"The young man must be lonely.  There is something terrible about the look in his eyes, about the way his body slumps over the heavy, black answering machine perched on his lap."

The young man in question is indeed lonely, and his very unusual job is taking a heavy toll on him: during a funeral, he stays in the home of the deceased.

Someone needs to be there to answer the phone, receive deliveries, and deter thieves who might have seen the obituary in the newspaper and decided this would be a good time for a break-in.  It's a more common problem than you might think.

The young man has witnessed a lot of strange things over the years in the homes of the dead, and sometimes his job is truly a matter of life and death...

Originally published in The Best of the Borderlands edited by Elizabeth Monteleone (Borderlands Press, October 2005), From the Borderlands edited by Elizabeth E. & Thomas F. Monteleone (Warner Books, September 2004), and Borderlands 5 edited by Elizabeth E. & Thomas F. Monteleone (Borderlands Press, November 2003).