Toni Brettio’s hectic day was about to get much worse.She had spent most of last night cramming for a test due tomorrow. Now, at her job at the funeral home, she was tired, and sleepy, and the place was loaded with ‘customers’, as she called them.
Her job was doing hair and makeup. She had been a dropout at a beauty college, but had learned enough to work here.

She’d been called in early. There were several showings today. Her first ‘customer’ was a toothless ninety year old woman. She did the woman’s hair, added a little more cotton to her mouth and called it good.

Toni moved to the next stainless steel table where a body lay drapped to the neck with a sheet. A beautiful young girl, with flowing hair and full lips. Toni choked up a little as she applied eyeshadow, eyeliner,rouge, lipstick, and curled her eyelashed. She had just finished and stepped back, when the phone rang.
“Hello,” she said.
“Is number 3 ready?”
“I just finished.”
“Good. Bring him up, his parents are here.”