“Your father - ooooh, is he the one we call “Rotating Carlos” down here? Because if it is he is rotating already….. I think he knows you had a happy life with your wife…”

Hearing 'Matteo's' word made Marco go silent. His father's name wasn't Carlos, it was Ricardo and Matteo had said that he had a happy life with his wife. He still was having and would continue to have until one of them passed away. Marco hoped it would be him. Burying Angelique would be too much for him to handle.

Either Matteo was screwing with him or he had been right from the start and someone was screwing with him. And he knew just excatly how to find it out once and for all.

“I love talking to you too. It is a welcome variety from the grave matters we dead discuss among ourselves….”

''Mmhm. Good to hear that. Now, could you repeat your name to me. I want to make sure I don't accidentally misspell it onto your gravestone'' He hadn't once said Matteo's name and who ever was messing with him couldn't know it either unless they knew the deceased.

Gabriella noticed the silence of the gravedigger after her joke about “Rotating Carlos” and she silently swore under her breath. She should have known the name of the man before she started throwing jokes about him. Now she knew that the man was suspicious for certain.

Her eyes widened when the man told the corpse to repeat his name to him. Damn! What was she going to do now? Even if she had known the man’s name - which she didn’t - she had never set foot in a classroom, and she didn’t know how to read and write.

“Ah, it doesn’t matter how you spell my name,” she tried. “It’s the middle of the night and I am starting to feel very sleepy…. Besides, I have no family to come to check on me, and those who still come can’t read and write…. They wouldn’t notice a spelling error or three…”

<a href='index.php?showuser=58' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>@Marco Pierno</a>

“Ah, it doesn’t matter how you spell my name,” she tried. “It’s the middle of the night and I am starting to feel very sleepy…. Besides, I have no family to come to check on me, and those who still come can’t read and write…. They wouldn’t notice a spelling error or three…”

What was it when people pointed out that it late that it almost always made you want to yawn? Marco yawned before shaking his head to clear away any drowsiness he felt. Matteo did have a point but his suspicions had grown again. ''Come out! I know you are hiding!'' He suddenly shouted, turning around and trying to catch a glimpse of his potential trickster. Yet there was no one to be seen. Was his mind doing tricks of his own?

''I promise I won't do anything to you if you show yourself. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, yeah?'' Marco still tried. In reality he was thinking about digging two graves into his graveyard this night rather than one.

Gabriella knew that the joke was over when the gravedigger shouted out that he knew she was hiding. She didn’t really believe he had seen her yet, but his face expression revealed he would dig two graves tonight instead of one if he caught her.

At first she had thought of not saying anything more, but when he started yawning, she could not resist a last whisper.

“Help me to the graveyard to lay these old, aching bones to rest,” she whispered, trying to sound like the corpse.

She heard the gravedigger promising to not do anything to her if she showed herself, but she knew it was a trap. She had not survived for 25 years by being gullible. She would not bite on the hook this time either.

<a href='index.php?showuser=58' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>@Marco Pierno</a>

No one answered to his calls other than the nigth sounds. Marco kept looking around him for a while before giving up. Perhaps he hadn't slept enough and now he was paying the price for it. Or he was actually losing his mind. The former seemed more likely.

“Help me to the graveyard to lay these old, aching bones to rest,”

''Not bad idea my friend. I feel like I could need a rest myself. Starting to think things are where they are not'' He streched his arms before taking hold of the carts handles and starting to pull Matteo towards graveyard to put him six feet under to the ground where he could rest and on occasion tell more of his jokes to Marco.

Gabriella held her breath as the gravedigger looked around. She did not wish to be the next person he buried, and she suspected this was exactly what would happen if he ever found out who was behind his conversation this night…..

Luckily he didn’t seem to have spotted her, and she watched in silence as he agreed to bury the corpse at the graveyard like he was supposed to. Hidden between the branches she watched the man disappear towards the graveyard with the dead body. As soon as he had vanished, she quickly climbed down the tree and quietly hurried in the opposite direction.

She knew that sooner or later he would be done with his work, and she had better not be where the conversation took place when he returned. She made her way towards the forest clearing where her horse was waiting for her, and soon the two of them galloped full speed through the forest, finding a night camp where nobody could disturb their peace.

(THE END)

<a href='index.php?showuser=58' rel='nofollow' alt='profile link' class='user-tagged mgroup-3'>@Marco Pierno</a>