A Shocker

All the time i was asleep, there was a commotion outside. See, I have a reverse sleep-wake cycle. Now that I'm bumming around, my sleep patterns have reverted back to "normal". I sleep at around 7 AM, I wake up at 3-4 PM, so everyone's basically awake when I sleep. I have a vague recollection of someone opening the door to my room, checking if I was awake. I think it was our maid, wanting to ask me something. When I finally woke up this afternoon, I found out why she was trying to wake me up. The answer was a shock.

This morning, our family driver just died. In his sleep. They wanted me to confirm if he was really dead. He wasn't up at around 7AM, and he had to take my sister to school, so they checked his room. If they only told me why they were trying to wake me up, I would've woken up. Such news would surely drain all sleepiness from my body. Then again---- maybe I would've chickened out and pretended to sleep. Not that I've never encountered death--- I'm actually numb to death, with all the deaths I've witnessed. It's just that I've never proclaimed someone dead on my own yet... am I just supposed to check the vital signs, pupillary reactions, or am I also supposed to check for post mortem lividity as well to estimate the time of death? Okay, I guess that's too much. But who will I report it to? The local hospital? The city government? All those things I've learned about legal medicine seem to have flown out the window, and I've already lent my old books to someone. Bu more than that--- It's just too weird, and creepy, when you proclaim someone you actually know personally, someone you've known all these years, someone you were close to, as dead. And he lived with us. Even if he's not family, he was almost like family. And we never expected it. For one thing, he was young, only a few years older than me. And we never knew his underlying condition. When my dad called his wife, he found out he had some heart ailment, plus diabetes. And he goes on occasional drinking sprees even with such conditions. They also can't believe it, because they've just talked to him on the phone 2 days ago. When he first became our driver, he was only 21 i think, and I saw him as somewhat arrogant back then, some happy go lucky, irreponsible pr*ck, with an air of pride around him. He was also kinda slow both in thinking and in action. And I remember being so irritated everytime he asks me to loan him money--- because he did that a lot of times. He was fired after 2 years i think, which was expected, so I was surprised my father hired him again. But I was more surprised to see that he has changed into someone really mature. I saw how having a family changed him into a responsible man. And he became some sort of a buddy, especially to my sisters, probably because he's almost our age. i suppose we're going to his wake, I just don't know when. He's still in the morgue, apparently. They're still waiting for his wife who is still in the province. Everything still seems surreal, no one seems to be looking that far ahead yet.