Skuen and his younger brother Kadir stood near the end of a hundred-foot-long wall of peat blocks. With L-shaped spades, they cut out neat bricks of peat, looking like rich chocolate cake, and stacked them to dry in the wind. They worked the bogs year-round, with little change to their day other than the amount of light. As they finished the row, Skuen paused to wipe his brow and survey their work.
“Ah, the peat Kadir. The peat. A beautiful sight. Without it, we’d be nothing,” Skuen said, looking out over the miles of endless peat bog in all directions.
“I hate the bogs! I’m sick of it! Year after year, slogging through the muck. I don’t think my feet have been dry since I dropped from the womb,” Kadir complained.
“Ah brother, a soggy foot is God’s blessing. The bogs keep us fed, and warm, and safe, and they ask nothing in return.”
“Nothing? Have you forgotten Father’s broken back? So crippled he just sits at the kitchen table, puffing his pipe and drinking tea all day. He’s barely alive.”
“That’s life, Kadir. We’re born, we crawl, walk, and then run. But the flesh eventually fails us all, and we go to meet our maker.”
“But the bogs, Skuen. The damn bogs! I feel I’m drowning in them. There’s a world out there waiting to be discovered, and I’m here wasting my life for brown piles of muck.”
“The peat is our foundation, brother. Our lives are built on it and will be for generations to come. We’re lucky. Most have to scrape and claw to get by in this world, never knowing if or when food will find its way to their mouths. But the peat provides.”
“There has to more to life,” Kadir grumbled.
“That’s Lucifer dancing around in your brain. Don’t listen to him, brother. He’ll take you down a dark path that only ends in misery.”
The two walked back up the trench they had just cut tidying the bank’s edge for the next round of harvesting. Kadir shaved off a ragged slip leaving a perfectly smooth surface in what looked like a wall of dark chocolate ice cream. As the shaving fell away, Kadir noticed something white lodged in the muck.
“Is that a hand?” Kadir said aloud. “It’s as white as snow.” Skuen looked, then took off his cap, holding it to his chest.
“Tis a burial site we’ve struck. I’ve heard of them, though I thought the last had been discovered long ago.”
“What do we do?” Kadir asked.
“We leave it be. This poor soul needs to rest.”
“That hand looks freshly buried. Maybe something foul happened.”
“That’s the peat. When you’re buried in the bog, you’re not really dead, they say. You’re preserved better than a pickle in a barrel! They’ve found wooly mammoths looking like they just laid down for a nap. Nah, this one needs to rest.”
“We can’t leave it here in the middle of the bogs! They at least need a proper burial.”
“These bogs have ghosts, brother. Souls trapped lingering over their bodies, still as fresh as the day they died. The invisible tether binding us to the next world won’t let go if the body can’t return to dust. Best not to anger the spirit.”
Kadir paused for a moment, thinking about what his brother said. “Yeah, right, pull the other one,” he said. “Let’s dig it up,” he said, welcoming the change of pace.
Digging with care, the brothers opened a space in the bog like a cookie-cutter hole in the shape of a person. “It’s a woman,” Kadir said. “And a beautiful one at that. Her skin is as white as the Dover cliffs, and her auburn hair still has the sheen to it. It looks like she’s drying out after a swim.”
“The bogs are a menace, truly,” Skeun said. “It’s unnatural. This is the devil’s work.”
“Look, she’s got a necklace! And a ring! She must be someone special if she was buried with her valuables. We should take a look, and see if it names her clan,” Kadir said and started to step down to the body.
“Hold back, brother,” Skeun said, pushing his arm to Kadir’s chest. “If there’s a curse to be had, I’d rather it be me than my baby brother.” Skeun stepped down, and straddling the body, gently examining the necklace and the ring on the woman’s right hand.
“What do you see?” Kadir paced around the rim of the pit like a dog figuring out how to get into a pond yet not get wet.
“Nothing. Just trinkets. We should fill this back in and let her be.”
Kadir jumped into the pit, “Let me take a look. You’ve the eyes of an old man.” He looked at the ring and read aloud, “O’Connor. How did you not see this man? It’s plain as day.” He leaned over the body carefully to look at the necklace, opening a locket. One side had an inscription “Dearest Skeun” and the other a photo of Kadir’s older brother. Kadir turned to Skeun, a confused look on his face, “Brother, did you know this woman?”
With that, Skeun struck Kadir with the peat spade at the base of his skull, severing his neck as neatly as you please.
“I warned you brother. Lucifer wormed his way into you, and now you’ll lie with this whore until the stars grow dim.”
That evening, when Skeun returned home for dinner, his mother asked after Kadir.
“Ah Mother, I fear that he left. He finally ran off, like he always said he would. I tried to warn him, but there was no stopping him.”
His mother sat at the dinner table, bringing her husband a fresh cup of tea. “Aye, Kadir always had an eye for the horizon. Was just a matter of time. Maybe he’ll get his nose bloodied out in the big world and decide to return home.”
“I hope so, Mother. I hope so,” Skeun said.
“The bogs provide all anyone needs,” his mother said. “Maybe he’ll understand that one day.”
“Aye, Mother. We can hope. We can hope.”