Riding in the hearse without a seatbealt

"Mek yuh self comfortable" the hearse man told me as I jumped in  and started looking for the seat belt.

"Don't worry with the seatbelt.. police don't stop me.. dey does doan want nutting to do with hearse"

Man is smiling, not too cheerfully as it is a funeral, but smiling enough for pleasant customer service.
The hearse is plush, nice wide leatherette seats, nice leg room for a tall man.

"Let me put on the AC for you.." the man tells me as I pushed aside the seatbelt. 

I can't remember any hearse getting into accidents on the way to the cremation or burial ground.

"So is you I gotta talk to..." the man smiled and said as we started out.  Ancient tradition from the Greeks/Romans where an obol was placed in the mouth of the dead to pay Charon to ferry them from the world of the living to the world of the dead.  This tradition might not be the one being invoked here.. but

"Doan worry, you gun be fixed up.. " I tell the man.

The man fiddles with the tape deck. Nice gospel music coming through. Me and the man whose body is in the back of the hearse are Hindu but the hearse man did not seem to notice. I don't mind though - and I sure the man whose body is in the back would not mind either.

Hearse sets off in the procession. I ask the man about the seat belt.

'Police friken hearse, dem don't stop to check'.. the man said. And as the thought I entered my  head.. he said.. yeah. is only when the body come on the plane then is a big check up and so because people smuggle drugs with the body.

Place hot, AC feels nice. Me and the man gaffing and I liking the not too soft, not too hard seat. I see another hearse passing in a procession.

"That is big money people there.. Sandy hearse only is fuh big money'..

"What you mean.."
"Sandy use minibus normally... the hearse is special"

I wanted to ask him about this one and so, if he think I have big money too and that I am more likely to take the minibus than the limousine like hearse.

But the gospel music is playing.

Some bikers coming down. Man tells me.. that is another funeral.  A biker died in an accident so there would be a lot of vrooming and so at the funeral which was not the same place we were heading to in the hearse.

I ask the hearse man about soul funeral and so.  "Nah me, I never had that.. where them people shake up hearse and want throw the body out the coffin and so.. nah.. not me"

He tells me that he enjoys the work. He works for more than one parlour. He has no hassle in moving around. The tips are good.

We reach the cremation ground.

As we get busy, I realise that the man and I had not talked about the person whose corpse he was carrying to the crematorium.