He’ll Never Rest In Peace

Kira cried for a long time. She cried so hard, she was gagging and gasping for breath. She refused Austyn’s help to steady her. Kira took a deep breath before she unbuttoned Leland’s suit. ‘Kira, don’t!’ Austyn shot out a hand to stop her. But she already saw it. Leland’s chest had been cut open and closed with stitches. The job was done in a hurry, perhaps because the doctors were eager to get his organs to their recipient. The suture lines had turned dark, the colour of soot. They started in the middle of his chest and ran all the way down to his abdomen, resembling the shape of an ugly, magnified centipede. Kira had run out of tears. She glimpsed a tiny scar above her father’s left clavicle. She was responsible for it. In his job as an electrician, Leland was often called away at odd hours. When Kira was four or five years old, she was entrusted to the care of a neighbour. But Kira didn’t like the neighbour, who was a portly, loudmouthed housewife who spent more time on her phone th