The Uninvited

the car and we put the dead body in it, stillwarm, and resumed our journey. He wasnow full of energy: the idea of a ceremonyhad galvanised him.‘I’ll bury it and put a cross on the graveand say some words.’‘What kind of words?’ I was curiousabout what notions he might have, at six,of burial rites.‘I don’t know.’‘You don’t know when?’He laughed. ‘Yet. So go on then. Tellme.’ Freddy didn’t realise it, but hischild’s perspective provided me with acognitive path to the world we both livedin. So I quoted him the ‘ashes to ashes anddust to dust’ lines of the Christian burialrite, and explained how in other countriesand religions they say other things. But