Adjustment of Status

New England Review, 44.3 (2023)

Folahan worked mainly night shifts at the morgue, down in the basement. That was the only way he could work without drawing attention, and the arrangement worked for Bill. A family could bring their dead one day, and the corpse would be prepared for burial the following morning. It took about forty minutes to prepare a corpse plus the time required for embalmment. Folahan only assisted in the embalmment process if needed. 

Folahan would open the body bag slowly from the head down, armed with a disinfectant spray. Then he would transfer the deceased to a stainless-steel slab with slats for the water to run through. The head reveals the fact of death—vacant eyes, gaping mouth, the vomit-inducing smell that rises out of orifices. Sometimes fluid gushed out of the ears and nose. Folahan’s first time opening a body bag sent him heaving into the toilet of the prep room, but he got used to it. Thinking helped him work and gave him fortitude. He thought about his family. Junior, a pre-adolescent, was growing tall when he left. He wondered how tall he was now. He remembered his children’s smiles, longing tears, and questions about when he would bring them to America when he was about to leave….