the order came in early in the morning andre was picked up from the bus stop and driven to the
gate of the cemetery the driver of the car and the man in the passenger seat were sullen and unspoken
they had nothing to save the great digger and also andre was not really asking for conversation
he understood that a funeral was not the best time to have a heart-to-heart talk they dropped him off
showed him where to date and quickly left the man was still half asleep setting himself
to work he spun around the grave examining it it was an old grave a photocard on the marble
stone showed a young man in a soviet military uniform andre counted at the time of his death
he was only 29 years old very young he had not even had time to live he was buried here
15 years ago it is visible that the grave was looked after the monument was renewed his wife
must have remained faithful to him after his death because her grave is also located here
close to him the husband has been waiting for his wife for 50 years and she came to him too andre
felt uncomfortable somehow he felt pity for the woman it remains to hope that her life was good
that she has children but she would hardly remarry otherwise she would be buried somewhere else andre
took out a thermos and poured himself some hot tea he almost burned himself coughing the tea
was strong his wife hadn't spared the infusion the flavor was unusual she must have added some
herbs to it again she knew that this early hour husband would still be sleepy most likely she
added something to his teeth to refresh him after drinking it andre immediately woke up
and actively started his work the ground was hard to move it was dry as it had not rained
for a long time but it is good that he has arrived earlier in the morning at least he will not suffer
from heat he had to finish the work before the heat he dug and dug without taking a break after
a while he decided to have a rest he stood up straight and then his foot fell in and got stuck
he tried to pull his foot out but nothing worked he had to help himself a little with a shovel to
get his foot out the grave digger realized that he had accidentally hit the old coffin it seemed that
when they were changing the monument they had miscalculated a little bit about the location
andra's work came to a halt as he had to get his foot out somehow unfortunately the foot fell right
into the old coffin and got stuck in the rotten planks he had to help himself with a shovel but
he couldn't stand on his feet and fell right on top of the coffin breaking the rest of the planks
he cursed himself and thought that it was a good thing that no one was around to see this
shame andre started to get out of the coffin for 50 years nothing remained of the body just bones
and a small photo that had miraculously survived the great digger mechanically shoved the old photo
into his pocket and started to bury the old coffin he had to work hard to hide his unexpected fine
when he had finished andres sat down on a bench near a neighboring grave and took out a thermos
of his tea again he would take a break and then go home he was drinking tea and looking
at the results of his work then he recalled the photo he took it out of his pocket and started
to look at it suddenly he choked on his teeth barely coughed it up he put the thermos away
and moved the photo closer then he slowly looked around the cemetery he stood up walked around the
grave he had been digging stopped in one place and stretched out his hand with a photo in front of
him then frozen horror andre realized that the photo was taken from this exact spot but how
could it be the man looked around carefully well it couldn't be the same as it is now 50 years ago
even taking the houses in the distance they were built only 15 years ago looks like someone slipped
the picture to the dead man much later but why did he do it for what purpose did he really know that
the grave would be dug up andre looked at the date grave and remembered how hard the ground was when
he dug hardly anyone had dug before just to put a photo in the coffin andre sat down on the bench
again and he began to examine the people in the photo closely and came to an even greater horror
when he realized that it was a photo no pronounced andre he couldn't believe it he took a thermos
and sipped his tea then he thought maybe his wife had put something in his drink and he
was hallucinating but it all seemed to be true which could only be a nightmare the photo which
had been in the coffin for 50 years showed not only this place but him on the photo andrea was
standing amongst other people the man twisted the photo in his hands it was a black and white photo
apparently of good quality as it had not suffered much in so many years 100 sure that the photo was
lying in the coffin and not somewhere nearby the great digger was holding the photo of tomorrow's
funeral he was quite sure of that on the back of the card was the date and it was tomorrow's date
there were many people in the photo and they were saying goodbye to the deceased in the coffin and
here he himself andre standing at the side of some man and this man was circled he couldn't figure
out what that would mean the man swiped the sweat from his forehead but there had to be a logical
explanation for all this he had to think about it clearly andre took the shovel and hurried home on
his way he met another man who asked him to help him with the grave andre did not want to turn down
an extra penny and rush to help the man in the end he forgot all about the photo only the next day
when he came to bury the deceased he remembered while he was waiting for the funeral procession
to finish he put his hand into his pocket and found the photo the man broke into a cold sweat
he pulled out the card again and looked at it carefully if he recognized the people
around him now he would be even more horrified a procession arrived expensive cars respectable
people no doubt officials the deceased appeared to be wealthy the great digger looked at the photo
and at the people following the coffin and he became more and more glorified but he pulled
himself together and decided that something was wrong there was a reason why one man was circled
you must find out who he was and what he had to do with the dead woman andre watched carefully
what was happening here is a coffin being placed on stools in the photo this coffin is standing
like that here people are approaching and saying goodbye to the body apparently the woman who had
died was very much loved after saying goodbye people stepped aside and stood on the exact spot
where they had been photographed the gravedigger felt like a guest from the future some kind of
bystander and now the past was gradually winding down giving wave the present andre looked around
and suddenly saw the same man who was circled at the photo he was standing to the sidelines
the gravedigger went towards and without hesitation everything should be clear now
this was the man who should know the answers to all the questions when audrey approached him
the man moved aside to make conversation the great digger asked if the deceased was a good woman
and if the man had known her for a long time the stranger nodded and andre asked who the deceased
was to him the man started to say something unclear saying that she was his relative andre was
alarmed by the behavior of the man he stood aside and his eyes flicked suspiciously as if he had
been caught in something bad but it was impossible to charge the stranger with anything and he did
not have to answer any questions suddenly andre noticed a woman not far from them with a camera in
her hands there was a click of the shutter the man wanted to rush to her not because it was forbidden
to take pictures in the cemetery but because the woman appeared out of nowhere he watched
the funeral procession closely and could tell with certainty that this woman was definitely not of
this company something strange was going on around him and he wanted to find out what it was the man
took a step towards the woman suddenly he noticed that the stranger was holding a strange object the
gravediggers sensed the danger he did not hesitate turned towards the man and knocked the strange
object out of his hands for a moment he thought he was acting too impulsively that he had overreacted
but then he realized that he had done so for a reason the stranger pushed andre away and bent
down to get the object the great digger kicked it as far away as he could with his foot then he
grabbed the stranger by the scruff of his neck and pulled him towards him the latter started punching
andre with his fists a fight broke out between the two men after a while other men ran towards them
and separated the fighting the unknown man tried to get away and went away andre tried to explain
that the man was acting suspiciously he pointed to the very object that the stranger was holding
earlier one of the men took it and twirl it in his hands examining it the object looked like a small
remote control then a guy came out of the crowd studied the remote control and whispered something
in the man's ear they fussed asked the people to move away and called somewhere soon the police
and a special unit arrived and found an explosive device in the coffin it turned out that the
stranger was holding a remote control device that was supposed to detonate it and andre prevented
it from doing so if the stranger had succeeded in carrying out his plan the people who were
present at the funeral would probably not have survived the power of the explosive was strong
only a miracle saved all those people the stranger was taken away by the police the funeral was over
the people left and andre started his work the son of the deceased a man in his 50s came up to
him he thanked him for his help and asked how the great digger sensed danger and andre showed
him the photo he had found in the coffin the man was also confused he invited andre to his house
later when the memorial meal was over only the relatives of the deceased and andre stayed at the
house he explained everything that had happened to him how they had found the photo he mentioned
a woman with a camera who appeared out of nowhere at the cemetery relatives of the deceased took out
a family photo album and together they started looking through old photos andre looked closely
at the photo of the deceased woman it seemed familiar to him suddenly andre understood
he exclaimed in an impulse that it was her the woman with a camera was the deceased only in her
youth the relatives looked at each other someone guessed to show an old photo from 50 years ago
when the woman's husband was buried indeed the black and white photo showed her only young andre
could see that the similarity between her and the woman with the camera was obvious he even
noticed that her hairstyle was the same as that of the unexpected guest at the cemetery they
also compared the two photographs and came to the conclusion that they were taken at the same time
the paper and printing style was identical but how this could have happened is a mystery the family
later explained what the assassination attempt was about the son of the deceased was an official
but an honest and fair one he did not take bribes did not run illegal businesses the assassination
attempt was arranged by those who did not like him if it wasn't for andre many people would have
died including the son of the deceased a mother's love is infinite a woman loved her husband so much
that after his death she remained faithful only to him she brought up her one-year-old son on her own
his life turned out well thanks to his mother's prayers he became a respected and wealthy man
but honesty and fairness were the main features of his character his mother always prayed for her son
and had faith in him her faith helped in solving many problems in her son's life when andrea was
about to go home the man handed him an envelope he looked into it and stunned there was a lot of
money in it andre started to refuse but the man said that he was used to paying his bills at once
and that everyone in his life will be rewarded or punished some will pay with money
some with their time when he came home he counted the money he was astonished
because it was the amount of money announced him yesterday by his wife for a trip to the seaside