Body

"Six hundred dollars." He says. "That's what I charge. You want your husband back?"   Her heart catches in her throat. She doesn't have six hundred dollars. She doesn't even have one hundred dollars. She hates November. At least it's over, and none of her children were turned this year.   That was hard, last year.   She takes a deep breath. "Do you have an official registration number for your body storage set up so I can apply for the BRIAG?"   He blinks. "Uh, no. Strictly under the table."   She sighs. "And I'm sure that means you can't process private insurance claims either."   "Well there's...uh...work arounds to that." He sounds less than sure.   "Uh-hu. Sure there are." She does know that if you get the premium coverage option, there is coverage for reimbursement on payments made to non-registered entities. Not that she had premium coverage, and she can tell that he doesn't know the details, and she doesn't want him to get ideas. "How do you expect people to pay that much if they can't milk the insurance companies or government funds?"   "They find a way, if they want to see their people again." He says this with confidence. They probably got unsecured loans. Or stole or drained their savings or pawned their wedding rings. People did some desperate things to make sure they got their people back, when December rolled around.   She can't afford that and still be sure she can feed her children, let alone let them have any kind of Christmas.   She bites her lip. "Look, I don't have that kind of money. But keeping the corpse around isn't helping you any, and you'll have to ditch it anyway, because keeping corpses around is illegal the rest of the year. Better to get some money for it, right?"   He narrows his eyes. "What are you suggesting?" "I have fifty bucks, cash, right now, and I do the transport." Dangling him off the end of the ATV might not be glamorous, but it would get him to where the Literomancers were going over names of the dead to prep them for possible resurrection. "If he's not damaged."   She wants his body either way, but she will certainly not be able to afford that if they can't bring him back.   Luckily, the company has to hire him back, since refusing to keep someone's job open during November is a labor violation.   "He's not," the man says reflexively. Then he pauses and considers. "Fifty now and fifty later, plus you do the transport and we'll call it even."   That was more than she really should be spending, but he's her husband. "Deal." It's less than she spent getting her son back last time, though she did get a BRIAG to cover that. She takes out her wallet and pulls out the money she was saving up for her hair cut. She'll just have to look ugly for Christmas. She'll also have to bum fifty dollars off her mother. Or maybe she should ask her father instead. He liked her husband better. She thinks about all of this as she gets her oldest son to help her load up the body. She really hates November.