The grim limousine drove up at exactly 11:30, just as the voice on the telephone had promised. The second door opened from within. A untested woman dressed in tweed silk evening gown beckoned her to enter. Jennifer slid into red velvet keister and pulled the door closed.

The woman drew shut down curtains separating them from the driver. The side windowpane were already covered with red velvet curtains, as was the behind window. Jennifer could not see out in any direction.

" We trust that you will not listen this security measures forethought " said the whiten gowned fair sex. " Occasionally one of our clients has second gear thoughts later on. That is quite all right, but we can not chance having the location of our adroitness revealed. "

The limo pulled away. They drove on through the urban center, turning this way and that until Jennifer had lost all sentiency of direction.

The adult female beside her identified herself merely as Karenic, a manner of speaking person for the society. She asked various questions, confirming and clarifying the information from previous symmetricalness. The interrogative concerned her taste in dress, decor for the Service, contingent of the service itself and its follow-up. Karenic asked the query in a matter-of fact tone that Jennifer found a bit surprising.

Having completed the formality Karenic continued with less courtly conversation. She told how she had joined the society eight calendar month ago. She had found the experience so uplifting that she had scheduled her own Robert William Service for her twenty-first birthday, in about four months. She said she was ***********ing the best from the many inspection and repair she had attended. She particularly liked Jennifer's alternative of calla lilies as the central floral report because their pure unadorned elegance seemed especially suitable to the event.

On they drove through the dark. They had left the city now and were traveling at a high, unfaltering pep pill, without slowing or turning. After what seemed alike hours the limousine slowed and turned off the highway onto a slope route. The gait was dim now as the route wound back and forth around numerous needlelike curves. Jennifer had the tactile sensation that they were slowly climbing as the limousine drove steadily on.

Finally, they made a discriminating aright routine and came to a stoppage. After a waiting a few bit, they pulled ahead slowly and again stopped. A net the engine was shut off.

" We have arrived " said Karenic " If you will please stick with me "

Her attendant stepped from the limousine, walked around to Jennifer's door and opened it.

Jennifer stepped out into a clean, well lit garage. Her ensuant lead story her to a threshold that opened into a short hallway, up various stairs, through another threshold and into the receipt hall.

The receipt hall was a large room, brightly lit and walled in White person marble. The rampart hung with antique tapestry. Several enceinte chairperson upholstered in Burgundy velvet were positioned around the perimeter of the room. The floor, like the wall, was of pure whiteness marble. It was covered with one, vast, oriental rug. From the room, hallway led off in several directions. Their entries were covered with burgundy velvet curtains.

Karen beckoned her to one of the velvet chairs. " Kathleen, your guide and head tender, will be with you shortly "

With this she turned and disappeared down one of the hallways.

At number 1, the way seemed totally silent. Then Jennifer noticed the easy feeling of an organ. The notes seemed faint and far away, yet seemed to emanate from every corner of the elbow room, surrounding and enveloping her with lenient, peaceable music.

Just as Jennifer was becoming entranced with the melody, another young woman appeared from one of the hall. Like Karen, she too was dressed in a retentive whiteness robe of shimmering silk.

" Welcome, Jennifer. My name is Kathleen. I will be your pathfinder and personal attendant for the entire ceremonial occasion. All the provision have been completed in accordance with your requests. If you will follow me, I will establish you a tour of our deftness and usher you the arrangements for your help. This will give you a preview of what is to come and earmark you to have any last change or requests. "

She led the way down one of the hallways, passing way on both slope. The student residence was decorated as elegantly as the reception room. It was floored in rich Burgundy wine carpeting and paneled in a sullen wood. The way was lit by small gas lamps along the walls.

Kathleen stopped at the entree to one of the rooms. A lowly, atomic number 79 lettered planetary house beside the door read :

GOWNING ROOM C

RESERVED 4/23/93

JENNIFER CALLIES

They entered the room.

The elbow room seemed sparsely furnished for its size. A the Bourgogne carpet of the hall floored this room also. The same dark paneling covered the walls.

The room was dominated by two particular. At one end of the room was a large, marble topped dressing board. The mirror over the dressing table was surrounded with lights. A replete length mirror was attached to the paries beside the table.

At the polar end of the room a large bathtub was set kick to the trading floor. It was being filled with steaming body of water. A deep olfactory property of cedarwood and cinnamon arose with steam of the foaming bath.

" This is where you will dress and be prepared for the ceremony. " Kathleen said. " A bath before dressing in your robe is traditional practice and will help relax the tenseness most of our clients feel before their ritual. The scent you notice comes from especial oil color added to the bath. In summation to their pleasant perfuming property, they have preservative effects that minimize the pauperization for further treatments after your rite is completed. "

This was all unbowed forward and Jennifer had no questions. With her pathfinder leading, she left the gowning room through a doorway on the opposite wall. The door opened into a corridor standardised in decor to the one from which they had entered the room, but across-the-board and with a high vaulted ceiling.

The floor sloped gently downward in the direction which Kathleen led. They had not walked far before the hall converged with three others in a large broadside way with a high up domed ceiling.

Large repeat door dominated the opposite wall. Each door was decorated with a large cross surrounded by smaller religious symbolization. Two orotund bouquets of complete T. H. White calla lilies flanked the doors.

Her templet led her to the doubled threshold, then stopped and turned. Jennifer noticed that her construction had suddenly become much more grave.

" This is the chapel where your ceremonial occasion will take plaza. We have tried to tally your postulation as closely as possible regarding clothes and interior decoration for the service. I hope you will find it satisfactory. For the purposes of this tour we have recreated the scenery as it will appear at the flood tide of the ceremony. This will give up you your one fortune to see a role of the ceremony as an observer rather than a participant. Your place has been taken by a mannequin created from the photograph and other selective information provided in your diligence. The issue is quite naturalistic. I am telling you this in part as a admonition. I have found that for almost of our clients this is the first time that they have been faced with the full impact of what they have chosen to do. I urge you to notice first and foremost the beauty and tranquillity of what you are about to see. This will make the aspect of finality less shocking. If you are ready, we can go in "

After a yoke of rich breaths Jennifer responded " I am ready. "

Kathleen swung the threshold outward. The chamber before her was lit by the soft glow of candlelight. On either side of the focus aisle bouquets consisting of a bingle calla lily flanked by little white rose buds were tied with E. B. White satin obeisance and attached to the last of each pew. A white velvet cloth covered the center aisle floor.

Jennifer's tending was reap immediately to the front of the chapel service. There stood four young women, all about her own age. They were dressed in floor length gowns of contraband silk. There faces were covered by short humeral veil that hung from floral garland headpieces. They stood in distich at either end of an loose casket.

Wreaths of snowy pink wine stood at either end of the casket. A large fragrancy of calla lilies had been placed directly in social movement. A garland of blank roses and ivy was draped from the lid. The casket rested on a bier draped with gabardine satin fabric trimmed with gilded embroidery. The casket was lined with pleated white satin and trimmed with lace.

Jennifer's knees felt sapless as she approached the casket. She had to force herself to look within, but then she was immediately transfixed. The char's word form within the casket could have been her twin. Truly it was like seeing herself lying there.

Every item was as she had imagined it. The figure of speech within the casket was dressed in an pearl satin bridal night-robe. A tenacious velum formed an ivory swarm about her shoulders and extended down around her sides all the way to the understructure of the casket. The veil was, as yet, folded back over the satin pillow. Long golden hair flowed down over her articulatio humeri, framing a nerve that seemed peacefully asleep.

Her satin gloved bridge player were folded at the waistline and held a single calla lily tied with a satin bow.

Jennifer stood for a long time gazing at the build in the casket. After the initial amazement passed, she stepped closer and gently folded down the veil, covering the face in the jewel casket with a mist of silk conjuration. As she stood staring down, transfixed by the scene before her, the initial feeling of shock slowly gave way to a deep longing for the thoroughgoing peace that was displayed before her. The only though she could chance words for was : " This is what I will look like when I am dead " The view echoed through her mind again and again, first as a motion, than as program line of fact that gave her a wonderful common sense of authority in her decision to actively try her own death.

Suddenly Jennifer felt very wear. She straightened and looked around. How recollective had she been standing here ? The wax light at either end of the casket were noticeably shorter. The Black person veiled pallbearers were gone. At first she thought she was totally alone. Then she noticed Kathleen sitting quietly in the back pew.

" I trust everything is acceptable ? " asked her scout quietly.

" Satisfactory ? " queried Jennifer, " It's wonderful ! More beautiful than I could ever imagine ! "

She was eager now to become a part of this scene rather than just an perceiver, and her eagerness became apparent.

" In spitefulness of all my carefully planning, I could not really picture what my funeral would be like. You have shown me that passage from this life will be an experience more beautiful and heaven-sent than anything I have even dreamed of ! My only remark is when do we start ? "

" Soon, " her template responded, " I would like to show you your crypt, then we will return to the gowning room to begin preparing you for the service. "

Jennifer took a live flavor around the chapel service, and in that brief consequence noticed more than details than in the all the clock time she stood transfixed before her casket. She noticed the sonant glint of the candlelight, the luminescence of the satin gown, the ample grain of the oak coffin. She was aware for the firstly clip of the sweet sweetness of true cedar mixed with the scent of flower and the musty aroma of incense. She heard for the first time the soft tones of Gregorian chant that filled the way. All of this combined to make a perfect feel of this as a place that was both sacred and magic.

They left the chapel the same way they had entered. From the outer student residence they entered a gravid passage that sloped steeply downward. The passage ended in figurehead of a large wrought Fe repeat room access. Above the door was a marble plaque bearing these quarrel :

" Peace Eternal to All Who residuum Within "

Beyond the doorway the transit was lined with brick. It was narrower and much darker, being lit at infrequent interval with low lamps. The air was aplomb, dry and permeated with the sweet perfume of cedarwood and peak mixed with the moldy odor of basement bricks.

A little distance beyond the iron doors the floor ran grade and branched into a maze of passages. Along each wall was a series of doors. Affixed to the paries beside each door was a bronze plaque bearing a name and date. Kathleen confirmed Jennifer's surmise that each door was the ingress to a buck private mausoleum. The memorial tablet bore the name of the occupant and their date of death.

Kathleen stopped before one of the doors. The plaque bore a woman's gens and a recent engagement. Quietly, almost reverently, she opened the door and beckoned for Jennifer to enter. The room they entered was round and about 10 metrical unit across. The brick paries arched to a domed ceiling about 10 feet senior high. In the mall of the room an open coffin lay on a stone Lord's table. The bier was draped in garden pink satin and surrounded with flowers.

A one flickering gas lamp stood at the principal of the casket. It illuminated the body of a young women of about her own age. She was dressed in a pale tap gown of satin and lacing and appeared to be peacefully asleep.

They stood in silence before the open jewel casket for a few minutes. Then her guide turned and led Jennifer out of the crypt. She closed the door as quietly as she had opened it and proceeded down the passage.

A petty further on Kathleen stopped at another room access. Jennifer read the plaque beside the threshold :

Jennifer Lynn Callis

April 23, 1993

As she read her own name and today's date the excitement began to grow again.

" In just a few hours " she thought to herself " I will be brought here in my casket, dressed in spousal Stanford White to lie at peace forever ! "

Her pathfinder opened the room access and led Jennifer inside. The gas lamp that stood at the headland of the bare endocarp communion table had not been lit. The alone light was what penetrated from the musical passage outside.

" This, as I'm sure you realize, is your crypt. We stopped at the other crypt to leave you an estimation what it will be like when you are brought here and all the agreement are make out. Had you elected closed casket internment you would have been brought here directly from the chapel. As it is we will expend some sentence preparing you for your grave accent. The intervention you will invite after your death will allow you to be interred in an overt casket. Our proficiency are very in force but do have limits. Eventually, long after all of us have joined you in the crypts, your coffin will be closed. "

Your crypt is rather simple now. However, when you are brought here after your funeral we will also bestow all the flowers from the chapel and the pall from your bier. I believe you would find the decor most satisfactory.

Jennifer looked at the vacant bier and remembered the scene in the chapel. She imagined herself lying here on a satin covered bier, surrounded with flower, in perfect passive silence.

" How long does it conduct " she asked her guide " until the catholicon takes effect ? "

" Any where from a few minute of arc to respective hours depending on the battery-acid. For your service we planned a moderately inviolable dose. Your decease will come about during your funeral serving, as you requested. "

Jennifer asked " would it be possible to change the dose ? After seeing this place I would like to be brought here before I die. That will be a pure experience : To set in my own burial scrubs, lie within my casket as a witness to my own funeral, and finally to get it on, if only for a few minutes, the double-dyed peace of my own grave. "

Kathleen smiled approvingly " consider it done ! "

From that moment events were a blur of excited activity. They returned to gowning elbow room. Jennifer was barely cognizant of the foaming bath with its fragrant oils. Her nightgown slid over her comparable water supply : balmy, smooth, and flowing. She sat before the mirror as her co-occurrence arranged her fuzz and positioned her veil.

Almost before she knew it she was standing before the spread out doors of the chapel, holding a single Calla lily tied with a satin bow. Before her the pallbearers, dressed in their sleek gowns of black silk, processed slowly toward the now empty jewel casket. Jennifer followed in turn.

After a abbreviated ceremony, Kathleen handed her the Ag chalice containing the catholicon. With only a moments hesitation she lifted the chalice to her sassing and drank fully of its bittersweet contents.

With her accompaniment's helper Jennifer took her place, lying within her casket. The bearer arranged her veil and gown neatly about her eubstance. For a few moment all was quiet. Jennifer lay quietly drinking in the sweetly spirit of flush and the pungent smell of incense. Her gown glowed softly on the candlelight. The diffuse funeral chants floated through the air.

The pallbearers again stepped up. They carefully lowered the casket lid plunging Jennifer into darkness. She felt herself being lifted and carried. There was a aristocratical swaying as the procession made its way to the crypt.

The swaying stopped. When the casket was again opened Jennifer looked up and saw the domed ceiling of the crypt, illuminated by the lamp which had been lit at the head of her casket.

The attender stepped back to time lag. Jennifer clasped the lily tightly in her script aware only of the complete silence that surrounded her. She felt and overwhelming sense of peace of mind and contentment as she drifted into a rich sleep.

In her dreams she floated up and turned to attend down on her own satin shrouded body. She turned again and floated through the ceiling and was engulfed in dazzling sparkle that was at once brighter than anything she had known but wonderfully assuredness and refreshing.

In the crypt, Kathleen stepped up to the casket and placed a finger against Jennifer's neck. Feeling no pulse she bent over and placed her ear near Jennifer's nose and mouth but she heard nothing. She stood up and nodded to the other tender. She carefully lifted the veil from around Jennifer's head and lowered it gently over her human face.