"Very well," the man sighed as he wiped his hands on his vest, "By now, all of the body fluids will have dissipated. The clothing will be intact. Likely, dry skin will still cover the skeletal remains. Hair will be present." Coon paused to see how I was taking it. "Shall I describe what we'll do next and the skull removal process?"
Squeezing my eyes shut, I nodded.
"Once the lid is off, the first thing I will do is hand you the iron bar. Next, I will test the skull to see if it separates from the spine. If not, Doctor Stillman has tools for that. I will remove any organic matter that freely separates. Doctor Stillman will take the skull and place it inside the box." Coon paused, waiting for my response.
"Understood. Proceed," I said gravely.
It took all three of us climbing into the hole to pry the lid up and place it off to the side. I was surprised to see Phineas's body exactly as Doctor Coon described.
Mummified-looking remains wore Phin's clothes. But it no longer looked like the man I remembered. When I hopped out of the hole, Doctor Coon handed up the bar. It was ice-cold to the touch, heavier than I remembered.
Author's Note:
Gruesome. I studied forensics and the rate of decay a human body goes through to get this scene as accurate as possible.
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Digging-Up His Brother-in-Law, a Phineas Gage Story
Horror1867 | San Francisco: Six years after Phineas died, David Shattuck dug up his grave so they could send his skull and tamping iron, the 13-pound bar that shot through his frontal lobe, to a Harvard museum, where it remains on display. David describes...
