Harry Digs Deep circa 2003

Harry was working through a thin time in the hero business, not just the plot. Employment as a plot digger in the St. Hubert mausoleum on the left bank kept the wolf from the door; but the hours were long, and the conditions poor. But, there was heroism in serving humanity's last needs. At least that's what Harry told himself. But on nights like tonight, when the wind was blowing the blossoms off the chestnut trees and into the sticky mud that he piled ever higher, he knew it was just the absinthe talking.
"Ah, if only fair Marie had not left for the New World," he moaned, in perfect pitch with the howling wind. Then he remembered Sophie, and how he had lost his anguish in her arms. Also his lunch, but let's not talk about that.
One last shovelful of muck, and the new grave was deep enough. Harry clambered from the grasp of the sucking wound he had created in the bosom of Mother Earth, and then hauled his rickety ladder out as well. A light rain began to fall, adding to the gloominess of the night. Off in the distance a hound howled.
Harry took the old tarpaulin lying beside the grave, and pulled it over the mound, to keep it from being washed back in to the grave, in case the rain picked up. He then began the long slog back to home, Boaty Betsy, his converted coal scuttle tied on the east bank of the Seine. The hound howled anew, and a shiver went down Harry's back as he wound his way through the graveyard. "Stop, right there!" came the voice vaguely French, yet tinged with a hint of Boris Karloff.
Harry's mighty thews twitched and he dove behind a nearby tombstone, while ripping open his shirt in preparation for action. .... When Harry regained consciousness, daylight had returned. He was propped against the tombstone, a cake of blood on his craggy brow. The sun was brilliantly shining down, and the tweety birds were tweeting. Nearby, an elderly paissant was sitting cross-legged, seemingly dozing in the balmy summer heat.
Harry swiftly rose to a sitting position, which, in Harry's case, is usually an error. A loud clang and sharp pain welcomed him into darkness once more.