. (Story #1 of 11). <\/span><\/p>\nPLOT (with spoilers!):<\/b><\/p>\n
REVIEWER\u2019S NOTE
\n<\/i><\/b>This one\u2019s… a bit long.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/i><\/b>But the story itself is so complex there\u2019s no other way to review it, s<\/i><\/b>o please bear with me.\u00a0<\/i><\/b>I\u2019ll do my best to make it worth your while.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
The biggest thing Carl Hart ever did was shoot some people down at the KTCB radio station. That\u2019s what Jack thinks, anyway. They buried Carl last week, right next to his old flame Mary Lyn McCarthy. But the radio station won\u2019t play \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me\u201d anymore, no matter how many times Jack calls and requests it. Probably that\u2019s because just yesterday they switched their nighttime programming from <\/span>The Dark Mistress<\/span><\/i> to pre-recorded tapes of Reverend Tim. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl had escaped from minimum security just ten days before he died. That was Mary Lyn\u2019s birthday. He died when he drove his iron-blue \u201857 Chevy into the Fiddler 7-11 and was crushed by cinder blocks. At his funeral, Mr. McCarthy even commented that a few of those blocks must have gotten under his rib cage because of how heavy his coffin was. <\/span><\/p>\nReverend Tim didn\u2019t have much to say at Carl\u2019s funeral. Neither did Mary Lyn\u2019s father. Mary Lyn\u2019s niece, Sherry, broke down in tears, though, which had made Jack nearly drop the coffin when he\u2019d seen it. <\/span><\/p>\nIf there was one good thing about Carl\u2019s death, it was that the 7-11 looked like it was never going to be reopened after the accident. And that was just fine with the people of Fiddler. They never liked big chain stores. Even the 7-11 people had been looking for an excuse to let that particular store die out. <\/span><\/p>\nThe accident was so bad, just about the only thing was <\/span>wasn\u2019t <\/span><\/i>smashed up was the rear licence plate. Jack kept that because the car was supposed to be his anyway, and also because it said “MARYLYN.” After it was hauled away to the junk yard, Jack searched the median and found broken glass for miles. <\/span><\/p>\nThe night the accident happened, Jack and Carl were watching the Mike Tyson fight with a bunch of other guys from the tire factory. When Iron Mike ended the bout in the second round, Jack and Carl left and headed home. Along the way, Jack turned on the radio to KTCB. <\/span><\/p>\nAs they had both been expecting, The Dark Mistress was on and proselytizing her sultry self over the airwaves. Carl comments on how Reverend Tim had a petition against her show. Jack points out that probably half the guys in town who signed that petition were home and \u201cjackin\u2019 off\u201d to the show even then. <\/span><\/p>\nJust as Carl is berating Jack for his choice of language in his beloved car, The Dark Mistress spoke to one of her biggest fans: <\/span>\u201cHow\u2019s my crying boy tonight? Are you lonely, like I am? I haven\u2019t seen you in such a long time. You used to come to me every week. With roses, remember? You\u2019d come to the cemetery and sing our song.\u201d <\/span><\/i>In the next second, \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me\u201d starts up, and that\u2019s when Carl lost it. <\/span><\/p>\nHe slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt right there in the middle of the road. Beer from Jack\u2019s open bottle splashed the windshield. A semi\u2019s blaring horn from behind drowned out his screams. <\/span><\/p>\nAs the semi screamed past, Carl\u2019s foot slipped from the clutch and the Chevy\u2019s engine died. Finally able to articulate his fear, Jack yelled, \u201cCarl, you crazy bastard, you want to die?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cYes,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl then explained that \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me\u201d was he and Mary Lyn\u2019s song. He explained how he used to go to the cemetery late at night and sing it to her grave. He explained how he used to bring her roses stolen from Mrs. Castro\u2019s garden. <\/span><\/p>\nJack was dumbfounded, and he wondered aloud how The Dark Mistress could have known a thing that Carl hadn\u2019t ever shared with anyone. <\/span><\/p>\nInstead of answering, Carl chugged one of Jack\u2019s beers, hit the gas, and said \u201cI got to see Mary Lyn.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nEveryone in town remembered her funeral years before. It had practically been a gala event with the silvery-pink metal casket, the horse-drawn hearse, her blonde hair curling just the way she\u2019d always liked, and the vast overflow of flowers. <\/span><\/p>\nJack had never told Carl this, but he used to follow them to the drive-in and park behind them just to catch her eyes sparkling in the dark as her head rested on Carl\u2019s shoulder. Jack thought that maybe they should have left her eyes open at the funeral. He remembers staring down at her in the coffin and thinking the pink ribbon tied around her neck wasn\u2019t quite wide enough even though most folks said you couldn\u2019t see the rope burns at all. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl stole more roses from Mrs. Casto\u2019s garden and bloodied his hands because he\u2019d not been prepared with shears. At the cemetery, Carl asked Jack if he wants to come. But Jack doesn\u2019t want to see it, so Carl slammed the door, grabbed something from the trunk, slammed that too, and left Jack in the car. <\/span><\/p>\nJack remembers how Carl always listened to him in the past. He lowers the window and hears Carl wailing \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me.\u201d Jack wishes he was at home drinking cold beer and watching a Dark Mistress video. Maybe the one where she wears the tight, black leather full of holes and her blonde hair spilling around the leather mask she never took off. It took a moment for Jack to recognize the <\/span>chunk!-<\/span><\/i>ing sound in the distance was a shovel biting into the cemetery lawn. <\/span><\/p>\nJack was the one who found Mary Lyn hanging from the rope in her father\u2019s barn. They never found a suicide note, which is why Mr. McCarthy still says it was murder. But the sheriff found a broken record in her bedroom—we all know which song it was—and figured that was her suicide note after all. <\/span><\/p>\nJack tackles Carl, knocking the wind out of him and knocking his head on Mary Lyn\u2019s tombstone. When Carl wakes several minutes later, he says he heard her on the radio—that they both did. Jack explains that it was just The Dark Mistress and that someone was just playing a sick joke on them, but that\u2019s all. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl asks Mary Lyn why she left him. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl asks Jack to dig him a grave because he\u2019s been dead for years anyway. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl says he lost everything when Mary Lyn died: his future, his confidence, even his baseball scholarship, <\/span><\/p>\nCarl says the town was sad but secretly happy because now Mary Lyn would never change, never leave, never get old or fat or wrinkled. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl says that they all hate him because whenever anyone looks at Carl they see Mary Lyn. He says they are trying to drive him away. <\/span><\/p>\nCarl says that tonight someone is going to learn it takes more than a crazy bitch on the radio to get rid of him. <\/span><\/p>\nJack remembers the rest of that night in bits and pieces: <\/span><\/p>\nCarl driving and cursing on the highway\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nThe tall black radio transmitter buzzing like millions of fireflies\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nCarl getting a shotgun from the trunk\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nJack following Carl through the unlocked doors and into the empty hallways\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nCarl shooting a Mexican cleaning woman\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nCarl shooting a fat technician\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn\u2019s voice coming from the speakers\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nAnd Carl finding the cassette playing in a machine, pulling it out, and him laughing at the dead air.<\/span><\/p>\nJack was in the barn loft looking at a <\/span>Hustler<\/span><\/i> mag when it first happened: <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn came up the ladder… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn\u2019s blue eyes sparkled\u2026
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Mary Lyn told him she sees him sometimes when he watches her and Carl at the drive-in… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn hooked her thumb under the top button of her Levi cut-offs… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn picked up Jack\u2019s discarded <\/span>Hustler<\/span><\/i> and told him he\u2019s \u201ca bad boy\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn asked him, \u201cYou lonely? Is that why you like these magazines? That why you like to watch?\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\nJack told her \u201cNo. I just like to dream about how things might be\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn dropped the magazine\u2026<\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn unbuttoned her shirt… <\/span><\/p>\nJack undid her cut-offs and kissed her blond curls… <\/span><\/p>\nMary Lyn whispered \u201cShow me your dreams, Jack, and I\u2019ll show you mine\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\nAnd it would have been fine that way, except after a while Mary Lyn started talking about bringing Carl into it. Jack thinks how funny it ended because she laughed that day, thinking the rope was part of some new dream. <\/span><\/p>\nJack has a uncle in Sacramento who is getting old and wants him to take over his auto body shop. Jack has been talking to his girl, Sherry, and they decide it\u2019s not a bad idea. And even though Sherry is only 18 and Jack has been out of high school for 15 years, he\u2019s not worried about what the town will think or even about Sherry herself. Soon they\u2019ll be in Sacramento and she doesn\u2019t have even one single dream rattling around in her head. <\/span><\/p>\nOf course, he won\u2019t be able to tell her things like how he used to tell things to Mary Lyn. He wouldn\u2019t, for instance, be able to tell her how he put cinder blocks in Carl\u2019s coffin or how he likes to do weird things with Carl\u2019s head. <\/span><\/p>\nBut neither Sherry nor the auto body shop are Jack\u2019s real reason for leaving Fiddler. It\u2019s not even because KTCB finally replaced <\/span>The Dark Mistress<\/span><\/i> with tapes of Reverent Tim. No, the real reason is because of what happened most recently: <\/span><\/p>\nTwo nights ago, Jack was followed home by an iron-blue \u201857 Chevy… <\/span><\/p>\nThen, just tonight, Jack heard a woman\u2019s voice on KTCB… <\/span><\/p>\nIt was the voice of Mary Lyn\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\nIt was the voice of <\/span>The Dark Mistress<\/span><\/i>… <\/span><\/p>\nShe told Jack the name of a radio station in Sacramento.. <\/span><\/p>\nShe told him to avoid working on any \u201857 Chevys\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\nShe played \u201cSave the Last Dance for Me\u201d… <\/span><\/p>\nAnd the song was requested by someone named Carl. <\/span><\/p>\nMY GRADE: A+<\/b><\/p>\n
MY REVIEW:<\/b><\/p>\n
Boom. <\/span><\/p>\nRight out of the gate, Richard Chizmar has given Cemetery Dance<\/em> #2 some serious bragging rights. He\u2019s done it by finding and publishing a Norman Patridge story with a seriously complex storyline. <\/span><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re a regular reader of <\/span>Exhumed<\/span><\/i> you\u2019ll know by now that I respect complexity in any form. I find it adds another level to a story beyond sheer entertainment. And to be clear, Partridge\u2019s story <\/span>does<\/span><\/i> entertain. There\u2019s the mystery of Carl\u2019s death, the mystery of Mary Lyn\u2019s death, the mystery of The Dark Mistress, the mystery of the song, and the mystery of how our narrating protagonist, Jack, fits into all of it. <\/span><\/p>\nWe get it all: Jack fell in love (er\u2026 ok\u2026<\/span>lust<\/span><\/i>) with his friend\u2019s girl. Then he murdered that girl and drove his friend to madness over the years until he cracked and in turn murders some innocent people at a radio station. As a bonus, at the end we question whether or not Jack is in his right mind or not\u2026 aka: The Dark Mistress and her song have returned, but is it in supernatural form (ie: is Jack a victim of a siren-like demon of some kind) or merely in Jack\u2019s deluded mind (ie: is Jack an insane killer)?<\/span><\/p>\nAnd to be honest, if Partridge hadn\u2019t done This One Other Thing, I\u2019d probably spend the next few hundred words dissecting the various pieces of evidence that lean us one way or the other. (And they <\/span>are<\/span><\/i> there. Trust me.) <\/span><\/p>\nAnd before I go a step further, I must also insist that despite what comes next in this review, absolutely NONE of it detracts from the overall quality of the tale itself. The dialogue holds true. The descriptions are spot-on. The characters are real. All of that stuff—the very stuff I have sometimes spent an entire review looking at—is solid. <\/span><\/p>\nAnd yet, there is This One Other Thing.<\/span><\/p>\nAnd I simply <\/span>have<\/span><\/i> to\u2026 I simply MUST\u2026 I am literally <\/span>COMPELLED<\/i><\/b> to talk about This One Other Thing. And that thing is the story\u2019s timeline. <\/span><\/p>\nThe chronology of events versus the chronology of the scenes presented to us IS. JUST. NUTS. <\/span><\/p>\nAnd also awesome. <\/span><\/p>\nSo here we go. Strap your thinking cap on. This one is going to mess with your head a little\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\nEven on the surface we realize a third of the way through the story that we\u2019re reading multiple timelines, and not just 2 or possibly even 3 as we may be accustomed to, but FIVE. <\/span><\/p>\nChronologically, the 5 timelines are: <\/span><\/p>\n\n- The <\/span>CARL AND MARY DATING DAYS<\/span><\/strong> timeline <\/span> (10+ ago)<\/span><\/li>\n
- The <\/span>MARY LYN\u2019S DEATH<\/strong><\/span> timeline <\/span> (5+ years ago)<\/span><\/li>\n
- The <\/span>NIGHT OF THE KTCB MURDERS<\/strong><\/span> timeline <\/span> (1+ year ago)<\/span><\/li>\n
- The <\/span>CARL\u2019S DEATH<\/span><\/strong> timeline <\/span> (last week)<\/span><\/li>\n
- The <\/span>
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AUTHOR:<\/b>