Bentley Little: The Collection

I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry, but I could not. I tried looking at his face, his face that I had loved, and thinking of our last conversation together. I tried thinking of the times we'd gone fishing. I tried remembering the presents he'd bought me as a youth. But it was no good. I could not make the tears come no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I wanted them to flow.

I just sat there staring at his lifeless body.

Jan burst through the door, her face red and sweating, out of breath. She looked at my grandpa's body on the floor and her face went from red to white. A look of fear, of horror, crossed her features. "My G-God ..." she stammered, her hands starting to twitch. "Oh my God ..."

I felt calm for some reason, perfectly in control, and I stood up and helped her into a chair. I got her a glass of water, which she drank with shaking hands. "Sit here," I said. "Don't move. I'll be right back."

I started to walk into the living room, then stopped as the scrap of paper caught my eye. I bent down next to my grandpa and picked it up. I thought for a minute, then crum­pled up the paper without even glancing at the poem he'd written.

I went to call an ambulance.

Credits

"The Sanctuary" (originally published in Cemetery Dance,

June 1989) "The Woods Be Dark" (originally published in Touch Wood:

Narrow Houses, Vol II, 1994) "The Phonebook Man" (originally published in Eldritch

Tales #27, 1992)

"Estoppel" (originally published in 2 AM, Spring 1988) "The Washingtonians" (originally published in Cemetery

Dance, Fall 1992) "Life With Father" (originally published in Going Postal,

1998)

"Bob" (unpublished)

"Bumblebee" (originally published in Cold Blood, 1991) "Lethe Dreams" (originally published in Night Cry, Spring

1987) "Paperwork" (originally published in The Horror Show,

Winter 1988) "The Idol" (originally published in Twisted, Summer/Fall

1991) "Skin" (originally published in The Horror Show, Winter

1988)

"The Man in the Passenger Seat" (originally published in

Borderlands 3, 1992) "Comes the Bad Time" (originally published in The Horror

Show, Winter 1987) "Against the Pale Sand" (originally published in Grue #10,

1989) "The Pond" (originally published in Blue Motel: Narrow

Houses, Vol. 3, 1994) "Roommates" (originally published in The Silver Web #9,

1993)

"Llama" (originally published in Hottest Blood, 1993) "Full Moon on Death Row" (unpublished) "The Show" (originally published in The Horror Show, Fall

1987) "The Mailman" (originally published in The Horror Show,

Summer 1988) "Monteith" (originally published in Expressions of Dread,

1993) "Pillow Talk" (originally published in Eldritch Tales #25,

1991)

"Maya's Mother" (unpublished) "Colony" (unpublished) "Confessions of a Corporate Man" (originally published in

The Fractal, Spring/Summer 1996) "Blood" (originally published in Cemetery Dance, Spring

1990)

"And I Am Here, Fighting with Ghosts" (originally pub­lished in Eldritch Tales #18, 1988) "The Baby" (originally published in Spwao Showcase 7:

Selected Works, 1989) "Coming Home Again" (originally published in New Blood

#3, 1987)

"The Potato" (originally published in Borderlands II, 1991) "The Murmurous Haunt of Flies" (originally published in

Murmurous Haunts: The Selected Works of Bentley

Little, 1997)