[Intro]
[Nylon-string guitar plays three quiet descending notes as the reception bell rings once.]

[Verse 1 - Anubis, deep male baritone]
She came before the morning rain,
With “Elias” stitched inside the seam.
His winter coat lay on her arm,
Still holding one sleeve’s human form.
She counted notes beside the pen,
Then counted every coin again.
“I know it isn’t what you charge.
We never thought the end so large.”

[Pre-Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
The printer waited, blank and white;
The highway blurred beyond the light.
Her thumbnail worried at the fold—
Too thin for grief, too short in gold.

[Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
A widow at reception,
A coat across her knees,
Asking what a lifetime buys
When love outlives the fees.
She brings a name, a ring, a coat;
No package fits her loss.

[Verse 2 - Mara, warm female contralto]
Elias laughed too loud and long,
Fixed Route Ten when brakes went wrong.
He fixed the neighbors’ cars for free,
Then swore his eyes were fine to see.
He left one cup beside the sink.
I have not moved it. Let me think.

[Pre-Chorus - Anubis, deep male baritone]
No brochure held the words she said,
No polished oak described her dead.
I pushed the contract from the chair:
“Tell me the truth. We’ll start from there.”

[Chorus - Anubis and Mara, duet]
A widow at reception,
A coat across her knees,
Telling me what a lifetime was,
Not what a package sees.
She gives his jokes, his hands, his cup;
No package holds the loss.

[Instrumental Break]
[Cello repeats Elias’s name as a four-note phrase beneath the fingerpicked guitar.]

[Bridge - Mara, warm female contralto]
He dreamed about a river
Running somewhere near this place.
For seven nights he heard it rising,
Though no water touched his face.

[Bridge Response - Anubis, deep male baritone]
My hand went cold above the folder;
The hidden scales began to ring.
Some souls wait beyond the doorway
For the words the living bring.

[Verse 3 - Anubis, deep male baritone]
I stamped the form “Paid in full,”
Though policy said the act was null.
I took his coat, but not her ring;
“Tomorrow night, bring everything.
No plastic flowers. No silver frame.
Bring one true story with his name.”
She held my gaze and whispered, “Why?”
“Because the dead should hear goodbye.”

[Final Chorus - Anubis and Mara, duet]
A widow at reception,
Now standing from her chair,
With less in hand than when she came,
But more than ledgers bear.
She brings the truth; I guard the gate;
No honest name is lost.

[Outro - Anubis and Mara, duet]
She leaves the coat.
The scale downstairs begins to move.
