A Walk in the Woods

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A Walk in the Woods

It's a warm spring day in the beech wood and I'm following them along the path. They're an old couple, very familiar with each other, talking with that easy animation that comes from a long relationship, they seem happy with each other.

At this hour of the morning, the wood is pretty empty. The sun shines between the trees, some ancient, others new plantation. You can hear the birds which flicker between these old trees, although the newer conifers in their dense blackness are less popular. 

Still unseen, I move a little closer.

They come upon a bench and decide to sit down. I hover close by out of sight, screened by bushes - and listen shamelessly. It's interesting, those intimate conversations between established couples when they think no-one else is around. And always the same topics amongst the old: sex and death.

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He said, in a bantering tone, “You know I've been reading the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church and it says in there that cremation is perfectly okay after death - provided that you still believe in the resurrection of the body.”

She said, “I still want to be buried; I want a cardboard coffin. Nothing too big or ornate so that I can join the Earth after I die.”

“If we die together," he continued, "I've said in my Will that we should be buried together. Obviously I'd have to be lying on top of you.”

At this she cackled and demurred, and he said, “Of course, to get us both into that cardboard coffin, those limbs of yours - all of them - are going to have to be wrapped pretty tight around me. I'm almost looking forward to it!”

And she laughed again, blushing, and suddenly became very interested in the clouds.

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And I felt my cheeks colouring, and stole away into the greenwood.