GRAVEROBBERS 

Full story originally appeared in Maudlin House.

No, she said, it has to be deeper. If I go much deeper, he said, we’ll hit a water main or something. So you hit one, she said, and then we course-correct. But we still have to go deeper. It’s almost like you expect to find something in the dirt, he said. It’s not dirt, it’s soil, she said. Soil is an ecosystem. If we place undue stress on the bacteria and fungi, the soil will reject it. Reject it? he said. How? I’m not a pedologist, she said, I just know a certain depth is required to shield it from the elements. And from scavengers—those critters will get at anything.

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