Old Phillip

Interior artwork for the book "Peas Returns" by Jason Coe

Phillip Valentine thinks better of saying a silent prayer, and instead begins to dig in the loose dirt. By the time he breaks into a sweat, he’s already throwing heaping scoops of fill into a pile beside the grave. Time seems to fall quietly away as he watches each scoop of red soil scatter in the darkness above. Soon he’s down as deep as his neck. And he’s startled when he hears the shovel rapping on the hollow casket beneath the final inches of dirt.