Page 102 - And the Mountains Echoed (novel)

They were escorted to a sparely lit, quiet room with heavy darktoned

furniture. A man in a black jacket and hair parted in the middle greeted them. He
smelled like expensive coffee. In a professional tone, he offered Idris his
condolences, and had him sign the Interment Order and Authorization form. He
asked how many copies of the death certificate the family would desire. When
all the forms were signed, he tactfully placed before Idris a pamphlet titled
“General Price List.”
The funeral home director cleared his throat. “Of course these prices don’t
apply if your father had membership with the Afghan mosque over on Mission.
We have a partnership with them. They’ll pay for the lot, the services. You’d be
covered.”
“I have no idea if he did or not,” Idris said, scanning the pamphlet. His father

had been a religious man, he knew, but privately so. He’d rarely gone to Friday
prayer.
“Shall I give you a minute? You could call the mosque.”
“No, man. No need,” Timur said. “He wasn’t a member.”
“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. I remember a conversation.”
“I see,” the funeral director said.
Outside, they shared a cigarette by the SUV. It had stopped raining.
“Highway robbery,” Idris said.

Timur spat into a puddle of dark rainwater. “Solid business, though—death—
you have to admit. Always a need for it. Shit, it beats selling cars.”
At the time, Timur co-owned a used-car lot. It had been failing, quite badly,
until Timur had gone in on it with a friend of his. In less than two years, he had
turned it around into a profitable enterprise. A self-made man, Idris’s father had
liked to say of his nephew. Idris, meanwhile, was earning slave wages finishing
up his second year of internal medicine residency at UC Davis. His wife of one
year, Nahil, was putting in thirty hours a week as a secretary at a law firm while
she studied for her LSATs.

“This is a loan,” Idris said. “You understand that, Timur. I’m paying you
back.”
“No worries, bro. Whatever you say.”
That wasn’t the first or the last time that Timur had come through for Idris.
When Idris got married, Timur had given him a new Ford Explorer for a
wedding present. Timur had cosigned the loan when Idris and Nahil bought a
small condo up in Davis. In the family, he was by far every kid’s favorite uncle.