麻豆社

By Sophie C

The door creaked as it slowly opened, revealing a man, carrying a heavy spade that glistened in the light of the full moon. In the opposite hand, he grasped the bag containing the lifeless body. Cautiously, the man stepped out of the door and trudged down the path, hunched over, his eyes fixed firmly on the path. Under an old overhanging willow tree, he placed the bag on the ground and started to dig the shallow grave in dry, gravelly dirt. In the distance, he could hear the sound of an owl, hooting and welcoming in the night.

All around the man, life was carrying on as normal: there were cars moving along the street nearby, houses illuminated by television screens and voices in the distance from the people leaving the local pub. In the garden however, there was a feeling of despair as the man continued on with his task.

Finally, the grave was completed, the man stabbed the shovel into the ground beside him and surveyed his work. It was time to lay the body in its final resting place. Picking up the bag from the ground, he moved it towards the grave, placing it inside. Kneeling down beside the pit, the man carefully tucked in all of the bag, the last thing he wanted was for animals to disturb the body. The bottoms of his trousers were dirty from the earth and his knees were painful from the gravel jabbing into the soft flesh and bone. He had to use the spade as a support to pull himself back onto his feet.

Looking at his watch, he realised he was running out of time. He must be quick. With sharp strokes of the shovel, he replaced the earth, filling the fresh trench back up. He finished the task by briskly patting down the surface. The job was done.

Stepping back and looking over the scene a tear rolled silently down his wrinkled cheek. After all these years, how had it ended like this? The two of them had been through so much together, he felt like he had to at least say a few words. Croakily he whispered;

"Rest in peace...my beautiful friend, Goldie the goldfish."

Suddenly the peace was disturbed as the back door was thrown open and a woman's body was silhouetted in the hall light;

"Come on Jim, dinner's ready....it's cottage pie, your favourite. This will cheer you up now you've buried that fish, you daft old man.....who ever heard of burying a fish!!"