Excerpt
“Mary Louise! Opal! Come quick!” With her pink fuzzy socks lacking traction, Pearl slid to a stop. All heads turned. The activities room was packed with card players but Pearl provided more entertainment as she hobbled around like she needed to find a restroom. “Follow me! We have a dead one!”

“Don’t get up.” Mary Louise folded her poker hand and smiled at those who offered a kind look of understanding. Pearl had developed a melodramatic reputation and most of the community’s residents knew her by name.

“We’ll be right back.” Opal slowly rose from her chair. She reassembled her lucky turquoise bonnet that matched absolutely nothing before she fell in line behind Mary Louise. “She means a live one.”

“I know,” Mary Louise grumbled.

Pearl motioned for them. “Hurry.” Ten or fifteen steps later, she stopped at the edge of the foyer. “I had it right the first time.”

“Hope not.” Opal kept her voice low. “Ya scared everyone half to death.”

“Must’ve been what happened to him.” Pearl pointed and sighed. “With friends like me, you two need more enemies.”

Opal squatted next to the older gentleman. “He pulls off the dead look as well as anyone can.”

Mary Louise couldn’t disagree. Better dressed than most Cozy Retirement residents, the fellow wore recently polished boots and a matching russet-colored belt. His fitted white shirt hugged an athletic build while a rounded club collar embraced the thickest part of his neck.

“We can’t rule out death by choking.” Opal released his sports tie and felt for a pulse. “Ya know this guy?”

“Not by name.” Under most circumstances, that meant she didn’t know him at all. “Oh this is simply awful. Why’d I leave our pod today? Why didn’t I read or watch a mystery marathon?”

“Shh.” Opal studied the stranger’s face. “Sorry, Pearl.” She lowered her head to his chest. “No heartbeat. He’s gone.”

“That’s what I thought.” Pearl paced. “Set eyes kind of gave it away.”

“I was hoping he might have been in shock,” Mary Louise said.

“Considering this one?” Opal tilted her head at Pearl. “Anything’s possible.”

The faint thrum of a heat pump fan made the open space seem more serene. With the faded voices and muffled laughter in the distance, this man’s death would go unnoticed. Folks had bets to place and pots to win. An element of deep sadness washed over Mary Louise as she considered the blurred and fragile line between life and death.