Deep in the earth when there is no where no light
The Dead don’t rest in peace, instead they lie in fright
A rhythm beats and cheats the Reaper wrongly of his right
Deep in the earth when there is no where no light
The bundle of purple carnations slid into the vase secured between three rocks in front of the tombstone. The white ribbon tying them fluttered slightly in the breeze. She was always telling him not to make a fuss over her. His obsessive desire to satisfy her every whim was the reason he wasn’t there to protect her when it happened.
…
She had made an off hand remark about the new flavour of ice cream she’d been dying to try when the ad came on for the third time in a half hour. He had heard the shots, four of them in quick succession, as he was walking back up the drive way of their brand new suburban bungalow. The dessert, half-melted from the sweltering August evening’s heat, exploded with a wet thump on the kitchen tile when he dropped it. She was lying face down in the living room, arms stretched out towards the now empty television stand.
…
He stood, brushing the dirt from his best pants as he did so, then folded his hands in front of his stomach. He stared at the fresh engraving,
“I’m so sorry. I’d, I’d do anything,” he started but collapsed to his knees in tears before he could finish the thought. He buried his face in his hands and wept loudly, his heavy breathing punctuated with anguished wails. The last sliver of the sun ducked behind a hill without him noticing, the curtain of gloaming descending quickly like a theatre curtain. He continued to cry.
The loud creak of a heavy mausoleum door resounded from near the cemetery gate and snapped him out of his fit. He wiped each of his inflamed eyes on the forearm opposite, left with right, right with left, and then witnessed a figure emerging from the building holding an ancient lantern aloft. Peering through his still blurry vision he could make out a short, fat, woman in a plain white robe. A long white scarf concealed her hair.
They both stood motionless, staring for half a minute until finally he raised his right hand in a feeble wave. She continued to stare, but did not acknowledge him in any other way. He lowered his arm and stepped on to the path leading out of the place. Her head turned slowly as he approached, and when he was within a few feet he could see that she had no pupils or iris, just vacant milky pools fixated on him. He passed her, feeling her gaze crawl over his back as he walked towards the car. Before getting in he turned back and saw her nod once, slowly, taking a full ten seconds to complete the gesture.
Deep in the earth, when there is no where no light
A woman seeks her former sweet, an end to all their strife
A rhythm beats under the street and gives the dead new life
Deep in the earth when there is no where no light
The alley behind the hardware store was as good a place as any. He drove in as far as he could and put the car in park, the engine idling. A lone “fuck”, the letters getting progressively larger as their author had hurriedly completed the scribble, stared back at him through the windshield from the plain grey cement wall. The arrow on the gas gauge pointed somewhere between medium and full. He got out, pulling the plastic bag off the passenger seat without looking at it as he did so, and left the door open.
The first length of duct tape snarled as he unraveled it. With a deft bite it came loose and secured one end of the garden hose to the exhaust. He returned to the front of the car, the hose snaking after him from out of the bag, and rolled the driver’s side window down an inch. The serpentine tube began to hiss its venomous fumes. Another bite of tape held the beast still against the door frame and insulated the open crack in the window. He got in, closed the door, flipped down the sun shade. His wife smiled broadly from the photograph held in place with two elastic bands. He shut his eyes.
Deep in the earth, when there is no where no light
Seeking relief a man retreats the living, joins his wife
A rhythm beats beneath his feet and gives the dead new life
Deep in the earth, when there is no where no light
A raven pecking curiously at the wilting carnations cawed in protest as it felt the unnatural rumble, then flew to the safety of a nearby tree to watch the sun come up. The side-by-side mounds of fresh earth began to vibrate. Softly at first, then collapsed into the craters left as the first digits punctured the surface.
One, two, three, four pale hands shot up through the soil and clawed at the first cracks of day. The hands patted the ground in confused fury, alternating between clockwise and counter in chaotic circles until finally they brushed against each other. Two long heavy moans emanated from below and spread out across the graveyard. The pair locked fingers, their forearms creating two eerie archways of undead flesh between the plots.
More earth shook loose, piling on the sides or falling into the holes left as the animated corpses pulled each other up into the predawn. The woman’s white veil and satin dress now a patchwork of muddy greys, a single earthworm crawling through a button hole in the lapel of the man’s tuxedo. Finally they stood and examined each other through their sockets filled with cloudy off-white. The moans came again, and the bride lurched forward into her groom’s embrace, almost knocking them both over. They stood swaying, off balance, as the light grew brighter around them.
The mausoleum door creaked open, a steady rhythm beating from deep within. The pair stumbled hand in hand, making a crooked diagonal line to the crypt’s open door, then disappeared below.
Deep in the earth when there is no where no light
The Dead don’t rest in peace, instead they lie in fright
A rhythm beats and cheats the Reaper wrongly of his right
Deep in the earth when there is no where no light
The Gloaming, Montreal, QC
Timothy Case 