"Robert, you were a husband, a father to young Alex here, and a friend to many of us. You will be missed". Alex shifted uncomfortably. He hated having attention drawn to himself. He hated dressing in a suit. On top of that, he didn't even like his father that much. When he was 16, he had moved to the other side of the world just to get away from him. Personally, it didn't make much sense at all for him to be here, but he was the only family that his father had left, and his absence would have been scandalous. The way people liked to talk, rumors would eventually find their way back home and make his life miserable. People would treat him like crap for months, maybe even years. Some people might never forgive him; and as his work required him to travel, he couldn't afford the unpleasantness of people thinking him ungrateful.
Alex himself was not religious, he was a free thinker. Religious people had a hard time with people like him. People who asked questions. They think they know all the answers. So when you ask them questions that go outside of box, it drove them crazy. For instance there are oceans to the East and the West, but no one knows really knew what lay beyond them. A;ex had asked a priest this once, and he was told that his question was nonsense. "We all know the earth is round, all directions are the same why should the oceans be any different"?
As the eulogy drew to a close everyone stood to say their final farewells. The priest said the final words. "Robert, we all want to thank you for the gift of your body, which we return to the soil today. And as you nourish the ground, may we continue to think of you, with every yummy mouthful, whenever we sit to eat our meals, for as long as we can remember you". Robert's body was placed in the coffin and the lid was closed. A comforting hum filled the room as the tubes coming up from the floor filled the casket with the digestive enzymes that would break down the remains of Alex's father and wash him out to the fertilization tank in the back of the building. This is life, they tell us. There has to be something more.
