Space Funeral

The Cantor's choir ends with "Líbera me" and the last of the holy water is sprinkled on the casket.  I begin to fiddle with my thumbs, not fully paying attention.  After a few minutes, the funeral-goers form a line to pay their respects.  The casket reflects the mournful faces indiscriminately.  It's a chromed, oblong pill with a break in the chroming for several buttons and switches in the middle.  Its appearance fits its surroundings, considering that the grass expands outwards for several hundred feet, then after it turns to trees, is interrupted by the inside of the grey dome that rises upwards in a domely fashion.  If I recall correctly, we're in Biosphere π13 R4T3-9, one of the funeral rooms.  I look up at the words on the ceiling to refresh my memory, and see "BIO-S π13" in large, stylish yellow text outlined in red, lightly obscured by the perspiration clouds.  

 

The man I came here with, the resident squid-man Mr. Chongzhi, notices my fidgeting.  It takes several minutes of silent observation of the ceremony for him to chime in.  

 

"You know, Rhine, you could take a walk if you want to stretch your legs or something.", he says.

 

I turn to him and reply "Where would I go?  Walking around a hospice during a funeral won't give me many happy things to think about."

 

A few seconds pass, and he retorts to me.

 

"This funeral is one of the dreariest fucking things I've ever attended.  You don't even know the guy, anyway.  There's like seventy people here, nobody's going to notice one missing."  

 

I'm the only one here in a track jacket and jeans, but then again I'm the only human besides the one in the casket, and Chongzhi is the only one in a suit.  I'm also the only one that's not some neon color, or transparent.  

 

"Yeah a walk does seem pretty nice..."  I trail off.  Without prompt I turn to Chongzhi and a hasty "See ya" hurries out my mouth, then sneak between the chairs and walk out into the fields.

 

There's a million legitimate reasons why I would walk out, but none of them apply to me.  I'm pretty sure "boredom" isn't a good reason.  I prepare a little alibi just in case someone asks when I get back.jhfkjk