Page 100 of Finding Noah

“Yeah,” I agreed, nodding. “That’s true. Hey, do you happen to know where, uh … shit, hold on. I need to double-check the name of this place.”

I huffed an awkward laugh as I pulled my phone out again and pretended to use it, tapping around the screen a few times before saying, “The, uh … fuck, I don’t know how to pronounce this.”

Charlie chuckled quietly. “Let me guess. Llewellyn?”

I laughed with him. “How do you spell that?”

“L-L-E-W—”

“Yep. That’s the one,” I said, stuffing my phone away hastily. “I mean, I could put it in the GPS, but, you know, sometimes, that shit gets me even more lost. Google gets me driving in circles.”

“I know how that goes,” he grumbled with a shake of his head. Then he proceeded to give me directions to the funeral home on my radar.

“Thanks, man,” I said with a grateful smile. “You been there?”

“A few times.”

“Nice place?”

Don’t ask too many questions. Remember, it doesn’t matter to you. You’re making small talk, then leaving.

Charlie shrugged. “It’s all right. I don’t do much with the funeral homes themselves though. I mostly just dig the graves.”

“Ah, right,” I said, then patted myself down, making sure I had my keys. “Okay, I’ll—”

“I know the directors a little bit though,” he went on, now also standing. “I think, um … I think they’re brothers? Or cousins maybe? Nice enough, I guess, but—”

He glanced at me. Then, with a forced cough and a deep swallow, he rubbed his palms against his jacket. “Anyway,” he muttered, “you can follow me to the gate. In case you get lost.”

I smiled, wondering what he was going to say before catching himself. “Yeah,” I said. “Wouldn’t wanna spend the day driving in circles here.”

***

Nice enough, but …

But what?

I’d been thinking about what Charlie had said the entire ride from his cemetery to the next on the other side of town. What had he meant by it, and why couldn’t I shake the feeling that it was somehow important?

I’ll get him talking again, I thought as I parallel parked outside the cemetery.

Charlie was a closed book, and getting him in a chatty mood wasn’t an easy feat, but I’d figure something out. It felt significant that I did.

But first, I had to pay my respects to the lost life I felt somehow responsible for.

I got out of the car and stood beneath a gloomy sky, streaked with clouds outlined in foreboding black. It didn’t look good, but I had to work with it.

Now or never, I told myself.

Although my stomach quickly tied itself into a thousand impossible knots, I approached the twin stone pillars standing on either side of the cemetery entrance, left wide open without any visible way of closing it off to the public after hours. The pillars were old, crumbling in parts, and from that glance alone, I knew this place wasn't as maintained or cared for as Charlie's cemetery.

I wandered through the entrance, looking from side to side for any sign of life—no pun intended. Any indication of a groundskeeper or security guard, someone to point me in the right direction. But the small parking lot was empty, and so was the tiny booth where a security guard might've sat if there was one.

In other words, the place was dead.

And this time, the pun was very much intended.

“Hmm,” I grunted, unsure of why I found this observation as unnerving as the sky above, but I did.