Laura

'You are not really dying, are you?' asked Amanda. 'I have the doctor's permission to live till Tuesday,' said Laura. 'But today is Saturday!' gasped Laura. 'This is serious!' 'I don't know about it being serious; it is certainly Saturday,' said Laura. 'Death is always serious,' said Amanda. 'I never said I was going to die. I suppose I'm going to stop being Laura, but I shall go on being something. Some kind of animal, I suppose. You see, when a person hasn't been very good in their life, they reincarnate in some lower form of creature. And I haven't been very good, when I think about it. I've been mean, and sometimes cruel and unforgiving, when circumstances seemed to demand it.' 'Circumstances never demand that sort of thing,' said Amanda quickly. 'If you don't mind my saying so, my cousin Egbert is a circumstance that would demand a large amount of that sort of thing,' said Laura. 'You're married to him, and you've promised to love and obey him. I haven't.' 'What's wrong with Egbert?' protested Amanda. 'Oh, it's probably me who has been wrong,' admitted Laura coolly. 'Egbert has just been the excuse for my bad behaviour. He made a bad-tempered fuss the other day, for example, when I took the young dogs from the farm out for a run.' 'They chased his young chickens and ran all over the flowers in his garden. You know how he loves his chickens and his garden.' 'Anyway, he didn't have to complain about it for the whole of the evening and then say, "Let's say no more about it" when I was beginning to enjoy the discussion.' Laura smiled. 'So I had my revenge and allowed all his chickens to get into his garden shed and eat his seeds.' 'Oh!' cried Amanda. 'And we thought it was an accident!' 'So you see,' Laura continued, 'I really do have reasons for supposing that I shall be some lower form of creature when I am reincarnated. I shall be an animal of some kind. But I think I shall be a nice animal, something handsome and with a love of fun. An otter, perhaps.' 'I can't imagine you as an otter,' said Amanda. 'Well, I don't suppose you can imagine me as an angel, either,' said Laura. Amanda was silent. She couldn't. 'Actually, I think life as an otter would be quite enjoyable,' continued Laura. 'And then, if I'm quite a good otter, I suppose I should get back into a human shape of some sort. Nothing too grand - a little brown, unclothed Nubian boy, I should think.' 'I wish you would be serious,' sighed Amanda. 'You really ought to be if you're only going to live till Tuesday.' In fact, Laura died on Monday. 'It's so upsetting,' Amanda complained to her husband's uncle, Sir Lulworth Quayne. 'I've asked quite a lot of people to come and stay, to play golf and go fishing. And the gardens are looking so beautiful now.' 'Laura was always thoughtless' said Sir Lulworth. 'She had the craziest kind of ideas,' said Amanda. 'Was there any insanity on her side of the family, do you know?' 'Insanity? No, I never heard of any. Her father lives in West Kensington, but apart from that I believe he's quite sane.' 'She had an idea that she was going to be reincarnated as an otter,' said Amanda. 'These ideas of reincarnation are quite common, even in the West,' said Sir Lulworth. 'They can't really be considered mad. And Laura was such a surprising person in this life, I shouldn't even like to guess what she might be doing in the next one.' 'Do you really think she might have become some sort of animal?' asked Amanda. She was one of those people who readily adopt other people's opinions. Just then Egbert entered, looking extremely unhappy; far too unhappy for Laura's death to be the reason. 'Four of my best chickens have been killed,' he said. 'One of them was pulled right into the middle of my new flower garden and was eaten there! The flowers are ruined!' Egbert lacked ready to cry. 'My best flower garden and my best chickens! It's almost as if the horrible creature that did it knew this.' 'What sort of creature -?' began Amanda. 'There were footmarks to and from the stream at the bottom of the garden,' said Egbert. 'It must have been an otter.' Amanda looked quickly and secretly at Sir Lulworth.