Love And The Dead In The Life Of Jack Joy Merryman
Now
Jack follows the laughter as if it were a tendril of smoke, walking the paved road circulating through the gardens of Emerald Lawn Cemetery on an Oregon summer's mid-afternoon. The dead laughter is like cold fingers dancing up the back of his neck, but he stomps down the fear, longing to overcome it.
Flat headstones populate most of the gardens of Emerald Lawn and he gazes across the cemetery to the back gardens—the oldest part of the cemetery--where the upright headstones stand like sentries for the dead. Even with the traffic noise out front on Danebo Street, he hears the laughter. It's soft and light like a cocktail party down the block except for the occasional outburst of maniacal cackling.
Jack puts one foot in front of th
