Lug stared at the policeman that was just in front of him.

Lug had two great fears directly related to his aversion to authority.

The first one was that the recruiter would find out he was sleeping instead of working.

The second was dealing with the police.

Even if the policeman in front of him was a ghost from someone that probably died hundreds of years ago, to Lug a uniform was a uniform, he felt intimidated.

"Good morning, sir. What do you need?" said Lug with deference.

The officer did not answer.

After having scrutinized him from top to bottom he finally asked Lug to follow him to Vamin, the neighboring district of Valmont.

When they arrived, the officer began to explain his issue.

"I saw you cleaning Valmont, you seem to have done a good job, now you have to clean our neighborhood. The graves need to be well polished and I wish there were lots of flowers, but even in this state it's still the most beautiful neighborhood around!"

Lug was afraid of authority, but this policeman's demands irritated him slightly.

After all, he had no orders to take from a ghost!

"Thanks for your suggestions, I'll get to work soon," he said respectfully.

"All right, I have one last request… » he whispered while searching in the pocket against his chest.

« I know you're supposed to take care of all the neighborhoods, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't put any flowers or candles in Almer, the next neighborhood over."

He handed a small purse to Lug, whose metallic sound betrayed the content.

« Is that officer even serious, a bribe? He had that in his pocket? » thought Lug.

He couldn't believe his eyes, this ghost had the nerve to give him orders on how to do his job, and now he sought to bribe him so that he would not decorate an entire section of the cemetery.

Lug's anger was quiet.

He took a deep breath and let out a long sigh, closing his eyes.

"Ahah, listen sir. I've got a lot of work to do, I'll be by tomorrow to clean things here, bye."

He pushed away the policeman's hand weighed down by the purse and walked away.

The policeman had a look of dissatisfaction.

Lug didn't care and went home. He had no intention of following the directions of this ghost.

Before going home he went to see Eno.

As usual, the ghost of the young man was near Lug’s house.

"Hey, Eno. That policeman I was talking to, the one from Vamin, he asked me not to deal with Almer, what's his problem?"

Eno looked at his wrist as if he was looking at the time, a strange reflex he had when he was embarrassed.

"Policeman... No I don't know, sorry!" he said as if reciting a text.

"I see." Lug didn't try to understand, he decided to go to someone who spoke little but knew a lot about the cemetery: Gavan.

He went home, sat down at the table right next to the old tea addict and started talking.

"Hi, Gavan. I have a question, I ran into a policeman from Vamin who asked me not to embellish Almer, do you know anything about that? Eno wouldn't tell me anything."

Gavan turned to Lug, his eye shining like he was watching his favorite show.

"That old fool of a policeman, always up to no good from what I hear."

"Yes do you know him?"

Gavan took a sip of his tea and he went on.

"There is a very old rivalry between the two middle-class neighbourhoods of Almer and Vamin to see which district is the richer and more beautiful of the two. They're almost as poor as each other, but we shouldn't underestimate the penny-pinching."

"So the policeman wants his neighborhood to look better than the neighbor's for a pride thing?"

"That's about right, the policeman is the leader of Vamin and it's a baker who runs the Almer neighborhood. Those two hate each other."

"What do you advise me to do? I was planning to clean and decorate everything evenly."

Gavan took yet again a sip of tea.

"You have an opportunity to change a situation that has been stagnant for hundreds of years, don't take the easy way out by keeping the status quo."

"I don't quite understand, I have to help one neighborhood and not the other all of a sudden?"

Gavan looked annoyed all of a sudden.

"Do what you want, I'm busy." he continued to drink his tea, staring at the wall in front of him.

Lug went to bed, and stared at the ceiling.

He remembered Malda's words, he had the potential to make a difference in this cemetery.

But he was tired and his only desire was to rest and do the minimum.

He turned his head and looked at Gavan.

He was doing the same thing all day, sitting at the same table, facing the same wall, drinking the same tea, day after day.

A shiver went through Lug, he had no desire to end up like Gavan.

That was the lot of far too many ghosts, doing the same thing over and over again, like a clockwork.

He got up and decided to do something about this rivalry, whether the conclusion was positive or negative, he had to act.