Decomposing Bodies in an Ice Cream Parlour

Over our mint and raspberry ice cream, he described the complications of burying dead bodies. If not contained in a bag or box, the decomposing body will exude fertilising minerals, so that the vegetation over the body's resting place will be highly prolific. This is a sure sign of a buried body, especially in a barren patch of land.

The topic was strangely fitted to our surroundings. We were sitting in a pink ice cream parlour, where all of the wire chairs had hearts twisted in them. The walls were decorated with tie died paper ice cream cones. The other patrons were families with sticky children.

Zachary was telling me about a summer college course he had taken on forensic anthropology. Zachary is a friend, whom I haven't seen for a year and a quarter. He is like family, because he grew up in the same Czech town as me. Our families spent tons of time together. He went to the same school and church as we did.

Four years ago his family moved back to America. This week they were in the Wheaton area and Zachary and I met up for coffee. After using our respective Starbucks graduation gift cards to buy drinks and baking ourselves for a few hours outside, we relocated to the ice cream parlour where he told me about burying corpses.

We spoke Czech when we wanted to talk about strangers passing by, but also just for fun. There was a lot to catch up on: graduating high school (he and I graduated at the same time although on different continents), starting college and family gossip. Hanging out with a someone from my Czech life was like being home for a few hours. It blessed my socks off, as my mother would say.