The rain fell harder. Sanford arrived with Alice's mom in tow.
They were a mess, covered in mud.
"Stop! You can't bury her."
Sanford rushed over to stop the coffin from being sealed.
"You can't bury her. My daughter must be buried as I take her away. Who agreed to bury her?"
I knelt in the mud, pleading, "Mrs. Archer, Alice was bound by you her whole life, forced to marry some village fool. She didn't want to go back. Let her rest here."
The staff looked at each other. With the rain pouring, any delay would fill the coffin with water.
Visitors mistook the scene for a movie set and started filming.
Sanford and Alice's mom tried to intervene, their faces contorted in anger, freezing the staff into inaction.
Suddenly, Alice's mom slipped on the wet mud and fell onto the coffin, accidentally sealing it shut and knocking herself unconscious.
As Sanford tried to pull her away, he inadvertently collapsed a nearby earth mound.
Mud and rain instantly sealed Alice's coffin lid tight.
"Ahh!"
"Ahh!"
Everyone turned to look at Sanford.
Only I stared fixedly at the freshly dug grave.