Dirty work (2)

Vera was staring at the death notice of a man in his forties. He used to live alone in a house on the outskirts of the village, had no family, and had moved in just a couple of years prior.

He died because of an incident while cutting wood in the forest, and the villagers had paid for the funeral with a common fund. They had wanted to do so because he had no one else to carry on with the procedures and rites.

However, with the following death, people had started coming back. They would walk to their homes - some taking time because they got lost at every crossroad, but they would eventually find the way - and ask for their dearest ones. They would scream their name, alerting the whole neighbourhood about their presence.

At least, that was written in the documents Vera had received.

«If they paid for his funeral, he must have been a good person,» she said. «Who knows what he did in his life to end up like this?»