Mr. Grampis

he Grave Summary | Detailed Summary
The protagonist in The Grave is a girl named Miranda who, as the story progresses, discovers a link between her adult life and a childhood memory. The story begins with a briefly recounted history of Miranda's grandparents. Her grandfather, who has been dead more than thirty years, has been moved from his grave twice. Each time his widow moves she uproots his grave and reburies him close to her, hoping one day that they will be buried side by side. The first move was to Louisiana and the second move was to Texas. The narrator states that the grandmother's constant relocation makes it seem as though she is searching out her own burial place.
In Texas the grandmother sets up a small cemetery in a corner of her farm. Over the years the family connection grows and relations migrate from Kentucky to settle in Texas. The cemetery contains about twenty graves. After the grandmother's death, some of the farmland is to be sold for the benefit of the children. The cemetery happens to be located in the area to be sold. For this reason, the graves must be dug up and moved to a public cemetery. In the public cemetery, the grandmother and grandfather are buried side-by-side, just as the grandmother had wished.
The family cemetery is an abandoned garden with tangled rose bushes, ragged cedar trees and cypress. The grave spots lay open and empty. The protagonist explains that when she and her brother Paul were young they would hunt small game together. The protagonist describes a memory of when she was nine and her brother was twelve. They stumble upon the gravesites during a hunting expedition. On this hot day, the two carefully place their rifles against a fence as they explore the open grave pits. For Miranda this is mysterious place. The graves smell like sweetness and corruption. Filled with wonderment, Miranda climbs into the pit where her grandfather once rested. She finds a tiny silver carved dove that is no bigger than a hazelnut....