Category : Stories

Sub Category : Thriller

 With the last of her family dying, Ndari sheds tears. She sits by her father's bed and places a warm damp towl across his head. The sickness is at its climax now and it pains her to watch her father suffer like this. Still, she stays by his side. So he does not have to die alone.

 Her father sits partially up, bends to the side, away from Ndari, and hacks up phlegm. He lays back on his pillow and moans, with his eyes rolling within his skull.

"Shhh, Father, the pain will pass. Soon you will see mother and my brother again." Ndari, trying to ease her father's mind, since she cannot do a thing for his pain. Her father's response comes with more moans.

 Suddenly, he begins choking. His eyes grow wide as he struggles to breathe amidst the coughing. As if the air gets lodged in his throat, he pauses all function and stiffens his body for a brief moment. Then he let's out a gasp and his eyes close forever. Ndari buries her face in her father's chest and cries. She is the one that is now alone. 

 After what seems like hours of her lost in the mourning of her father, Ndari sits up and wipes away the tears that now have dulled to a trickle. As hard as it hit her, she had prepared for her father's death.
Ndari stands and walks to the kitchen. She reaches for a cabinet, opens it, and pulls out a bottle of formalin. She then reaches for a drawer and grabs one of the packages with a syringe in it.

 Ndari had been told of her people's old tradition. It is in their belief, to keep a family member around after death, to spread out the process of grieving. So they dont have to go through the loss all at once. Back in her father's bedroom, Ndari injects her father's body with the formalin solution. 

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 America is a mixing pot of many types of cultures. Not all are so easily accepted, specially in a small town. What happens when someone from an Indonesian culture living in a American small town decides to keep a family member around longer after death? Ontop of this, the kids in the town start getting sick, Will the towns people be understanding?

 This will be a project I will be working on and hopefully finish. I give you all this taste to hear thoughts on this idea, and as always, thanks for reading.