Originally Published on December 5, 2014
The three of us rode in the sheriff’s cruiser to the morgue, no one speaking a word the entire way.
We passed through the sleepy town where gossip flies high and fast, casting its droppings on the heads and in the mouths of its inhabitants.
I wondered what I would hear from the grocery store clerk who only had love for the juicy tales she intercepted, and nothing else. I wondered if the old folks at the bakery would infuse all of their pastries with the secrets and lies of the town that drifted in with the cold December air whenever the door was opened.
I wondered what they would say about what came of my parents…
What sort of eccentric tall tales, or truths, would penetrate the ears of everyone around me. I wondered if the man next to me, too handsome and kind for his own good, was capable of guarding and defending me against the plight that was sure to come.
I was doubtful.
