The Cemetery

By Cayce B. Shelton

The forefathers had vision; vision for the town growing and the people dying. Yes, dying, for they laid out The Cemetery in the middle of the town, large enough to accommodate more than two thousand people. The rest of the town was laid out in squares around The Cemetery with the streets running in straight lines, north/south and east/west. The four corners around The Cemetery were set aside for churches, but one corner became the location for the county and city government offices. Eventually, a Catholic Church, a Baptist Church, and a Methodist Church took up the other three corners.

Every year the county and city governments, each, would budget a proper share of the cost for maintaining The Cemetery and one keeper. All other costs associated with the grounds were born by the clients of The Cemetery. In the first year of the city being incorporated, the initial budget included the construction of a four-foot high brick fence around The Cemetery. The city fathers did not want horses and people tramping across the hallowed ground even if they did have to import the bricks from Mississippi.

The history of the town recorded that two days after the first funeral in The Cemetery, a light mist rose from the ground of, and surrounding, the grave. A lot of speculation became a lot of gossip when the same thing happened after the second funeral. By the time the mist had gathered over a dozen graves, the first keeper left town. After that it was difficult to keep a keeper of The Cemetery grounds.

Keeping the grounds of The Cemetery was not a difficult chore. The mist that covered the graves was not so thick that a person could not see to cut the grass and clean the gravestones. What scared the grounds keepers away was the same thing that eventually scared everybody in town.

From the very outset of the gathering of the mist, a strange thing would happen every time someone died in the town. During the first day after the death of a resident of the town, the mist would lift from the graves and become a dark cloud over The Cemetery. The cloud prevented the sunshine from shining through, but there was enough light to dig a grave.

The mist would cover each funeral service like a pale umbrella and as soon as the mourners had left the grave, the mist would quickly drop over the graves in The Cemetery. The gravediggers working to fill in the fresh grave looked like ghosts themselves from a short distance away.

From the records kept by the grounds keepers and the funeral homes in town, there were four hundred and forty three graves in The Cemetery by the time I was born. By that time the townspeople had become so accustomed to the mist in The Cemetery that it was neither a matter of gossip nor even a subject of conversation anymore. After so many years they had come to accept it as an un-natural occurrence that did not appear to harm anyone.

In later years, many scientific people had visited The Cemetery and even a few had spent some time within its walls. No harm had ever come to anyone, day or night, but no one could ever explain the mist. Eventually, with the knowledge of The Cemetery mist scattered to the four winds, the inquisitive people quit coming to town. The Cemetery was left alone.

Over the years, the town had stabilized in its growth, partly due to The Cemetery being downtown. Another reason for the town's limited growth was the tradition that had grown in the town regarding The Cemetery. Every time the mist lifted from the ground within The Cemetery walls, the townsfolk would close their shops and prepare for the funeral of another resident of the town.

Most newcomers could not understand why the whole town would attend the funeral of someone they barely knew and the townspeople could never explain their actions. Then, when the new cemetery, New Dawn, opened, things changed.

The first person to die in town after the new cemetery opened had not lived in town but a month. Mr. Johnson, a sickly old man to begin with, had moved to town to live with his younger brother, the current owner of the first grocery store in town. Since the elder Mr. Johnson was not an original resident of the town, his brother decided to bury him in the new cemetery. But, the mist had risen the day of the old man's death and the well-known cloud had formed by night. By the day after the funeral of Mr. Johnson, the townsfolk had noticed that the dark cloud over The Cemetery had not moved. By the end of the second day after the funeral of Mr. Johnson, the cloud over The Cemetery had begun to grow. By the end of the seventh day after the funeral, the cloud had darkened the town to the point that the streetlights burned all day and night. Everyone within the city had to use artificial light to get around.

During the night of the seventh day after the funeral of Mr. Johnson, only a few people noticed the mist that descended on the town. Of course, the whole town had met the mist by noon. And by noon, everyone within the city limits was moving around the city slowly and carefully. Automobile lights could not penetrate the mist enough to allow driving more than two miles an hour and people could not navigate anymore than the vehicles.

The stress generated by the appearance of the mist touched everyone, mostly the elderly townsfolk that had lived in the town all of their lives. When the town's oldest citizen, Mrs. Tinsley, suddenly expired, everyone who heard about the death expected the mist to rise to the dark cloud that covered the town. The mist did not rise.

By the end of the second day after Granny Tinsley's death, the stress over the mist and the cloud covering the town had claimed another life. Doctor Allen, a resident for fifty years, suddenly dropped dead. The mortician caring for Mrs. Tinsley suggested that both of the deceased be buried in The Cemetery at the same time.

There was a row between the younger and the older generations about the suggestion, the youngsters clamoring about superstition. The oldsters won out after the mortician agreed to bury the couple for free if the families would pay for the plots.

The day of the double funeral was miserable for everyone because the mist seemed to be thicker within the walls of The Cemetery. The gravediggers claimed that they had so much difficulty seeing to do the digging that the cost would be higher than normal. The townspeople tried to stay together as they filed into The Cemetery for the funerals. There was little crying, but there was a great deal of muttering among the congregation. The two funerals were conducted under the pale glow of flashlights, a scary sight in itself.

After the funerals were over, the townspeople struggled to remain in a bunch as they left the walls of The Cemetery. There was no cheering in the town as the mist began to thin and by the time night had fallen, the mist had gathered within The Cemetery walls. The dark cloud over the city was gone by the next morning.

After the experience the townsfolk had over the death of Mr. Johnson, Granny Tinsley, and Doctor Allen, everyone tried to avoid a possible repeat occurrence. Survivors of the deceased were strongly encouraged to bury their loved ones in The Cemetery instead of outside the city even when the New Dawn cemetery offered reduced rates for its lots.

Eventually, with the bankruptcy of New Dawn, the few people that had been buried there were dug up and reburied in The Cemetery. During the transfer of the caskets, some cleaned, others still dirty, the mist in The Cemetery remained in the dark cloud. When the gravediggers were covering the last transferred casket, the mist descended so quickly they became frightened and left the grave open. It took the grounds keeper all day to fill in the grave.

The Cemetery is not yet full. I guess it will take about fifty more years to fill it up. Then, I don't know what will happen when someone dies. Some of the folks in town have speculated that the dark cloud and mist will block out the town and others claim that the mist in The Cemetery will remain there.

Of course, no one dares talk about creating another graveyard just yet. I don't think I will live to find out which way it goes.