"Relax, coffee break time atmosphere" was playing through the Jung projector. Open catalogues lay on the shin high pine tables offering a variety of options. The assistant was dressed in an unadorned suit, simple make-up, hair pulled back.

     "Have you made a decision yet, sir? "she inquired.

     "Well Dad always hated his flat, so I was considering something countryside-ish."

     "Countryside, um", she reached and pulled a different catalogue from another table.

     "The woodland range is popular, very, "she searched for the right word, "ecological".

     "Woods?" Frank thought about his memories of having picnics in a plantation with a now ex-girlfriend. Regular pines, squirrels, dog turds on the paths. "Could we visit him there?"

     "Of course sir. Taking flowers on anniversary, birthday, religious and/or public festivals are positively encouraged."

     "But will Dad know?"

     "It's not so much for the departed as for those who remain".

     "I'm not sure about woods though".

     "Well the main options are the municipal sites or at sea. Was your father a sailor by any chance?"

     "At sea?" Visions of dead seals, oil tanker pollution and dolphins being beaten to death came unbidden into Frank's mind from recent TV reports. "No, not at sea".

     "It has lost some of its appeal sir, I understand".

     The two were silent for a few moments. Frank flicked a few pages.

     "Might I inquire about the financial arrangements?"

     "Oh, Dad was insured. Prepared for everything. Just didn't specify the," a pause, "final destination."

     "I take it your mother.."

     "She died when I was young, buried. That's where Dad's body is going so that's no problem. But this..."

     "Have you considered asking him?"

     "Not much of a surprise then, is it? Like birthdays, what's the point of knowing what's in the box?"

     "Oh, I see, this is going to be a present to your father. Africa," she blurted out, "One of the game reserves."

     "Lions, Vultures," mumbled Frank.

     "There is the option of a Lion, sir. Nice weather, healthy exercise, sex up to twenty times a day if he gets to be head of the Pride."

     "Competition to get there though. Had. enough of that at work, Enjoyed a relaxing retirement."

     "There is something. Not terribly popular, but very relaxing".

     "Oh yes?"

     "(Giant Tortoise. The disadvantages are that he'd be on a Pacific Island, so it's difficult to visit and they have a very small brain so only the essentials of the personality get imprinted. On the other hand he can get up to a hundred and fifty years."

     "150. I could save up and specify that when I die I could be transferred into one as well."

     "That is comforting," she smiled, "knowing that you can be together again. I'll organise the paperwork and we'll post the scans out to the Galapagos Islands. Then your father's personality will wander around in a tortoise eating fruit in the sun."