Can you help? I’m looking for someone and I’m offering a
reward! It’s a person whose name I don’t know – I don’t even have a physical description,
so even if their likeness was on a milk carton, I wouldn’t know ‘em. I know it’s
not much to go on, but, you may know this person, or someone similar. They have
to be out there – somewhere. I’m looking for someone who hasn’t loved and lost.
If you find them, would you do me a favor? Would you ask them if they could
relate to my novel Cemetery Street.
For those who have loved and lost, Cemetery Street is dedicated to you. For persevering
through bittersweet memories and endless speculation of what could have been. If
you’re up for an adventure, you could laugh, cry, and blush with protagonist James
Morrison as he learns that the bonds established early in our lives echo into
our futures, shaping who we are and how we relate to the world. If I may be so
bold:
An Excerpt from Cemetery
Street:
“Get up!” she cried. “Run!” she smiled over her shoulder.
The earth shook beneath our feet. “Faster! Faster!” Her voice swirled in the
wind. “Feel it?” she shrieked, her hair dancing behind her. “Feels great. Just
great!” Her laugh pierced the freight’s roar. Swimming through the train’s
blast, she reminded me of a salmon - always heading upstream.
Moments earlier, she danced across a warped balance beam
forty feet above the river. “If I lose my balance, even for a second - a second
- I could die!” Ignoring our pleas, her forehead etched with concentration, she
continued. “For what? Like there has to be a what! Would you say I died in
vain, died for the thrill?” Her arms flailed. “Yes,” she answered. “Died of
stupidity! Died for nothing, what a way to die! I like that. There isn’t
pressure in nothing.”
Me, I’ve always felt pressure - even in nothing, even today.
So I watch, I’ve always watched! Even today - I watch a snowflake slide down
the front of her headstone and crash to the ground. I watch countless others
stick atop her headstone. When I grow tired of watching, I run my hand over the
smooth granite wiping away heaven’s frozen tears.
A breeze rustled the trees, their bare limbs swaying to the
sound of her voice. I turned praying she would be sitting on the sandstone
bench like she was thirteen years ago - Indian style, her wild mane speckled
with snow flakes. I imagine her gaze staring across the dozing river, past the
distant rushing traffic, into eternity. My gaze was met by a dusting of snow
atop the bench. Disappointment consumed me. “People who do nothing but watch,
feel nothing but disappointment,” she once scolded.
Today would have been her twenty-seventh birthday. Ten days
ago was the first anniversary of her death. Two days from now the world will be
standing on the cusp of a new millennium - without her; it will be so empty, it
will be dawn without the sun.
“Happy Birthday Bug,” I whispered. “I have a surprise. It’s
your favorite.” Careful not to spill a drop, I poured the steaming coffee on
the ground in front of her stone. “How did you guess?” I watched the snow
evaporate. “Yes, you’re right. Of course I remembered. How could I forget? ” I
tell her.
“If eyes are the gateway to the soul,” she wrote prior to
her accident. “Our memories are its gatekeepers.” Like a dutiful gatekeeper, I guard our memories. “Out of memory
comes ritual,” she said, hiding in the breeze. “Out of ritual - meaning, out of
meaning - warmth, out of warmth - love, out of love...”
“Us,” I whispered to the wind. “Beyond anyone, I remember
you!”
“I didn’t forget,” I stroked the polished granite’s face.
“It’s your recipe,” I confided as I placed the pie pan atop the coffee soaked
soil. I retreated to the bench and cast my gaze over the sleepy river and past
the rushing traffic, listening for echoes of her laughter on the wind.
If you made it this
far, you deserve a reward. If you know a person who hasn’t loved and lost, or,
would like to stroll down
Cemetery
Street , click link, enter code
ng85x and you'll become a resident. Warning! Bring tissues,
four out of five romantics agree that you’ll need them.
Thank you Ravina for being a kind host, and thank you Ravina’s
followers for allowing me to feel the warmth.
Kind regards,
John Zunski
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