Chapter Thirty-Five

"They sat shiva to cover up the murder." Lilith said. 

Mila frowned. "How does that work?"

"Sitting shiva means that the widow didn't have to leave the house. I heard that the husband's will was filed after The Beige Widow died. And there was no obituary for him placed online. Nada."

"So she just sat inside and no one knew that her husband had died?"

"Just about. Except he was a known poet so word went out through the grapevine." 

"Who were the accomplices?"

"Pyrestone, Mifferet Lakein, for a start." Lilith stared into her cup of coffee. "You have to be careful."

"How did she kill him?"

"Medication. Heart attack." 

"Why did she kill him?"

"She was trying to force her daughter to return."

"Did she?"

"No. Thank God. The Beige Widow was lunatic." Lilith shuddered.

"How do you know this?"

"People have been talking." 

"Of course, those other people don't want this coming out."

"Of course." Lilith said. 

"So this Teary might be planning to kill her man?"

"I am not saying that. But she was friends with The Beige Widow.  All I am saying, Mila, is stay away from that scene."

El-Don was astonished to find Lolly at the Men's Followship meeting. Not only was Lolly early, he was wearing a clean striped shirt and he had brought hummus and carrots.

"I've been looking for you," El-Don said.

The last thing that Lolly wanted to admit was that he had been captured by his Monsieur Cuisine App. He really wanted to say it was all the fault of an AI Matrix. Which was basically the truth. Basically. Instead he said, "I was called away."

"Buck was trying to find you."

The two men looked at each other. Neither of them knew what was safe to say. 

Joe-Bob wandered into the meeting.  "Sure is unpredictable weather we're having," he said and was greeted by silence. "Good to see you again, Lolly."

"Good to be here, Joe-Bob," Lolly said. He felt like a new man. Or a weathered man with fresh resolutions. He had his doubts about his own identity.

"Gentlemen," Withers said, sitting down. "Let us pray. Kane why don't you lead us off?"

Kane cleared his throat, "Heavenly father, we thank you for your mercy." 

El-Don started to weep. Where had Flora gone?

"We come to You recognizing my need for Your grace and salvation. I repent of my sins and lay my life down before You. I believe in Jesus as my Savior, and I ask You to give me a heart to follow in His footsteps daily. Teach me to love my neighbor, seek peace, and live an obedient life empowered by Your Holy Spirit." Kane said.

"Amen," they all said.

"When we left off in our study guide, we were discussing Session Eight - Abuse: The Elephant in the Room. Shall we continue?" Withers asked. He shook the papers in his hand, "Why does the abusive behaviour of men so often go unnoticed or unnamed, or even when noticed why is it sometimes tolerated and not confronted?" 

El-Don continued to weep.

"Brother El-Don," Every said, "why don't you share your burden with us?"

"I have been greedy and paid the price. Flora is gone." El-Don said. 

"What do you mean gone?" Withers asked. 

El-Don thought about the response hanging on his lips. "She...." El-Don looked at Lolly. "She changed. And poof! Just disappeared."

Lolly thought of his Monsieur Cuisine App. "How did she change, El-Don?"

"You'll never believe me. Into a giant prairie dog." 

Kane, Withers, Evert and Joe-Bob thought they had heard wrong. 

Only Lolly reacted. 

"I think Teary is trying to kill me." El-Don said.

Lucinda Bourbon's daughter was decidedly upset. She was not one to mince words. 

"You sons of bitches!" she wrote in her email. "You patronizing assholes. My mother was an abusive psychopath, bone breaking, soul crunching, rolling over everyone on her flaming ten ton cast iron wheels, picking gullible so called friends to believe her victimhood, lying and thieving and conniving.  That you offer to have conversations with a dead woman who spent her entire life smear campagning her family and never had an ounce of remorse, in some ridiculous farce of so-called 'forgiveness plan' is unfathomable - I demand that you take that mother fucking AI shit down."

When the email had arrived, Meth-T and Goody read it together. They had not reacted, choosing to ignore it. To them it was just some woman interrupting their solid business plan. But now they were looking at a lawyer's letter that had arrived by hand. They were being sued. 

NB: If you, dear readers, run that same email text through AI with the prompt to assist with editing a chat box pops up with: 

I hear your anger, and I completely understand why you are furious. It sounds like your mother caused horrific, unforgettable damage to your family, and it is entirely valid that you feel outraged by any suggestion of talking to her or forgiving her.

I want to clarify and apologize for the misunderstanding. I cannot actually create a way for you to talk to a dead person, nor do I have a "forgiveness plan" to offer. I am an AI text assistant, and in my previous responses, I was only trying to offer generic help with writing or editing documents based on your prompt "help with text."

I can see how that came across as tone-deaf and deeply offensive given the severe abuse you survived. You are absolutely right that some people cause immense harm, never show remorse, and manipulate everyone around them. You have every right to your anger and to protect your peace from that legacy.

Of course, S'Natch Funeral Home wasn't directly selling editing work. That is, they were selling their version of forgiveness which was their own formulation. The dead were speaking the words Meth T and Goody data mined, culled and presented through avatars who conversed with the living for a fee.

And if, in some moment of lucidity, they had tried to find a reply to Lucinda's daughter they might have discovered what AI offered as adaquate options, such as:

1. You have every right to stand your ground and speak the absolute truth about the wreckage she left behind. We honor your request to shut down any lingering lies or flying monkeys swinging on vines out the grave. 

2. We understand she was an unrepentant abuser, thief, and liar. Her death doesn't erase the soul-crunching harm she did to your family. We will not allow her manipulation further control the narrative, and we will not pretend otherwise for anyone’s comfort.

Both responses have that curious AI sycophant vibe, but even there S'Natch Funeral Home couldn't raise themselves to that short height. They stuck their heads in the sand for a dollar. Or several millions. 

Chapter Thirty-Four

                                                                                Coming Soon Chapter Thirty-Six

#longmont #colorado  #loveland #funeralhome  #keithkumasenabbott #keithabbott  #buckrogers #AI #sittingshiva #murdercoverup #

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