Iicolio liiuria {intyon I'orJ Shtrt Sttrios for
EI,IZ,A\TICTORIA .
0nce, in a $tnilll town,
all the dead came back. The townspeople, young, old, diminished and
burdened, woke up to the sound ofdogs barking and opened rheir doors
to a vision they'd dreamt of from the very day of their abandonment:
their loved ones, clean and unscathed, standing on their porches lrrtl
smiling. Sons, daughters, motlrers, fathers, cousins-they all camc back,
perfect, as though they'd never been dead, as though they'd ncvcr'
gone through the events that killed them.'I'hosc who diecl in rr lirc
came back with smooth skin. There were no bulle t holes in thc boriics
of those that had been shot. There were a few who died in v,tri,rLts
accidents-a fall from the top of a staircase, a car crash on a darh rorttl,
an elec trocu t ion-bu t they carried no wounds to even suggcst tltrtt
such horrors had occurred. Even the children, who died from l-crrtir A',
neglect, or games gone awry looked unharmed. None of them carrictl rt
smell, or had traces of ceme tery soil unde r their fingernails. Hcllo, l'irtlrc r:
Hello, Mother Hello. What took you so long? What's for clittncr? tlrcv
said, as though they'd just been away on an errand. Thcy hecl r)o rrl( rr l( )rv
of their deaths.
Most of the women u'ho opened the doors faintccl.'l'lrost tylr,'
managed to stay on their fcet looked out of rheir getcs rttltl srttv tltt it
neighbors with at least onc rcsurrected Iovcd onc stlLtttlitlg pttzzlt rl irt
their yard. What's going on? cach of the lovcd oncs sriid. Wlrl' \\'orr'l !.rr
let me in? And the townspeople at once rcalizcd tltltr I lrt:y \\'( r( rrrrl
dreaming. A group of men bandcd togethcr and ntttrcltttl ltt lltt' lttutt
memorial park to see if the graves had lteen clisrr.rrlrtd, tltirrhirtli tlrrtt
their dead had broken through their cofflns, bLrr rvltcrr tlrty rtttilcrl ;tt
the cemetery they lound that thcrc lverc no grrtvcs.'l ltt tltc tt u't ttl t,r
the town priest to seek his ldvicc, bttr tlrc priest wrts sctvittl', tlittttt t t,,
his siste r rvho had dicd ol a lcvcr tlvc 1'crtrs lrt:littc. Wlrv tltirrli ol tlr,
Devil r.rn such a blcssccl nigltt? tltc plicst lrslittl lltcttt, scoof irrl'rt,,
i&'ii! l
llirriod lloirlu's
into a china bowl. Heartened, the men came back to their wives and
lamilies to bring the news. Much cheering was heard in all the srreers,
and the dead-puzzled, and puzzled lurther by the merriment-were
allowed to step into their homes.
The next day had to be the happiest day in that town's history. The
townspeople had agreed to not conluse the resurrected ones further by
acting unnaturally, but some of them were not able to help it. They
cooked big breakfasts and rvatched their loved ones eat with a ferocity
that scared even themselves. They brought out the best utensils, the
best china, tuned the television to their loved ones'favorite programs.
Mother's acting strange today, one resurrected child would say to
another, and the mothers rvould burst into tears because their children
were alive, alive, alive.
However, as the day wore on, the townspeople noticed that ir was
becoming harder and harder for them to look their dead in the eye. For
although their dead had no memory of the fire, the crash, rhe hate that
killed them, the townspeople remembe re d. They re membered the long
wait and the news, the arrival of the candles and the flowers, the smell
of coffee, the nights when they couldn't hear even their own voices.
The town priest, for instance, remembered wiping blood-colore d vomit
offthe strands ofhis sister's hair, and this memory vivid and persisrenr,
kept him from enjoying fully the sound of her laughter. Sotrehow this
memory felt more real than his sister's presence.
The townspeople soon realized that since the memories of their
dark days were still intact, their loved ones' resurrection made no
difference. 'lheir loved ones might be alive, but they died over and
over again in their heads. So that afternoon the townspeople decided ro
just let their loved ones die once more. They stirred pesticide into
their food, held their heads under water, smothered their faces with
pillows. They carried their bodies to the town memorial park and, crying,
buried them in shallow graves.
When they got home, the townspeople washed their hands and
took out the pictures of their dead. They lulled themselves with
memories of what their loved ones did when they were still alive. Night
fcll, eventually, and they slept with smiles on their faces.