What He Deserved

The wind whipped the branches of the barren tree against the window, creating shadows on the wall that danced like claws. A fitting night for Elmer Corbett’s task at hand. At least the rain would keep away any unwanted visitors and obscure him from any prying eyes lurking in the darkness. If all went according to his plan, no one would ever know he had even been there.

Luck hadn’t been on Elmer’s side recently, and counting on it was what had gotten him into this situation in the first place. He had reached the end of the line. Either he came up with the money, or something he could exchange for money, by tomorrow or that was it for him. His semi-comfortable life as he knew it was over. He shuddered to think what his wife’s reaction would be if she found out about all the money he had lost. She had tried to throw a plate at him the last time she discovered he was back to gambling and just nearly missed hitting his face.

It had started innocently enough. He wasn’t trying to break his promise, and technically, he hadn’t really. His wife, Bianca, had forbidden him from ever stepping foot into a casino again, and he hadn’t. He didn’t need to when the casinos now came to him. With the touch of his phone screen, he could bet on anything imaginable. And he kept being offered free money just to try it out. It would be foolish to pass up free money, especially when it came with the possibility of making him a lot more.

He wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for his Grandma Ruby, the stingiest woman alive when she could still count herself among the living. The thought of her made Elmer want to spit and curse her name, but Bianca would be pissed if he spit on her floors. He wasn’t even allowed to wear his shoes inside of their modest two-bedroom townhouse. Making his way to the garage his feet softly padded along the floor. He wasn’t exactly sure what he would need for tonight, so he figured it was wiser to overpack than under pack.

He stepped inside the garage and pulled on his old sneakers, the ones he used for mowing. It wouldn’t matter if they got mud on them, they usually had dirt and grime coating the treads. He grabbed a shovel and a crowbar from the rack hanging along the wall, as well as some sturdy leather work gloves then placed his change of clothes and some trash bags into the trunk of his car. He ran through his mental checklist again, before climbing into the driver’s seat. He probably had everything he needed, but on second thought, he grabbed a pair of clippers off the shelf just in case.

He had understood from a young age that the world was full of haves and have-nots. His late grandmother had fallen firmly into the haves. She had watched her son, Elmer’s dad, struggle all of his life and had never lifted a finger to help.

“It builds character,” she had said in response to finding out they were being evicted from their house. “I just don’t know that I have anything to spare right now,” she said another time.

If his dad could possibly squeeze a dime out of her dusty old pocketbook, it was always with interest. Usually, more than whatever the bank was charging. But his dad couldn’t get a loan from the bank without a stable job, so they lived by Grandma Ruby’s pleasure. Which from what Elmer had always gathered was to just see them suffer. The one thing that brought Elmer pleasure was knowing that Grandma Ruby didn’t seem to use her money for her benefit either. It was like she was always holding on to it and waiting for the day to come when she could finally use it. The only small concession she ever made for herself was the large blue diamond ring she wore on her right middle finger.

The midnight-blue gem was at least two or three carats set in a gold halo surrounded by smaller, but still sizable, white diamonds. Precious gems had always fascinated him. They were a way for the rich to wear their wealth on their bodies. He hoped that if he could learn to play their game, maybe one day he could blend into the social club. No one would know he grew up in Greenwood Hills, such a pleasant name for an unpleasant place.

It was full of dilapidated houses and run-down apartment buildings that looked like they could crumble to the ground at any moment. Sometimes Elmer thought it was unfortunate their building never did collapse with him inside. It would have saved him the trouble of trying and failing to succeed.

Winding slowly through the dark, wet roads, he made his way across town to the cemetery. Elmer tried to not think about what he was about to do and instead focused on how much brighter his future would be by tomorrow. If he got even a fraction of what the ring was worth, he could pay off his debts and win enough to put Bianca in a nice house like she deserved. He wouldn’t have to dodge calls from debt collectors anymore or worry about Bianca’s bank card declining at the grocery store. It would make this night worth it.

He imagined he would change his name. He had always despised the name Elmer and had attempted for years in school to get people to call him simply by El, but it had never stuck. When he asked his dad about it, his dad told him that they picked the name because it meant “famous.” His parents had been preemptively rubbing salt in the wound, because so far he hadn’t amounted to anything. He wouldn’t know what his mom thought about that, as she ran off when he was just a baby. She had thought that if she married his dad she would get access to Ruby Corbett’s fortune and live a pampered life. As soon as she realized they weren’t getting jack shit, she ran for the hills.

When Grandma Ruby finally died, Elmer had been hopeful that maybe this would be it, the turning of the tide for him and his father. She didn’t have any other children, so there was no other family to leave it all to. If Elmer could just get the ring, that would be all he needed. He knew he could make his dreams come true if he only had a small jumpstart of cash. The problem with his gambling was that he had never been able to go big enough. It took big risks to make the biggest rewards. With a few hundred, heck even a few tens of thousands of dollars, he was sure he could turn it into millions in no time with the right amount of luck.

None of that happened. Bitterly cruel until the very end, Grandma Ruby left her entire estate to the local animal shelter. A fucking animal shelter of all places. In her will, she said that her cat, an ancient white Persian that died a few months before her, was the only living creature that truly loved her, and she wanted to donate all her assets in Winston’s name. She was buried with the ring still on her finger.

He pulled through the iron archway of the cemetery marking its name: Peace Valley. In the daylight, the name was fairly fitting. It sat in a field filled with sprawling trees and lush green grass. A small river running along the edge of the property. In the nighttime, though, it looked like every shadow could be someone, or something, lurking in the darkness, waiting for him to turn his back or drop his guard for just a moment. Elmer parked the car and wiggled his shoulders, attempting to shake out any fears and anxieties settling inside him.

Looking around, he didn’t spot any other vehicles or headlights in the distance. The cemetery was tucked out of the way, outside city limits, and there was little chance anyone else would be making a nighttime visit. Hopefully, the storm would keep away any wayward teens looking for some thrills. He needed privacy and the cover of darkness to pull this off.

He had eight hours, give or take a few minutes, until sunrise. And he needed to be back home and looking normal by 7:30 AM, when Bianca typically woke up to get ready for her day. In theory, he should be able to do it. He was thirty one years old and had been an athlete and worked in physical labor for years. The motivation of a huge payout would help him push through the night.

He wanted the ring. He had spent his childhood seeing it gleam from Grandma Ruby’s middle finger, like she had put it there purposely to taunt him. It would serve as repayment for all the times that she could have helped him and hadn’t.

Anger coursed through his veins as he made the first plunge of his shovel into the muddy, loamy soil, loosened even further by the damp conditions. With no hesitation or second thoughts, he kept a steady pace. He was fueled by the anticipation of his reward that was just waiting below the dirt.

After an hour of digging, the anger and excitement had distilled into a burning desire to just be done. He wasn’t even near the halfway mark, and already his shoulders ached and his hands burned, even through the work gloves, blisters forming all over his palms.

By the fourth hour he was filthy and hot from the exertion, but his toes were chilled from the damp drizzle that had continued to pour down as he worked. The moisture had permeated the fabric of his sneakers hours ago, and he could only imagine that the pads of his toes looked grayed and wrinkled, buried beneath his wet socks.

By the seventh hour he finally hit something hard that appeared larger than a rock. The depth of the hole was above his eyeline at this point. He could no longer see around the cemetery for any passing cars, but he felt safer concealed by the walls of dirt surrounding him.

Up until this point, he hadn’t given much thought to what he imagined Grandma Ruby’s body would look like. He wasn’t even sure if she had been embalmed; there was no open casket at her funeral service, so it seemed pointless to preserve her body only for the mortician to see their handiwork.

He tapped his shovel on the lid of the box, digging around until he found an edge he could loosen from the mud, enough for him to wedge the crowbar into the gap. Using all of his remaining strength, he yanked back on the casket lid, which loosened even easier than he had imagined it would. Angling himself around the half-opened lid, he stepped back and pulled it open to look down upon his grandmother for the final time. He took a sort of sick pleasure at how much it would bother her to be seen like this. Vain until the very end, it looked like she had chosen to be embalmed. Her clothing and hair were mostly gone, but her skin, though noticeably degraded, still remained, the ugliness inside of her on full display for all the world to see. Well, Elmer hoped the world wouldn’t see. He hoped absolutely no one would have any idea that Ruby Corbett’s grave was any different than it had been on the day she was interred.

There, resting on her chest was the treasure he sought. The blue diamond shimmered in the shreds of moon light that filtered through the clouds above. He reached down and gave a sharp tug on the ring, but it wouldn’t budge, clinging on tightly to the skin of her finger, as if refusing to betray its former owner. He tugged again and realized it was pointless.

He mentally patted himself on the back for bringing the clippers. He was already standing in his grandmother’s grave; how much worse could it be to desecrate her body just a bit more? Any moral qualms he had went out the window when he plunged his shovel in the ground. He’d come much too far to turn back now.

The sharp clippers went through her skin and bone with little trouble, releasing his prize. He considered whether he should just bring the finger along and get the ring off later, but then he would have to dispose of the detached digit, and that felt like it could lead to more trouble. Better to free the ring now and leave the troublesome finger behind, buried with its owner.

He couldn’t pull it free with the gloves on, they were too thick for him to get the grip he needed, and he feared scratching the stone if he used a tool. Peeling off his gloves, he held the ring firm with one hand and pushed and worked the finger free with his other. After a moment it popped loose, only leaving a small remnant of skin behind, nothing he couldn’t clean off in the sink at home.

Elmer tossed the finger back into the open casket and gave his departed grandmother one last look. He spit, for good measure, just before closing the lid on the casket. He was bone tired, but his work wasn’t done just yet. He needed to cover up his crime. No one would be looking closely, and certainly no one would be coming to visit her who would report anything suspicious, but he couldn’t just leave the grave open.

Securing the ring in the depth of his pants pocket he tossed up the clippers first and then the shovel. The head of the shovel knocked a spray of dirt loose from the large pile sitting near the edge, but fortunately stopped short of an avalanche.

He barked out a short laugh. That could have gone badly. Securing his hands on either side of the pit, he attempted to push himself up and over the edge, but hours of digging had overworked his upper body and he couldn’t summon the strength to pull himself out. Feeling himself slipping, he scrabbled for purchase with his legs against the slippery walls of damp earth, but he couldn’t find a foothold.

The panic of being trapped in this grave and caught when the sun came up led him to start foolishly grasping at anything within reach. He didn’t think he would have the strength to try climbing out a second time. His hand latched onto the shovel he had tossed earlier, and he pulled. With it came a torrent of wet dirt pouring down into his face and open mouth. He fell backwards into the grave, hitting his head on the hard casket as the mud continued to spill over him.

The sunrise that Elmer was so afraid of didn’t break through the clouds. Rain continued to pour even heavier from the sky, and with it more dirt, until it was impossible to even see his body laying beneath it. Even in death, he didn’t live up to his namesake. As he had predicted, no one would be looking too closely, and no one would be visiting Ruby Corbett’s final resting place to notice anything suspicious at all.