A drowned truck-driver was propped on the slab. Someone had stuck a lavender aster between his teeth. As I cut out the tongue and the palate, through the chest under the skin, with my long knife, I must have touched the flower, for it slid into the brain lying next. I packed it into the cavity of the chest among the excelsior as it was sewn up. Drink yourself full in your vase! Rest softly, little aster! |