The Drowning

Matthew lived in a small village farmland with his wife and two children, whom he adored deeply. He was a farmer and kept cattle.

One evening, he told his wife he was going to bring the herd home. The cattle had been grazing about a mile away by the lake. His young son insisted on going with him, but Matthew turned him away and asked him to stay home.

Late that evening, as darkness crept in, Matthew’s wife watched the herd come home alone. Matthew was nowhere among them. She assumed he had gone straight to a committee meeting scheduled for that day — he was a member, and they were planning a neighbour’s burial.

The night passed. But by midday the following day, with no sign of Matthew and no word from him, worry turned into dread. She went to the homestead where the meeting had been held and was told her husband never arrived.

Shocked, she knew in her gut something was wrong. She alerted family immediately and a search began — but Matthew was nowhere to be found.

The following morning, some local men went down to the lake to bathe. One of them spotted what appeared to be a human body floating at the far end of the water, near the reeds. Fully clothed. Still.

They rushed to the search team. Two neighbours took a boat out. When they arrived, they confirmed it was Matthew — but something immediately troubled them. This was not a drowning.

His neck was swollen. There were visible trauma marks — he had been struck and stabbed multiple times. Matthew was buried, his family left with no answers.

Months passed. Then, as these things sometimes do in small communities, the truth found its way out.

A fisherman began talking. He said that on the evening Matthew died, he and another fisherman were at the lake when a large, valuable fish washed ashore. Matthew ran to claim it. All three men argued, each insisting he had spotted it first.

The other fisherman lost his temper. He struck Matthew across the neck with a rowing oar, then drew his knife and stabbed him repeatedly. The two men loaded his body onto their boat, dumped him into the water, and went off to sell the fish.

Both men were seized, beaten, and banished from the village — their wives and children cast out with them.