By Lester L. Weil
“Bring out the dead. Bring out the dead.”
The cry came faintly to the cellar. He sat in dim candlelight, resting before a pile of displaced floor stones and a half dug grave. Unwilling to surrender the body of his beloved to the dead wagon, he picked up his shovel and resumed digging.
A large gray rat ran across the huge center beam of the ceiling, eyes reflecting pink in the candlelight. For a moment it stopped and watched the man. The rat reached up and scratched behind its ear with a back paw and then continued on, into the dark.
I like the story. It is gruesome to say the least but it the important part, it gets the point across to the reader.
Great story.
I love it! Makes us remember the very real past–and in addition moves us with pity and fear. (Aren’t those the words Aristotle used to describe catharsis?)
Deft use of prose to paint a vivid image of that poignant scene. For a few brief seconds I was there – I felt the widower’s pain.