Dig
By sean mcnulty
- 215 reads
The ground was hard and mostly unassailable but after examining the area around them they found a soft patch and set to work making a grave for Mrs. Juhl.
‘Such good shovels these are,’ declared Stinson, taking a moment to admire the workmanship as digging commenced.
‘They are Faroese shovels,’ said Littlewood.
‘What difference does that make?’ asked Masterson.
‘No difference whatsoever. The man expressed an interest in the tools, so I thought I’d provide some background.’
‘The shovels we have back home are much weaker than these ones,’ said Stinson.
‘What would you know about shovels?’
‘I’ve worked the fields in my time, Masterson. I helped with the ditch maintenance around my uncle’s farm when I was younger.’
‘And this makes you an authority on shovels all of a sudden, does it?’
‘No – but I can sense a difference with every plunge. These shovels cut with a clear precision.’
‘Your uncle just had cheap ones – I bet.’
Littlewood was right. There was no difference. But even he didn’t realise that these ‘Faroese’ square shovels had been made by a company in England and they were shovels that were widely used in Ireland. These shovels had tapped into the global tendency for digging.
Katrine was by her mother’s side, deep in meditation; there was a gloom in her face as she touched the coffin and thought of her mother under this unpleasant ground forever. But conversely there was reconciliation and a sense of comfort in knowing they had succeeded in bringing her home.
Father Geissel approached her and said: ‘I must tell you I have trepidations about conducting this funeral.’
‘Why is that?’
‘As your mother is not Catholic. I believe I’m prohibited from reciting the committal rites for non-Christians. I might be perpetrating a mortal sin if I go through with it.’
‘You’re a partisan bunch, aren’t you?’
‘You must understand it is a sacred mandate. It is the Lord’s blessing. It could be disrespectful to express the common faith in tribute when the one being honoured had in life little of that faith in common.’
‘We never asked you to say anything, Geissel. What makes you think we would even want it? I am an atheist, after all.’
Geissel left the matter alone, stepped away, and continued to wrestle with the constraints of his life’s work.
- Log in to post comments
Comments
Nice to see another part of
Nice to see another part of this
- Log in to post comments
Yes it is. All this talk of
Yes it is. All this talk of shovels made me smile a lot. It has the deadpan nature of Magnus Mills and his world of work.
- Log in to post comments