Bog Men

 

“Good place?”

 

“Sure. River right over there by the big rocks. Soft ground. You can bet it’s fertile too. Lots of worms and such.”

 

Lenny looked at the giant rocks. They rested half in the riverbed but still towered up over the running water. His partner watched his eyes examine the rock formation.

 

“I wonder,” Lenny said, “how long those rocks been here.”

 

“Wouldn’t know. Maybe they came from somewhere else.”

 

“Huh? Like outer space or something?”

 

“No, Dummy. Maybe they got washed by the river down here from farther up in the mountains.”

 

Lenny looked incredulous but he turned to look toward the Sierras anyway. It seemed you could reach out and touch them they were so close. He thought they were pretty.

 

His partner on the other hand thought they were Majestic. Silent and majestic. He thought of himself as silent and majestic to. In a way.

 

“Well, I don’t see how a measly little river could move those rocks over there. Must weigh tons.”

 

His partner shook his head and considered not even answering. Lenny could be so stupid sometimes. But maybe today of all days he should have answers to all his questions.

 

“Wrong again, Dummy. This river hasn’t always been this size. It’s big and it’s fast and right now it’s icy cold. Snow run off. But it was huge at one time. Gargantuan. Probably carved out this whole canyon. Then the engineers dammed it up. Made the lake up there. These big old stones were probably under water rolling along the riverbed for eons before they built the dam and when the river got lower there they were, stuck up out of the water.”

 

“Eons?”

 

“Yeah, eons. Know what that means, Dummy?”

 

“Not exactly, I guess.”

 

“Yeah, well an eon ‘s a long time. A very long time. And it’s starting to feel like eons since we got down here. You need to get over there and start digging. I know you want to put it off, but this needs to get done before the sun is down. I ain’t got all night.”

 

“Harv,” (the partner’s name was Harvey, but Lenny always used “Harv”) “you think anyone else is buried around here? Like from long ago?”

 

His partner looked at Lenny and shook his head again.

 

“What’s with all the questions? You always want to ask questions. The Boss don’t like all your questions. Anyway, we got to do this.”

 

“Yeah, I know. I’m just curious you know. It’s kind of creepy what we’re doing. But I was wondering, see, if we are the first ones to do something like this or maybe we’re not and its been done a lot by guys just like us.” Lenny thought for a moment. “You know, like eons ago,” he exclaimed. He seemed happy with the usage of his new word.

 

“Well, hell, men been burying men forever, Lenny. What do you think? We the first? Come on, even you’re not that dumb.”

 

Lenny looked hurt and he turned his eyes to the rocks again.  He walked down the path toward them. He carried the shovel in his left hand. His partner fell in behind. He kept his handgun close to his leg, out of sight. You couldn’t see it unless you looked real close.

 

“So the rocks will be here too? I mean for all time. With the body.”

 

“Well, yeah, the rocks will probably be here a lot longer than the fucking body, Lenny. Bodies rot and get eaten up by bugs and worms or dug up and become a feast for a wolf or something. They don’t last long.”

 

“Sometimes they do.” Lenny’s voice was sullen. His partner felt bad for being so severe. This day he shouldn’t treat Lenny as bad as usual. But he couldn’t seem to help himself.

 

By the rocks, Lenny used both hands and stuck the shovel in the ground and, after resting his boot on the top of the spade for a minute pushed down, never taking his eyes off the rock.

 

“Well, you tell me, genius,” his partner said. “What bodies last long after being buried?”

 

“Bog men.”

 

“Bog men. What the hell is that? Where’d you hear of such a thing? Been reading funny books, those comics again?”

 

“Shows what you know.”

 

The partner didn’t reply.

 

Lenny pushed the shovel into the soft ground again and tossed the sandy dirt to the side. Then he did another shovel full. His partner looked off toward the mountains and despite himself, asked.

 

“Okay, okay. Bog men. Let’s hear it.”

 

Lenny was glad to talk some more. Anything to put off the digging for a while.

 

“Well, you remember the school teacher? A year ago? Maybe longer. Her husband hated her. He paid us good. Remember?”

 

The partner nodded his head. He remembered all right.

 

“Well, we were waiting for you to get the car and bring it around to the back of the house and get the trunk open and stuff. She was already tied up, nothing to do but wait. So I talked to her a little.”

 

“I’ve told you not to do that a thousand times. It’s the one way we can be run down. You say something that somebody remembers and the cops run it down and we get pinched.”

 

“Yeah, I know. But, you know, she was tied up anyway and she wasn’t going to be saying anything to anybody, so what’s the big deal. She was nice too. Nice looking lady. Couldn’t figure out why her husband wanted what he wanted.”

 

“Not our concern.”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I know. But see, it was as if she had been expecting something like that from him. Something just like what happened.”

 

“You need to keep digging, Lenny.”

 

“Yeah, I know. You want to hear this or not. You always think you’re smarter than me. And everybody. Not always you ain’t.”

 

“Okay, but get to the point. I don’t have all night here.”

 

To his partner’s irritation, Lenny rested one foot on the shovel and rested the handle against his shoulder.

 

“Well, she asked me what was going to happen to her. I told her it wasn’t good to talk about beforehand. But it wouldn’t hurt. You know, like we always tell them. Keeps ‘em from freaking out. Anyway. She said maybe she would be like the Bog Men and be able to tell her story some day.”

 

After a moment, hating how long this was taking but hating the suspense more, the partner said, “Well, what the hell? I’m guessing you asked.”

 

Lenny smiled at that. He knew he had his partner hooked on the story.

 

“Well, she says, over in England, Ireland, Denmark, those places, they used to bury these people who got murdered in the bogs. Peat bogs, she said. And she said the bodies lasted for thousands of years in the bog right there and when they got dug up or floated up or whatever, they still had faces and toes and all. Even strange smiles she said. Something about the bog kept ‘em preserved like in an icebox.”

 

“Yeah, that’s all very interesting. What’s it got to do with anything?”

 

“Well, remember, she said they were murdered. I asked her how they knew. She said the rope was still around there necks where they been strangled and the knife wounds, and if they got knocked in the head there was a hole and everything was there. Everything got preserved. Told a story.”

 

“So they could tell they were murdered? Bet they couldn’t tell who murdered them. Just like she couldn’t.” The partner laughed a little like he had said something clever. Lenny frowned at that.

 

“She was nice. Too bad it had to go that way for her.”

 

“Yeah, well, Boy Scout. Time to get back to digging.”

 

They were silent for the next several minutes while Lenny finished digging the grave.

 

“Why here?” he finally asked.

 

“Well, there’s your own bog, Lenny my boy. This place is high up land wise from the river so a body ’s not going to wash downriver where it won’t be appreciated. And next year they are taking the dam down. Even better for the environment, Lenny. We be better stewards of the gifts we’ve been given with ole’ mother earth. I believe in that. Rest is crap, but that I do. Anyway it will be perfect. That big ole’ Kaweah river will be back and it will cover all this. You know for eons.”

 

Lenny stared at him across the open grave. He seemed to be looking through him. That’s when Harvey felt the garrote being slung around his neck and pulled tight by two strong hands. Even as he struggled, he knew it was too late. He fought though, struggled from side to side, but gradually lost consciousness.

 

Lenny and his new partner rolled Harvey’s body into the hole. They both stood there and looked at it, like they were performing some kind of silent graveside service. The new partner then picked up the shovel and began throwing dirt on the body.

 

“What was that about Bog Men?” the new partner asked.

 

“Oh nothing. Just something I heard once. The Boss is waiting. Let’s go.”