The Beautiful Bureaucrat: A Novel by Helen Phillips

Author:Helen Phillips [Phillips, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 978-1-62779-377-3
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Published: 2015-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

The cemetery was strangely hot, Indian summer loitering over the graves. Even the marble angel spewing water into the pond looked dehydrated.

And it was hurtfully beautiful: the soft undulating hills like those in the hinterland, the motionless trees, the orderly lawns. Four hundred and seventy-eight acres of grass and death, half a million bodies beneath her feet, her molecules presumably engaged in some sort of exchange with their molecules. The soles of her feet buzzed.

Names, endless names, names given an instant of attention before attention slid elsewhere; a familiar enough sensation for her, to be alone with thousands of names. The headstones glittered in the sun. Acanthus Path, Monarda Path, Spirea Path, Laburnum Path, Woodbine Path.

Lub burn em.

Would bind.

By the time she noticed her thirst, she was already dizzy. She forced herself to the top of a hill and sank down woozily in the shade of a family tomb.

She was going to vomit; she prepared herself; she was ashamed; the feeling subsided. She rested her head against the cool stone.

Fool throne.

She lifted her head back up. What was wrong with her, using a gravestone for a pillow? She wanted to apologize to the dead for her irreverence. She wanted to apologize to herself for apologizing to ghosts who could very well follow her home.

Standing up felt like an act of tremendous will. She walked around to the front of the tomb.

BOOMHAVEN

Boom, haven!

Her haven–tomb; another deathly coincidence, just like the ones she had been so keen to find in the Database.

She wished her last name were Boomhaven. A name for someone who could ferociously defend herself and her loved ones. Josephine Boomhaven, superhero, examined the list detailing the contents of the tomb.

MATTHEW JAMES BOOMHAVEN B. OCTOBER 3, 1872. D. AUGUST 17, 1918.

HARRIET ROSE BOOMHAVEN B. JANUARY 11, 1876. D. JUNE 27, 1942.

EDITH ROSE BOOMHAVEN B. MAY 18, 1899. D. MAY 18, 1899.

She reached out to touch MAY 18, 1899 and MAY 18, 1899. The engraved lines chilled her fingertips.

BDBDBD.

DBDBDB.

She refused to think about the child, its brief brush with life, the forty-three bereaved years that must have followed, the number of decades it had been since anyone had taken note of the fugitive existence of EDITH ROSE BOOMHAVEN.

Dearth rose boo have.

Instead, she unzipped her bag and looked inside for something to write on. The only paper she could find was a receipt from the Four-Star Diner. Carefully, she copied down the full names, the “B” dates, the “D” dates.

It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a plan.

Once she had finished writing it all out, she folded the receipt, placed it in her wallet, stood up, strode down the hill. Wintergreen Path, Yew Path, Hill Path, Mahonia Path, Prim Path.

Then, a double headstone: J NEWBURY, twice.

She resisted, but the magnetic letters won, pulling her off Vernal Path.

Upon closer inspection, it proved to be JANE LOUISE NEWBURY and JONATHAN PHILIP NEWBURY. They shared a burial date: NOVEMBER 4, 1870.

A couple together burning in bed, a couple together pocked with plague. The indifferent sun.

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