Bokelskere.no

'They've got no money,' said Jacquel when they were back in the hearse. 'He'll come in to see Ibis tomorrow. He'll choose the cheapest funeral. Her friends will persuade him to do her right, give her a proper sendoff in the front room, I expect. But he'll grumble. Got no money. Nobody around here's got money these days. Anyway, he'll be dead in six months. A year on the outside.'
Snowflakes tumbled and drifted in front of the headlights. The snow was coming south. Shadow said, 'Is he sick?'
'It ain't that. Women survive their men. Men - men like him - don't live long when their women are gone. You'll see - he'll just start wandering, all the familiar things are going to be gone with her. He gets tired and he fades and then he gives up and then he's gone. Maybe pneumonia will take him or maybe it'll be cancer, or maybe his heart will stop. Old age, and all the fight gone out of you. Then you die.'