“I’m going to have to fire you Peter,” said Johnathan. His words, though harsh, were not intended to be that way. Peter was a good grave digger, but Johnathan was losing money, and he couldn’t afford to pay Peter anymore.
“Come on boss. I got a family to feed. My wife doesn’t have a job, and this is the only thing that I can do,” replied Peter, begging. Johnathan started to rub his temples in frustration.
“Listen Peter, I don’t have the money to keep you employed anymore. I’m sorry.” The words hit Peter like cold dirt. Where was the money going to come from now? How would he feed his wife Claire and daughter Melinda. Wait, no. No one was feeding Melinda. It was amazing that she had survived this long, but Peter didn’t know how much longer she had.
“I understand. You have to do what you have to do,” Peter sighed. He went over to the closet to put his shovel away, but Johnathan stopped him.
“Keep it. Who knows, you may need it one day.” Peter smiled graciously at Johnathan and walked out the front door.
The town was practically empty. It was small and home to mostly elderly. Peter had planned to dig their graves someday in his lifetime, but that didn’t look like it was going to happen. The mist hung low to the ground, and seemed to linger around Peter’s shins. The gravel road crunched underneath his steps, and his fingers danced with each other in an anxious fit. What was he going to tell Claire? Where would he work now? Too many questions.
After the thirty minute commute to his small shack of a house, Peter was utterly exhausted. His mind was drained, and all he wanted to do was sleep, sleep like Melinda did. No. Don’t think like that, he told himself. No one deserves that. I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy.
Peter opened the feeble door and there stood Claire. His loving wife of ten years. She was his everything, and all he wanted to do in life was make her happy. And you could say that Claire was a happy woman. She had a loving husband, a beautiful daughter, and a relatively easy life. The only thing that haunted her was Melinda’s long slumber. The slumber that was supposedly never going to end.
“How was your day dear?” Claire asked like she did every day. She expected the same answer. Peter would always reply with: good, how was yours? But today was different.
“I lost my job Claire. I’m sorry,” Peter said, slamming his body into the kitchen chair. Claire was shocked. How could this happen, especially at this time? Everything was going so wrong that Claire had thought about giving up; but she didn’t have the heart to do it. She couldn’t leave Peter and Melinda like that.
“It’s quite alright Peter,” she said sympathetically. “You’ll just have to look for a new job around town.” Peter shoved the kitchen chair to the ground and stomped up the stairs. He slammed the door of his and Claire’s bedroom shut. He had enough of Claire’s sympathetic voice and her fake words. He knew she hated him for being a failure. Why wouldn’t she just admit it? He threw himself onto the bed, in hopes that he wouldn’t wake up.
Claire decided that it was best to leave Peter alone to sulk about the loss of his job. She walked quietly into Melinda’s room. She walked on the balls of her feet, afraid that she might wake her. Impossible, she told herself. Nothing is waking that child. She refused to believe that though. She placed her hand on Melinda’s and closed her eyes and dreamt about the times they shared when Melinda was awake and well.
***
The clock ticked in her own little world. Time moved so differently there. So much faster than the time of the real world. She could spend what felt like minutes running and playing with the rabbit-like creatures, and it turned out to be hours. She continued to play with the animals, but then she heard her parent’s voices. They sounded sad and they seemed to be longing for something. And she knew what it was. They wanted so badly for their little girl to wake up. To show the world her bright blue eyes once again. But Melinda refused to wake up. This world was her escape from that hell.

“Melinda darling please wake up sweetheart,” her mother pleaded. Claire was a simple woman. Blonde locks and blue eyes, looked like her daughter. Her figure was slender and quite tall for a woman.

“Claire just give up already. She has no hope for waking up,” Peter said harshly. Claire jumped at his presence in the room. Peter was holding the shovel firmly in his hands. His features had turned dark, almost as if the job loss had taken a toll on him already. He towered over Claire and Melinda and spoke in an almost dogmatic tone. He had lost hope that Melinda would ever wake up.

“Peter have some hope. I know she can hear us,” Claire said optimistically. Peter rubbed at the stubble that was beginning to form on his chin.

“She’s a lost cause Claire. We need to get rid of her. We can’t keep giving her food that she doesn’t eat. She’s become a waste of space.” Claire looked at him with pleading eyes.

“Peter she’s all we have.” Claire’s eyes began to fill with tears. Peter sighed and walked out of the room. He was fed up with her and the thought that their daughter could be saved. She was long gone and Claire needed to learn that.

Melinda could hear them. She could hear every word her parents said to her, even though the stuff her father said probably wasn’t a good thing to hear. She was hurt. Hurt that her father would think such things. Maybe Melinda would try to wake up, but not today. Her world was fun and full of life that she had created. It was her own little paradise that no one could pull her from.

Melinda sat down underneath a big oak tree. She looked up at the stars that dotted the sky. Melinda couldn’t help but wonder about the other worlds that supposedly existed. Maybe everyone had an escape like she did, and they just didn’t know how to reach it. Then she heard the weeping. It was her mother; the woman that had raised her and had unconditional love for her even though Melinda wasn’t really there. Melinda felt terrible for doing this to her parents, but she had tried so hard to wake up, but she just couldn’t.

“Please Melinda. Wake up please,” her mother said through her shaken voice.

“I can’t mommy. I’m sorry,” Melinda replied with tears streaming down her cheeks. She heard a loud bang and a gasp from her mother.

“Peter, why do you have the shovel?” Claire asked.

“It’s time to say goodbye Claire. I’ve had enough of this gloom that constantly lingers in this house. She’s gone and we both know it.”

“She breathes Peter! She really does! And I see her eyes move every now and then!” Claire shouted.

“Enough Claire! Now get out.” Claire got up and grasped Melinda’s soft hand. She kissed her easy fingers and whispered one final goodbye. Melinda began to worry. She had no idea what was about to happen.

“Daddy what are you doing?” All she heard were the grunts of her father. Peter had wrapped her body in the blanket and brought her outside to the cool autumn evening. The spade of the shovel pierced the ground with a loud clang. Even though it was mid-November the ground was still quite soft and easy to shovel.

Melinda sat under the oak tree quietly crying. If her body was disposed of she would never wake up. She would be trapped in this world forever. Melinda would never see her parents again, or feel the rain dripping down her face. She would never fall in love and have children of her own.

“Daddy stop!” she shouted again.

Peter finally finished digging the hole and placed Melinda’s empty body into the abyss. He knew the consequences of what he was doing, but he needed to do it. They couldn’t keep getting food for a mouth that wasn’t going to eat. He was giving up on her. He started to shovel the dirt back in. The first clump hit the body hard. The sound was like a slab of meat being thrown on a table.

Melinda felt the dirt hit her. It was painful. There were little stones mixed within the dirt and they hit her hard. More and more started to pile on. She screamed, but no one could hear her. A few rabbit creatures came and looked at her with curious eyes, but they did nothing. Eventually, she was paralyzed, unable to move or breathe. Melinda felt the light leave her, and ultimately she gave up too.