The Graveyard Shift

“Are we going to stay the whole night?”

“The whole night? I think we should.”

“OK. Let’s just stay together. It’s weird here at night.”

Ted and George entered the graveyard through the gate, more eerie by its silent swing than if it had creaked as tradition demanded. This graveyard was supposed to be the most haunted spot in town, although Ted didn’t really believe in ghosts. Overactive imaginations and liars took care of most, if not all, of the stories in his opinion. It was hard not to get caught up in the atmosphere, though. The location, the clouds scudding across the moon, leaving the world below light or dark, depending on how much light they blocked. Even the silence. No animal noises, no cars driving past. The graveyard was located on the edge of town, and there was only one road. If you headed in this direction, this was the only place you could be going.

They stepped quietly past rows of graves, moving silently, as if afraid to wake the dead. There should be no living person to see them, after all. Ted kept looking over his shoulder every time the moon brightened, paranoia prodding him to check that the change of light didn’t mask torches or car headlights. George carried the bag ahead, not looking back, confident of being undisturbed. The authorities of their tiny little town should all be tucked up in their beds by now, in his opinion. Nothing ever shook his confidence, not even if they got caught in one of their “shenanigans”, as their parents referred to them.

Should they be doing this? In the middle of the night? George had come up with the plan, assuring Ted that this was the best way. No one else would be involved, they would not get caught, and they would do what needed to be done. In theory, they could have come here in broad daylight, but there would have been adults, and questions, and people insisting on “helping”, or worse, stopping them. Coming here was something that Ted and George had wanted to do alone. Ted just wished they could have come here when it wasn’t so creepy.

Turning on his torch, Ted started shining it on the gravestones. The one they were looking for was around here somewhere, but they’d only been here once. It was easy to find in daylight when you were following a crowd. At night, alone, it was a lot harder. The gravestones they’d already passed were too old.

“George!” Ted pointed at a mausoleum on the left. “Wasn’t it near that one? That one with the goofy angel.”

George turned and pointed his own torch at the enormous structure. Like usual, he didn’t say anything to acknowledge that Ted was right, he merely turned and walked along the row that Ted had indicated. Three graves after the angel, they found the space they were looking for. They sat down next to the grave and George put the bag he had been carrying next to him. The clouds were clearing, allowing the moon to shine through, so they switched their torches off and put them on the ground.

“Are you sure Grandpa would want us to do this? Mum sure doesn’t.”

George glanced at the grave next to him. “I’m sure. He told me this is what he wanted. He knew Mum would say no, so he asked me. Max was never going to outlive Grandpa by much.”

“But burying him with Grandpa? Shouldn’t he be buried… I don’t know… Somewhere else?”

“That’s why we’re here now, at night. Mum would say yes, the cemetery people would say yes. Grandpa wanted Max to be with him. And we agreed that we would make sure it happened. We just need to dig a hole, then stay around for a while so that nothing digs Max up again. Easy. Stop stressing out. The dead can’t hurt you.”

It wasn’t dead people Ted was worried about. It was the very alive people who would not be happy to find them there and learn what they were doing. Mum in particular would be appalled. Could they be arrested for being in a cemetery at night? It was a public space, wasn’t it? Were there really animals that could dig things up or attack them?

George pulled a camping shovel out of the bag and thrust it at Ted. “Here. Start digging and don’t freak out. We’ll be fine.”

Ted turned and jabbed the shovel into the ground about where he thought Grandpa’s feet would be. Max had spent a lot of time at Grandpa’s feet, so it seemed a good spot to dig. The small camping shovel had been good for carrying but meant that it was taking forever to dig the hole. He kept digging, although he still didn’t quite understand why this was so important to George. After some time, George impatiently took the shovel out of Ted’s hands and started digging more aggressively.

Ted watched the moon flit in and out of view as the clouds continued to move across the sky. He held the torch again as a large patch blocked the light for several minutes, clearing just in time for George to throw the shovel down.

“You think the hole’s big enough?” Ted threw a small rock in the bottom of the hole and looked at the bag next to George.

“Time to find out.” George carefully removed a box from the bag and pulled the lid off. “Goodbye Max. You were a great friend, to Grandpa, and to us.”

Ted reached into the box and stroked Max’s fur. “You were the best dog ever. Say hi to Grandpa for us when you see him.”

Together, Ted and George closed the lid and put the box in the hole, where Max could stay with Grandpa forever. As they put the dirt back in the hole, covering Max, Ted looked over at George’s determined face and found his courage. He would stay with him all night to make sure that George fulfilled his promise and that Max stayed where he belonged, with Grandpa.