Stay Away from Pleasure

Chapter Thirty-Three

19:05PM

"Hi. I'm Dr Kelly." A nice woman sticks her hand out to greet the three of us.

Her hair is bright blonde and wrapped up in a bun. She's wearing thick rimmed, black prescription glasses and holding a brown clipboard. Her eyes a dark blue and her lips are thin but intensified through her dark red lipstick. Her eyebrows are slightly thick and nicely shaped. She's wearing a white shirt and a long, burgundy pencil skirt. On her shoes, she has long brown heels. She's roughly my height in her heels and I'm in trainers. Overall, she's a pretty woman and looks in her mid-thirties. She smiles at Matt and Aiden, but keeps professional with me. I actually don't feel jealous. I guess I understand now that Matt only wants me.

"Aiden Lassiter."

"Matthew Legato."

"Lisette Cheslaw." We all say as introduction, extending our hands for a handshake.

"Ah, Ms Cheslaw. I'm a counsellor here. I work personally for Dr. Swarvolini. He's the Chief Medical Examiner here. I understand Claire's been in an accident."

I nod slowly. I don't really know what happened to Claire, but I guess you could call it an accident.

"We need you to identify a body. But first, I'll just give you a rundown on what's going to happen." She clears up.

She explains pretty briefly that I'm not actually going to see the body. She makes a few references to movies and what movies make the experience seem like and that it's really not like that. Everyone is a professional and knows exactly how to deal with these kinds of situations. Her job in particular, is to make sure that I am comfortable with the whole thing and I know exactly what to expect. She's meant to fill me in on the details and then I have to identify the body. She smiles when she's finished.

"Obviously, only kin can identify her so your friends can't all go in." She smiles sadly.

"There aren't any bodies. Can't we all go?" I clench my hands at my sides.

I seriously can't do it alone. Does she really think I can go in there alone and look at my dead sister's face. Hell no!

"Can the two of them go in together? They both knew Claire." Aiden negotiates.

Dr Kelly nods and then takes Matt and I into a room. There are chairs surrounding a table and she tells us to take our seats. We sit in the chairs and wait for her to be ready. She disappears for a while and then returns with a large brown envelope. Her eyes dart to Matt at least twice as she walks to the table and goes to sit down. She adjusts her skirt and her shirt. She tugs on the shirt fabric and it tightens around her bust, making her chest look bigger. Nice work.

Matt and I hold hands as we wait for the doctor. She places the envelope flat on the table. Opening it, she takes out a moderately sized picture and then another. She places them both on the table, faced down, and pushes them towards me.

"These are the pictures of Claire." She smiles kindly. "Take as long as you need to turn them over. No matter what happens out there," she nods her head in the direction of the door, "I'm here for you and you have my full, undivided attention. Take things at your own pace."

Her smile and her kind words are actually soothing. I thought the whole thing was going to be rushed and she'd just turn it over and make me look at it. But she's not like that. I feel Matt tense beside me. He had to see the body in person, which was much worse. He was only a kid too. I'm about a decade older than he was when he had to look at a dead body. How could they let a teenager identify a dead body? That must've been so traumatising.