Chapter 49 forty nine

The sky was overcast that night, and under the light of the airport not far away, the shadows of the trees danced.Louis parked the Honda on Mason Street.This street just borders the southern end of the Pleasant Cemetery.Louis got out of the car. The wind was so strong that he could barely close the door.He had to push the door hard.He went to the trunk of the car, took out the tarpaulin, packed the tools, and took the package along the shadowed sidewalk to the cemetery.As he crossed the street, he looked carefully to the left and right of the street, looking for people and vehicles.He didn't want to be seen at all, not even by someone who accidentally caught a glimpse of him and then quickly forgot him.God, he was terrified.It's not an impractical job, it's a crazy job.

There are no cars on the road. "Gage." Louis whispered softly.Gage's over there in the cemetery, inside those iron bars, imprisoned under a layer of dirt.I'm gonna get you out, Gage, get you out, boy, thought Louis.Louis crossed the road, took the heavy tool up to the sidewalk at the other end, scanned his surroundings warily, then went under the iron fence and threw the tool bag in.The tool dropped with a soft thud, and Louis patted the dirt off his hands and walked away.He made a note of the place in his mind.Even if he forgot this place, he could walk along the iron fence and find these tools.

But at this late hour, would the door still be open? He walked down Mason Street to the bottom of a please stop sign, and the wind blew at him, causing his steps to turn hurriedly and walk along the fence to another street.There was a car with its headlights on in the street.Louis walked casually under a tree and saw that the car was not a police car but a delivery van heading towards Hammond Street.As soon as the car passed him, Louis continued to walk forward.As he walked, he thought: Of course, the gate of the cemetery will not be locked.It must be unlocked.He walked to the door, stretched out his hand and pushed it.

The door is locked. Louis thought again, you big fool, of course the door is locked... Do you really think people will leave an urban cemetery with its iron gates wide open after 11pm?No one trusts others like that, no one anymore.So what do you do now? Now he had to climb over the iron fence, and hopefully no one in the street would notice his climb.Maybe someone will report to the police and say: Hey, officer!I just watched one of the world's biggest, dumbest kids climb into a good-looking cemetery.He looked as if he was desperately trying to get in.Yes, I think it might have something to do with death.joke?Oh no, I'm serious, maybe you should look into it.

Louis continued walking along the street and turned right outside the second intersection. The high iron fence was endlessly blocking him, and the wind turned cold, drying the sweat on his forehead.His figure flickered under the street lamp.He glanced at the fence now and then, stopping at last to force himself to really look. He thought, You want to climb over that fence, stop kidding. Louis was quite tall, 6 feet 2 inches, but the fence was 9 feet high, with a decorative point on each iron bar.It's decorative, but actually when people try to climb up and step over, their bodies are likely to land on these spikes, dig into the groin, puncture their testicles; and squeal like a suckling pig on a spit He waited until someone called the police and took him down and sent him to the hospital.

Louis thought as he continued to sweat, sticking his shirt to his back.All was quiet except for the faint sound of traffic in the distant street. You must find a way to get in, you have to get in. There seemed to be a voice in Louis's head saying, "Come on, Louis, let's face it. You may be crazy, but not that crazy. Maybe you can climb a fence, but only a trained gymnast To jump over those spikes without getting hurt. And even if you can get in, how are you going to get your son out, and how are you going to get out yourself?" Louis walked on, vaguely aware that he was walking around the cemetery, but there was nothing he could do.

The voice sounded again: Well, let's solve this problem like this.I will go back to Delou Town tonight, come back tomorrow, come later tomorrow afternoon, walk in through the gate at about 4 o'clock, and then find a place to hide, and do it at midnight or after midnight.In other words, I'm putting off my plans until tomorrow.good idea.Oh great Louis, but what about my pile of tools thrown over the fence?Pickaxes, shovels, flashlights... Isn't this obviously a tool for grave robbers?Maybe they fell into the bushes.Who will find out, for God's sake? It was very important to consider things so carefully, but it was not his purpose. A voice in his heart was quietly telling him that he could not come again tomorrow.If he didn't do it tonight, he might never do it, he might never bring himself to think of such madness again.This is an opportunity, the only opportunity.

Louis thought as he walked to the side of the fence. There were few houses on this side, and the graves in the cemetery seemed to have been there for a long time.There is another stop sign above the head, and if you turn right again, you will go back to the starting point.What should he do if he walks back to the starting point?Then go on?Or admit defeat? The lights of cars appeared on the street.Louis went under another tree and waited for the car to pass by. The car drove slowly. After a while, a flashlight came out from the right seat and moved along the fence. Louis felt his heart tighten. , This is a police car, checking the cemetery.Luis clung to the tree, the rough bark rubbed against his cheek, and he wished the tree would be big enough to hide him.The flashlight shone on him, and Louis lowered his head and buried his face.The light shines on the tree, then moves away, then reappears to Louis' right.He ducked back a little behind the tree.For a moment he thought the police had spotted him, and he waited for the rear lights to come on, the door to open, and the policeman to yell at him: Hey, you, the guy behind the tree!come out!Go where we can see you, hands up!Come out, hurry up!

But the police car drove away.Nothing happened.Louis slumped against the tree all of a sudden, panting heavily, his mouth dry.He figured those cops would drive by his Honda, but it didn't matter.Parking on Mason Street is legal between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m.There are many cars parked there too.The owner was someone who lived in an apartment on another street. Louis found himself looking up at the tree he was hiding in, and he saw that right above his head, the tree had split, and he thought he could... Without allowing himself to think too much, Louis reached out and grabbed the right of the tree, hung himself up, and then used his tennis shoes to find a spot on the tree, stepping off a piece of bark.He first leaned his knees on the tree right, and then stepped on a tree right firmly with his feet.He had to climb fast, and if the police car happened to come back, it would find him, the strange bird in the trees.

Louis climbed another section and saw a branch as thick as an arm reaching for the iron fence.He grasped the branch with both hands, with his feet in the air, eight feet off the ground, and began to move, step by step, towards the fence. He felt his own shadow move on the sidewalk like an ape.The cold wind blew his armpits, and he found himself sweating, but still shivering.The closer you move to the fence, the more the branches bend.His hands and wrists also became sore, and he was really afraid that his sweaty hands would slip and he would fall off. He moved to the top of the fence, and the shoes were only a foot away from the spikes on the iron fence.Viewed from above, the spikes on the fence are sharp.Sharp or not, he suddenly realized that if he fell on the point, not only would his testicles be pierced, but his lungs would be pierced, and the cops would come back with a horrific picture. scene.

Breathing heavily, Louis tried to find a place to step on with his feet, and for a moment he hung there, his feet dangling in the air, unable to find a place to step on. Suddenly a light appeared, and it grew brighter. Oh god, that's a car, a car is coming... Louis wanted to move quickly, but his hand slipped. He looked down to the left as he looked for a place to step down. The car drove through the intersection like lightning and drove away.Luckily, if it... His hand slipped again, and he felt the bark fall on his head. One of his feet found a place to step, but the other leg caught on the prong of the fence.God!He was a little bit overwhelmed.Louis shook his legs desperately, the branch bent down quite a bit more, his hand slipped again, he heard the sound of his trousers ripping, and found himself standing on two spikes that stuck into his hips. The heel of the shoe quickly hurt my foot.But Louis was still on top.The relief in his hands and arms was much better than the pain in his feet. What kind of image am I, he thought for a moment in a dull mood but also found it funny, then grabbed the branch with his left hand, wiped it on his jacket with his right hand, then grabbed the branch with his right hand, wiped it on his jacket with his left hand. He stood there a little longer, then reached forward and moved his hand, now he could get a better grip.Feet off the tip, he moved on, the branch bent dangerously, and then he heard an ominous snap, and blindly let go. He fell to the ground, and the knee of one leg hit a tombstone, and the pain spread to his thigh. He rolled on the grass, holding his knee with his hands, grinning to the back of his head, thinking in his heart, don't Broken kneecap.Finally the pain subsided a bit, and he found that he could still turn his leg joint, and if he kept moving the joint and didn't let it harden, it would be fine later, maybe. Louis stood up and started walking along the iron fence toward Mason Street and his tools, his knee hurt at first, then he limped, and after a while the pain became Numb, there is aspirin in the first aid kit in the Hongda car, I should just remember to take it with me.It's too late to think about it now.Louis kept his eyes on the road, checking for any cars passing by.When a car did come, he hid deep in the cemetery. There might be traffic on Mason Street, and Louis kept walking in the cover until he was right in front of his Honda, and was about to run under the fence to get tools from the bushes when he heard There are footsteps on the sidewalk, and a woman laughs under her breath.Crouching behind a large gravestone, his knee hurting badly as he squatted, he saw a man and woman walking towards the other end of Mason Street.They walked with their arms around each other's waists, and it reminded Louis of something from an old TV show.What would happen to them if he rose now from behind the headstone, and suddenly a shaky shadow appeared in the dead of the graveyard, calling out to them, "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are place!" They would be terrified. The two walked under the streetlight next to his car and hugged each other.Watching them, Louis felt some disgust at what he had done.Here and now he crouches under the tombstone, like some inhuman thing in a cheap comedy tale spying on a lover's rendezvous.Is luck that bad?He wondered, give up just because of this unfortunate interference?Climb up a tree, climb over the branches, fall in the cemetery, watch lovers rendezvous... and then dig the grave?It's that simple?This is crazy, right?It took me eight years to become a doctor, but one easy step to become a grave robber... I think people will call me a ghoul. He put his fist in his mouth to prevent himself from making a sound from feeling this inner fear and disorientation. The man and woman finally left. Louis watched impatiently as they climbed the steps in front of an apartment building. The man stood in front of the door and took out the key to open the door. After a while, the two walked in the door.The street was silent again, except for the wind, which continued to blow, moving the branches of the trees and the sweat-soaked hair on his forehead. Louis stooped and ran under the fence, groping through the bushes for the bundle of tools, found it, right at hand, picked it up, and heard the clang of tools inside.He carried the tools and walked to the wide roadway paved with gravel, and identified the direction, yes, go straight ahead from here, turn left at the fork, no problem. Louis walked along the curb of the driveway, hoping to hide in the shadows of the elms should one of the night watchmen on duty come out.He turned left at the fork in the road, getting closer and closer to Gage's grave.Suddenly he realized with a shock that he couldn't remember what his son looked like.He stopped, staring at the rows of graves and tombstones, trying to wake up his memory.He could only recall Gage's individual features. His son had fair, thin, shiny hair; squinted eyes; small white teeth; and a small scar on his chin from falling down steps in Chicago. of.He could think of them, but he couldn't put them together.He saw Gage running toward the road, toward the big Orinco truck, as if to make a date with it, but Gage's face was turned away.Louis tried to recall Gage lying in bed the night after the kite-flying, but his mind was just dark. Louis shouted in his heart, Gage, where are you?Louis, has it ever occurred to you that maybe you're not doing your son any good by doing this?Maybe he's happy here... maybe death isn't as bad as you think.Perhaps he was with the angels, perhaps asleep.If he fell asleep, do you really know what you might wake up? oh gage where are youI want to take you home. But can he really control his actions?Why can't he remember his son's face?Why should he act contrary to the warnings given to him?Chad had warned him, Pascoe had warned him in the dream, and his own trembling, flustered heart had warned him too. Louis thought of the tombstones in the pet cemetery again, they roughly formed a circle, spiraling towards the mysterious place, and then Louis felt the cold again.Why was he standing here, trying to remember his son's face?He will be able to see his son's face in a moment. Here is the headstone, simply inscribed with Gage William Creed and the date of birth and death.Louis saw that someone had come here today to mourn his son, because there were flowers on the grave.Who could it be?Mrs Dandridge? Louis' heart was beating heavily and slowly in his chest.This is the grave of his son, and if he wants to do it, he has to do it, and although the night is still a while, the day will follow. Louis thought for a final moment, and saw that he had made up his mind to do it.He nodded slightly unconsciously, without even realizing it, and then reached out and took out the knife. He packed the tool with tape and stuck it together, and now he needed to cut it.He unrolled and rolled up the tarp over Gage's tomb, and put away the tools as he would arrange them for surgery.The flashlight was wrapped in a piece of cloth as the clerk Louis said, and a small hole was dug in the middle to make it a pen-style flashlight with a little light in the middle. The short pick may not be needed, but he just bought it by chance. When opening the cemetery, you will not encounter stones and hard cement seals.The shovel and spade were out, and the long rope and gloves, and he put on the gloves, grabbed the spade, and set to work. The ground was soft, the excavation was easy, the shape of the tomb was very clear, and the soil that Louis dug up was much softer than the side of the tomb.Louis couldn't help but mentally contrast the easy digging here with the hard, stone-laden dig he was going to bury his son later tonight.There, he had to use the pickaxe.He didn't want to think about it anymore afterward, but the thoughts kept coming back to his mind from time to time. Louis dug up the soil and threw it to the left side of the grave.His pace slowed down as the grave deepened, and he went down to dig the earth, smelling a new earth smell he remembered from his summer vacation at Uncle Carl's. Digger, the word Louis remembered as he paused to wipe the sweat from his brow.Uncle Carl had told him before that was the nickname people gave gravediggers in America.Louis jumped into the grave again and started digging. He only stopped for a moment and looked at his watch. The time was 12:20 in the middle of the night.He felt that time passed quickly. Forty minutes later, the shovel in his hand touched something hard, and blood oozed from his clenched lip.He picked up the flashlight and looked down, and saw the gray-white coffin cover Jane in the cemetery.Louis brushed off the soil with a shovel, and the shovel made a loud noise in the dead of night when it hit the concrete coffin sleeve. Louis crawled out of the tomb, found the rope, and tied it to the hoop on the sleeve cover, then climbed out of the tomb again, spread the tarp on the ground, lay down on it, and pulled hard on the rope.He thought to himself, Louis, I think that's it, this is your last chance.By the way, this is my last chance, and I took it fucking well. Louis wrapped the rope around his hands and pulled hard. The square concrete cover was easily pulled away and stood upright like a vertical tombstone.Louis untied the rope from the hoop and threw it aside, he would no longer need the rope, he could stand by the slab and move it; The cover of the car was knocked over and smashed its foot, or smashed something.Some pebbles rolled down and hit Gage's coffin.Louis bent over, pulled up the other half of the cover, and set it aside.He felt something cool on his finger, and when he looked down, an earthworm was wriggling on his finger.With a throaty growl of disgust, Louis dropped the worm on the dirt wall on one side of the crypt, then he shone his flashlight down and saw his son's coffin.Louis reached for the shovel and hit the coffin locks four times over his head, thinking: I'm going to get you out, Gage, see if I can.Louis thought as he smashed, his mouth pulled back. The lock had cracked the first time he hit it, and probably didn't need more, but Louis kept hitting it several times, as if he didn't want to open the coffin but to break it.At last he regained his senses, and raised the shovel and lowered it again. The edge of the shovel was bent. He threw the shovel aside and climbed up on trembling legs.He felt nauseous in his stomach, the anger came and went quickly, and disappeared.Here, that cold feeling came back to him, and he felt so alone and bewildered in his life.He felt like an astronaut just disembarked from a spaceship, floating in the darkness of space.Does Bill Bateman feel like this?Louis wondered. He lay on his back, waiting to see if he could get himself under control and get on with it.When the tiredness in his legs was gone, he sat up and jumped into the grave again.Shining his flashlight on the lock, he saw that the lock had not only been broken, but had been destroyed.He was swinging the shovel wildly just now, but every time he landed on the lock, he seemed to have eyes and hit every shot.The wood around the lock was all split. Louis tucked the flashlight under his arm and crouched down gently.Fumbling with his hands, he found the groove in the top of the coffin, put his fingers in it, paused for a moment... one might say hesitating, and then opened his son's coffin.