She Tried to Poison Me novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: The Stone

The cemetery sat on a hill above the lake, under old maples going red at the tips.

The stonecutter had come at nine with a van and a thick folder of paper.

He was a quiet man with grey stone dust in the creases of his hands.

"Fern's order was very specific," he said, standing in front of the grave.

"She wanted nothing on it but a name and two dates."

"She said the family didn't want people asking questions."

Seth stood at the foot of the plot with his hands in his jacket and Bishop sitting against his leg.

I stood beside him with my arm through his.

The grey granite stone had been there for nine years.

A man's name, the year he was born, the year he died, and nothing else.

"What would you like it to say?" the stonecutter asked.

Seth was quiet for so long that I thought he hadn't heard.

"My father kept every stupid joke he ever heard in a little notebook," he said finally.

"He'd read them to us at dinner, and he'd laugh before he got to the end."

"My mother used to roll her eyes."

"I'd like it to say that he told good bad jokes."

The stonecutter wrote it down.

"And under that," Seth said, "I'd like it to say that he was heard."

I squeezed his arm.

"It's a little long for the face of the stone," the stonecutter said gently.

"Then put it small."

A car came slowly up the cemetery road.

Then another.

I turned my head and saw a line of them coming through the gate.

There were pickups and sedans and the lodge's old green van.

People got out.

The old man who had gripped Seth's hand on the lawn.

The woman who had cried into his sleeve.

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