, so do check that out if you haven\u2019t already. <\/span><\/p>\nMeanwhile, this month\u2019s two stories are separated by 23 years. Tem\u2019s \u201cMarkers\u201d appears in Cemetery Dance <\/em>#2 (1989) while \u201cScree\u201d is from Cemetery Dance <\/em>#66 (2012). It will be interesting to see if his style has changed in that time. <\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s get to it\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n*<\/p>\n
THE OLD: \u201cMarkers\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/CD2.jpg?resize=300%2C395\")
AUTHOR:<\/b> Steve Rasnic Tem<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>APPEARANCE:<\/b> Cemetery Dance #2: <\/span><\/i>June 1989<\/span>. (Story #8 of 11). <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>A BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY (with spoilers!):<\/b><\/p>\nWilly is too young to understand death, but when his mother dies he finds himself wandering her new cemetery looking for answers. <\/span><\/p>\nHe concentrates on the many gravestones—the markers—of all those dead people, and wonders if they were really buried at all. Perhaps, he thinks, the adults kept the bodies hidden away someplace. His grandmother told him his mother is with the angels in heaven. But are angels even real? And did his mother even get there? <\/span><\/p>\nCarved words stand out to him: <\/span><\/p>\nLoyal Wife\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nIn Eternal Repose\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nUniversally Lamented\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nIn the Cold Bed of Death Free From Trouble and Pain\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nThere Is Rest In Heaven\u2026 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\nBut none of them make any sense. Some of the headstones are old and have pictures carved into them which Willy finds creepy or strange. Some are significantly newer. One is even of a man Willy knew in life. Perhaps that man was watching Willy now. <\/span><\/p>\nAs darkness comes, Willy\u2019s search for understanding becomes more frantic. He begins to run, to stumble and fall, and he begins to see pale, soundless versions of the people he imagines are described by the markers. One little girl with an empty face grabs him with a handcuff grip and threatens to kiss him. Willy screams, his mouth so wide he feared he would swallow the little girl. <\/span><\/p>\nInstead, Willy\u2019s mother comes out of his scalp and grows out of his hair. She is crying aloud, asking him what\u2019s wrong and if he had another nightmare. <\/span><\/p>\nThe little girl is gone. Willy is past the gate and out of the cemetery. But his mother is unable to leave. His grandmother had told him many times in the past few days that they must never forget that she is dead. It is now that Willy realizes it was even worse for the dead to forget it themselves. <\/span><\/p>\nThe story closes with Willy pondering whether or not he should tell his father where he\u2019d been all night and that he\u2019d found a cemetery inside his head. <\/span><\/p>\nMY GRADE: B+<\/b><\/p>\n
MY REVIEW:<\/b><\/p>\n
This is a story of surreal experiences from the perspective of a child. As such, interpreting them is difficult or even impossible. <\/span><\/p>\nFor example, while little Willy certainly went running around the cemetery the day of his mother\u2019s funeral and gazed upon hundreds of the stone markers of the dead, did he really spend the whole night there? And did he really see all those ghosts? Both could easily be the overactive imagination of a traumatized child. <\/span><\/p>\nA more important question is perhaps: Does Willy even come to understand what death is and that his mother will not ever return to him? <\/span><\/p>\nTem\u2019s prose in this story is at times stilted and lacking enough concrete details necessary to give us answers to these questions, and as such we are left at the end of the story with more questions than when we started. Sometimes that\u2019s great in a story. Other times, it\u2019s annoying. In this piece it\u2019s honestly a little of both, though I lean more toward the former than the latter for the reasons I\u2019ll cover next. <\/span><\/p>\nTem has ultimately presented us with a combination of truths. The ghosts may not be real, but the fear and the understanding probably are. <\/span><\/p>\nAnd yet the story is also studded with useful abstractions that border on profound. The best, in my humble opinion, is this: <\/span><\/p>\nHis father told him that life wasn\u2019t fair. It didn\u2019t seem to Willy that death was very fair either.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nLines like these pull the story and Willy\u2019s experience together into a kind of intellectual study of growth. You see, whether or not the ghosts were real isn\u2019t even the point. The point is that some things are too complex for a child to understand. <\/span><\/p>\nFor Willy, his perception of death is that his mother is <\/span>literally<\/span><\/i> inside of him. We know that he\u2019s wrong, of course, but we also feel Tem\u2019s idea in the metaphorical sense. A child\u2019s mind may not be able to grasp the concept of death, but it likely <\/span>can<\/span><\/i> fully grasp the connection between a mother and a child, albeit in a manner different from our own. Over time, little Willy will understand death. In the meantime, he has learned to understand his mother\u2019s love, which is far more important. <\/span><\/p>\nOne final note of interest for this story: <\/span><\/p>\nThere is an interview with Mr. Tem that appears immediately preceding \u201cMarkers.\u201d Included in it are many of the standard bits of info one would like to learn of an established horror author: What attracted him to the horror genre? What is his writing schedule & habits? What it\u2019s like to be married to a horror writer? What is his take on the growing (at the time) \u201csplatterpunk\u201d movement? etc. <\/span><\/p>\nI enjoyed this interview as I usually do. However one detail stood out to me. In the biographical intro to Mr. Tem, we learn that he wrote this story \u201cespecially for CEMETERY DANCE readers!\u201d Being that this was CD\u2019s second issue and that Mr. Tem was prominently featured in the premier issue, I suspect it was a very nice surprise for Rich to get something this exclusive to add to his budding magazine. <\/span><\/p>\nBut don\u2019t overlook what Mr. Tem did here. He didn\u2019t just write a new story. He connected it. After all, what has little Willy done in looking for answers in that vast expanse of \u201cmarkers\u201d if not his own little \u201ccemetery dance\u201d? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI see what you did there, Mr. Tem. <\/span><\/p>\nBravo, sir. <\/span><\/p>\nTHE NEW: \u201cScree\u201d<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/cd66-275x350.jpg?resize=275%2C350\")
AUTHOR: <\/b>Steve Rasnic Tem<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>APPEARANCE:<\/b> Cemetery Dance #66: \u00a0<\/span><\/i>April 2012<\/span>. <\/span><\/i>(Story #2 of 6). <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>A BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY (with spoilers!):<\/b><\/p>\nFor years, Gibson has been lying to his children, telling them that everything would be okay. Today, he is in a hardware store looking for the right kind of glue. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>A white-haired employee in overalls asks what it is he needs the glue for, and Gibson begrudgingly admits he\u2019s trying to glue pieces of meat together. The old man recommends something that\u2019s good for leather, if it\u2019s dry. Gibson agrees the meat in question is quite dry. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>The old man asks if the strange project is for <\/span>heavy <\/span><\/i>pieces of meat. Gibson looks at the sliver of bandage visible under his jacket sleeve and says, \u201cNo. Not so much anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nOn his way to the register, Gibson grabs some duct tape as well, musing that of all the colors now available, beige would have been perfect. <\/span><\/p>\nHe silently judges the checkout girl. Her skin is young, like his had once been. But his had aged quickly. When he\u2019d been thirty, he\u2019d looked sixty. His wife, Helen, had several times been mistaken for his daughter. This was before they\u2019d parted ways. <\/span><\/p>\nOutside, the wind rips into him. He recalls his father leaning into the wind the way he is now, the coat he wore little more than \u201cplastic bits that chafed the skin and cotton bands that left him striped with rash.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhile observing the wearing-down-through-time of the Rocky Mountains in the distance, Gibson thinks he hears rain, only to discover it is his own tears, fear-driven sweat, and runny nose. Realizing too late that he is squeezing his fists, a soft crack sounds, and he discovers the tip of his forefinger has fallen off. Gibson scrambles in the parking lot rubble to find it. Only after getting home, newly-purchased glue in hand, does he see it is just a piece of gravel that he has salvaged. <\/span><\/p>\nHe considers cancelling his lunch date with his daughter, Kelly, but arrives at their prescribed restaurant early, hoping to remember what attracted them to it in the first place. He wiles the time carefully positioning his fragile body, conscious that that morning he\u2019d spend a long time gluing and taping everything together, including \u201ccrossing a few extra times over the heart.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nKelly arrives. She is brusque, sits quickly, and comments that he is cold and they should turn the heat up. Gibson explains this would only make things worse and all will be fine as long as she can stand him eating with gloves on. <\/span><\/p>\nGibson\u2019s hand trembles. Kelly asks what the doctor has said and asks if it\u2019s Parkinson\u2019s. Gibson suspects she knows there is no doctor, but also realizes she could handle things if he truly had Parkinson\u2019s, so he lies, telling her it is the most likely answer, though the doctor still doesn\u2019t know. <\/span><\/p>\nGibson thinks more about his lies of the past and decides to tell the truth about something. He tells Kelly that the breakup between him and her mother was all his fault. Kelly says these things are never just one person\u2019s fault, but Gibson insists in this case it is. He begins to elaborate—details about why he was gone so much and why he was always so quiet—until he is overwhelmed and needs to escape to the restroom. <\/span><\/p>\nIn the stall, he smashes his arm against the wall, shattering it. He cleans up as best he can, putting the broken bits of himself into the trash and stuffing his shirt sleeve with paper towels and toilet paper, then returns to Kelly, but the date is over and they soon part ways, though he \u201cmanaged to hug her goodbye without involving both of his arms,\u201d and \u201cunder her firm embrace—the same kind of fierce hug she\u2019d given him as a child—he could feel more of himself give way.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\nGibson sits on a park bench and observes his tucked-in sleeve has opened and the birds and squirrels are picking away at his fallen debris. <\/span><\/p>\nAs he watches the life of the city, he slowly feels his adhesives drying and cracking and turning to dust. Piece by piece, Gibson erodes to nothing. He watches as random people take his clothes and still more animals take his parts. Eventually, he stops watching entirely. <\/span><\/p>\nMY GRADE: A<\/b><\/p>\n
MY REVIEW:<\/b><\/p>\n
Like \u201cMarkers,\u201d this story is a collection of surreal experiences. Unlike \u201cMarkers,\u201d readers know full well that Gibson isn\u2019t literally falling apart. The true question may be whether or not Gibson himself thinks that he is. <\/span><\/p>\nGibson\u2019s life is crumbling. He is a divorcee who is now also losing his grown children because of years of poor choices. Now alone, he has finally come to understand he is slowly wearing down and will eventually become nothing. <\/span><\/p>\nBut he is holding on to what little life he has left. He thinks of himself as scree—a mass of small, loose stones that cover the slope of a mountain. Did he once think he was the mountain? Probably. Back when his marriage was new and his children were young\u2026 back when he was too ignorant to realize he was pushing them all away. <\/span><\/p>\nMeanwhile, \u201cScree\u201d is littered with a dozen or more references to things and people falling apart\u2026 <\/span><\/p>\n\n- In the opening sentences, Gibson hears \u201cA distant roar. A mountain sliding away. The world coming apart at its weakened stitches.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- Gibson himself, of course, needs glue, tape, and bandages to hold his body together yet manages to lose a fingertip, and in the end he erodes into nothing but gravel mixed with other gravel. <\/span><\/li>\n
- The marriage between Gibson and his wife has already failed. <\/span><\/li>\n
- The coat worn by Gibson\u2019s father—and perhaps his father, too—was worn down by time and work as a precursor to what is happening to Gibson himself. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
- In the parking lot sequence, Gibson looks at the distant mountains and thinks: \u201cSedimentary rock pushed up sixty million years ago by the Rocky Mountains\u2019 upward thrust… The debris created by the interaction of these mythic, larger-than-human elements lay everywhere. Great piles of this scree floated foam-like at the base of these formations. Similar loose rock of different varieties blanketed every slope of the Rockies, evidence of erosion, friction, and conscienceless time.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
But more important than any of these is Gibson\u2019s relationship with his daughter, Kelly. It is the only example we are given which is still salvagable, and yet it already seems to be on a dangerous downward trek. <\/span><\/p>\nKelly\u2019s entrance is abrupt and impersonal. She knows he is lying about seeing a doctor, and we seem to know she understands her father is losing his mind, but she doesn\u2019t care enough to help. She only wants to be polite and move on. Even their hug goodbye isn\u2019t quite right. It breaks Gibson down further rather than building him up. <\/span><\/p>\nOne might argue that Kelly\u2019s hug was a real one and that Gibson lacks the social and parenting skills to understand it. Either way, it seems to be the final act before he sits on the park bench and decides to let the world break him completely. <\/span><\/p>\nAt first blush, \u201cScree\u201d is about a man who is literally made of stone and who is slowly falling apart. But instead of leaving us hanging, Tem instead skillfully guides our thinking to understand that Gibson\u2019s body—like the Rocky Mountains in the distance—is a metaphor for a man\u2019s psyche as he slowly loses the battle faced in a jarring mid-life crisis. <\/span><\/p>\nA better man\u2026 a better husband and father\u2026 a true mountain man\u2026 would be able to withstand the transition to a lonely life. He may find new hobbies, perhaps even a new family. But some, like Gibson, only see the breaking down of the world and succumb all to easily to it. <\/span><\/p>\nFINAL THOUGHT<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\nThe more I read and re-read the stories within <\/span>Cemetery Dance<\/span><\/i>, the more I\u2019ve come to realize that many of the best do not clearly define truth from reality. But <\/span>all<\/span><\/i> of the best showcase real-life problems in figurative ways. <\/span><\/p>\nAt least, that is one man\u2019s opinion. <\/span><\/p>\nWhat is yours?<\/span><\/p>\nNEXT MONTH<\/b><\/span><\/h5>\nNext month I\u2019ll be reading\/ reviewing each of the following tales:<\/span><\/p>\n
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