squad,\u201d by William Palmer Jervey, Jr. It began as a simple suicide, if any suicide is really simple. The elderly recluse went out into the yard one summer evening, sat down in a chair in the shade of an old oak tree and put a pistol bullet through his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[421],"tags":[425,424],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decades-with-the-squad","tag-first-responder","tag-rescue-squad"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}