The Gravestone

By Lewis Brett Smiler

Dan could not believe how much clutter his Aunt Sarah had left behind. She was such a hoarder. The number of books she had collected was probably more than the local library. Dan wondered how many of these books were still in print. Would he be able to sell them for any money? Some of those authors were long forgotten, and their books probably had little to no value. Dan would review them later. At the moment, he had other business to attend to.

His aunt’s gravestone had finally been installed in the cemetery. The weather was good, so he drove over to take a look. The stone was nicely done with Aunt Sarah’s full name, birth and death years, and epitaph all clearly inscribed. Dan photographed the stone and texted it to his family, knowing that they would all be pleased. If Aunt Sarah’s ghost were watching, she would be more than satisfied. It was not the fanciest stone in the cemetery, but she was not the pretentious type. 

When Dan arrived home from the cemetery, he noticed some texts on his phone. His sister and nephew both wanted to know about the other stone behind Aunt Sarah’s. What other stone? She was buried in the newer section of the cemetery, and there were very few stones nearby. Dan looked at the photo and saw that there was another gravestone in the background. It was a very elaborate stone resembling a castle. How come he did not notice it before? Dan zoomed in and saw that the stone was for a man named Austin England. It was an interesting name, not easy to miss, but somehow he had missed it. Dan was surprised to see that there was no death year on the stone, but it had to be a recent death. All the graves in that area were fairly recent. 

One week passed. Dan was driving to a restaurant for a business meeting when he realized that the cemetery was on his way. He stopped to take another look at his Aunt Sarah’s gravestone. There were no other gravestones nearby. The castle stone for Austin England was not to be seen. Dan looked at the photo he took before. It was there in the photo, right behind his aunt’s stone. Had someone hacked into his phone and tampered with his photo? With today’s crazy technology, it was not impossible. Dan began to wonder if his phone was compromised, but now was not the time to fuss with it.  He took a second photo of his aunt’s stone and headed off to the restaurant.

***

Dan could not understand what was going on. No matter which camera he used to photograph Aunt Sarah’s stone, the stone for Austin England kept appearing in the background. Even when Dan used his aunt’s old Polaroid camera, Austin England’s stone would appear. Dan called the cemetery and asked if they had an Austin England on record. Their answer was no. There was nobody with the last name England buried at the cemetery. Could some names be missing from their records? The office manager insisted that their records were complete. So why did Austin England’s stone keep appearing in Dan’s photos? Was it a cenotaph? He decided to google the name and see what came up. 

Some website identified Austin England as an author of medieval books mostly featuring castles. His birth and death years were not given. Dan went to Amazon to see if any of Austin England’s books were available, but they all appeared to be out of print. A few secondhand copies were listed for hundreds of dollars. Dan was certain that Austin England was a pen name. Perhaps, with more research, he could learn the author’s real name and if he was buried near Aunt Sarah. Was it worth the effort? Dan was already busy enough. But why did Austin England’s gravestone keep appearing in the cemetery photos? No matter how hard Dan tried, he could not come up with an explanation.

He began to rummage through Aunt Sarah’s books, wondering if there was anything by Austin England. She had two books by him, both featuring castles on the front covers. They seemed quite similar to the design of the gravestone. Dan wondered how much these books were worth. Sellers were charging considerable money for secondhand copies, but was anyone interested in buying? Did anyone remember who Austin England was? He did not even have his own Wikipedia article. Dan looked through the books more closely and discovered that they were library books. What was the checkout date? Aunt Sarah had taken the books out about a month before she died, and they were probably the last reading she had done. The book titles were starting to look a bit familiar. Dan could vaguely recall how much his aunt had enjoyed those books. They were now one year overdue, and there was no way the library would be able to replace them. He was not sure how much they cared about those specific books. But, doing his civic duty, Dan drove to the library and dropped them in the return bin.

Dan started walking to his car, ready to drive home, when he decided to pull out his phone and take another look at his photos of Aunt Sarah’s stone. He almost fell over in shock. Austin England’s stone no longer appeared in the background in any of the photos. Aunt Sarah’s stone was now by itself, just as it was in the cemetery. This did not make any sense. Was her ghost trying to send him a message before, telling him to return her overdue library books? There had to be some other explanation. Yet, as Dan returned to sorting through his aunt’s belongings, nothing else would come to mind.  

Lewis Brett Smiler lives in West Orange, NJ, and enjoys creative writing and historical research. His stories have been published in Scarlet Leaf Review, Scare Street, Academy of the Heart and Mind, and Anotherealm.