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Subject: Marc Ferris
Case: Burial Obsession
Time Period: 9/27/85 to 12/31/85
Solution: ?
9/27/85
M.F. buries his first possession in the backyard of his suburban Jersey home, a $639 alto saxophone. He had bought the instrument with the vague notion that it would make him look sexy. It made him feel stupid.
11/6/85
M.F. buries a $390 mountain bike. Due to the size of the bike it takes him most of the night. Calls off work the next day. He is employed at the law firm of Jacobs, Sherman, and Weiss and believes they know he is lying about being sick.
This time there is no anger involved. He loves this bike and rides it after work and on weekends to relax. When Mrs. Ferris notices its absence and questions him he lies and says it was stolen. He breaks the lock on their garage door to give his story credibility.
12/15/85
After a genuine attempt to beat what M.F. now recognizes as a budding addiction, he buries a $440 Tiffany lamp and a Japanese silk robe, the latter being a present from his wife for their 10th anniversary. He gets what he describes as "the greatest thrill of his life" from this. That thrill is not lessened by the shadows of guilt and remorse he feels about the robe. He loves his wife dearly but considers burying these things something separate from his marriage. (See: *Disassociation Notes).
12/28/85
M.F. buries an antique revolver. He bought the gun the day he was hired by Jacobs, Sherman, and Weiss. The revolver had some great symbolic meaning for him at the time but he no longer remembers what it was.
Mrs. Ferris notices the disappearance of the gun immediately as it was displayed in a glass case in M.F.'s study. She questions him that night in bed and he gets extremely angry. For the first time in their fifteen year marriage, he raises his hand to her.
12/29/85
Mrs. Ferris hires a limousine to take her to her sister's house in Newport, Rhode Island.
12/30/85
M.F. buries his Rolex Air King 300 watch, a present from his father who has since passed away.
12/31/85
At work M.F. is given a warning because his performance is slipping dramatically. David Weiss pulls him aside to ask if things are okay at home, M.F. says everything's fine and leaves the office without another word.
That night he makes a resolution to never bury another thing, not so much as toothbrush or comb, ever, ever again.
*M.F. has compartmentalized his life. He considers the world where he eats, works, worries, and sleeps with his wife entirely separate from the world where he is compelled to bury material items in his backyard.
Peter Schwartz has more styles than a Natal Midlands Dwarf Chameleon. He's been published in Arsenic Lobster, Epicenters, Tiger's Eye, 5 Trope, Verdad and VOX. He's currently working on his fourth chapbook, Postcards to the Sun. See the extent of his shenanigans at www.sitrahahra.com.