THE WOLF INFESTATION

Chapter Five

-An Interlude -

The rich black of the graveyard dirt clung to the soles of my flats. Above, the sky was a bleak grey and behind the hills, a lightening storm brewed on the coast. Any minute now, the turgid clouds would burst and we would be all soaked. Ignorant to the poor weather, the priest went on about reincarnation and the afterlife. He had been sent down all the way from Rocky to minister both funerals and console the traumatized families. He was a slow talker and everyone was getting fidgety.

Two deep graves were dug out, six feet down where the light didn't touch — Paul's and Gonzalez's. The smell of fresh soil was heavy in the still air. I breathed through my mouth. The grave digger reclined against his shovel, a solemn look on his face. The dead laid in beautifully engraved mahogany coffins. Closed.

Paul didn't have any family save for his dog. An old German Shepherd that had to be put down the day before, the neighbours said it had gone senile.

With grief probably.

Gonzalez's granddaughter was a weird one. She had been ever since she began fraternizing with the Ryan boys. And like everyone in this fucked up town, they had a heavy past. Know one really knew where they came from, except that they belonged here now; in this town where no one knew where anyone came from, or what they did that made their eyes sink in their heads and shoulders hunch. The Ryan's were the reoccurring gossip when any other talked died down and the locals forgot the rumours that weighed their own backs. They were murderers; that was the talk of the town and they had come from trouble in a city far away from this waterlogged town.

I, didn't care.

Except when they provided entertainment with their dramatics.

Otherwise not particularly.

“That girl looks real sick.” Joyce commented from behind me.

The grandchild of the deceased — Riley Carter — was slumped against a heavy oak, the shadows doing little to hide her pasty complexion. She wore the same clothes I had seen her in the day before and her hair was pulled away from features that were now gaunt. We made brief eye contact before she turned away and disappeared behind the oak and into the woods.

“Sweet baby Jesus, did you see that girl's eyes?” Joyce whispered breathlessly into my ear.

I did. They were grey now, but they were brown before.

A single rain drop trailed down the bridge of my nose.  Black umbrellas ascended as the priest closed off. The coffins were lowered into their graves and the grave digger was quick to cover it. Bouquets were placed on the graves of the dead. The few town's folk that had gathered to pay respect to their elders and gossip later, slowly began leaving. I said my final goodbyes to Mr Gonzalez, everyone's favourite fifth grade teacher. The man that allegedly killed his wife. And Paul - that friendly guy everyone knew. Also  lover of Mr Eli's wife and one of mother's client's. 

I let out a steady breath through my nose. I spotted her headstone further up the incline.

“You coming?” Joyce's voice echoed slightly in the clearing. The few splatters had become a drizzle and her heels were sinking in the mud.

“I'll stay a bit and take the short cut home.”

“Watch out for poison ivy.” She made a great effort to dislodge herself from the mud. “And you should probably cross the river before the bridge floods.” She said over her shoulder.