Graveminder
When Rebekkah returns to her small-town home for her beloved Grandmother’s funeral, she little suspects that she is about to inherit a darkly dangerous family duty on behalf of Claysville’s most demanding residents – the dead.Everyone in Claysville knows that the Barrows are no ordinary family, but no one can really explain why. When respected matriarch Maylene Barrow dies suddenly her granddaughter Rebekkah returns to the small town she grew up in, where she must face the demons of her past – the suicide of her half-sister Ella, the person she was closest to in the world, and the subsequent break-up of her parents marriage. And she also re-encounters Byron, Ella’s old boyfriend, someone to whom she has always felt a deep and mysterious connection.But the demons of the past are nothing compared with what the future has in store for Rebekkah. Her grandmother has left her an inheritance both wonderful and terrible. An onerous responsibility now rests on her shoulders – one for which she is ill-prepared to say the least.For behind Claysville’s community-spirited, small-town facade lies a dark secret. One that ties Rebekkah and Byron together in an inextricable bond, and that will require them both to sacrifice everything to keep their friends and neighbours from harm.
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Graveminder
Melissa Marr
To Dr. Charles J. Marr, teacher and poet, uncle and inspiration, thank you for years of conversation, letters, and encouragement for my lit-love. I love you, Uncle C.
Contents
Prologue
MAYLENE PUT ONE HAND ATOP THE STONE FOR SUPPORT; PULLING…
1
BYRON MONTGOMERY HADN’T BEEN INSIDE THE BARROW HOUSE IN YEARS.
2
REBEKKAH HAD SPENT THE BETTER PART OF THE DAY OUT WALKING…
3
WILLIAM SLID HIS PHONE ACROSS THE DESK, FARTHER OUT OF…
4
WILLIAM STOOD IN THE QUIET OF THE PREPARATION ROOM. MAYLENE…
5
WHEN BYRON PULLED INTO MAYLENE’S DRIVE AND SHUT OFF THE…
6
CHRISTOPHER HAD DRIVEN FROM MAYLENE’S HOUSE DIRECTLY TO RABBI Wolffe’s.
7
AFTER TAKING CARE OF ERRANDS AND GOING FOR A LONG…
8
REBEKKAH STOOD AT THE BAGGAGE CAROUSEL. THE AIRPORT WAS MOSTLY…
9
NICOLAS WHITTAKER WASN’T THE SORT OF MAN TO PATROL THE…
10
BYRON THOUGHT ABOUT THE THINGS HE OUGHT TO TELL REBEKKAH,…
11
ONLY A FEW HOURS LATER, REBEKKAH WOKE AFTER A FITFUL…
12
REBEKKAH WENT THROUGH THE MOTIONS, ACCEPTING CONDOLENCES AND listening to…
13
DAISHA STAYED OUT OF SIGHT DURING THE FUNERAL. SHE’D STOLEN…
14
AS THEY WALKED TOWARD THE CAR, LIZ HELD ON TO…
15
BYRON HAD BEEN SO FOCUSED ON WATCHING REBEKKAH THAT HE’D…
16
DAISHA STEPPED INTO THE BUILDING, CROSSING THE THRESHOLD WITH the…
17
REBEKKAH WAS GRATEFUL FOR BYRON’S SILENCE AS THEY RODE THE…
18
SILENTLY, BYRON FOLLOWED HIS FATHER. WILLIAM HADN’T BEEN WILLING to…
19
DAISHA WAS STANDING OUTSIDE THE FUNERAL HOME WHEN SHE FELT…
20
REBEKKAH SAT AT MAYLENE’S WRITING DESK. SEVERAL PAPERS WERE stacked…
21
BYRON SAT AT THE TABLE WITH CHARLIE AND HIS FATHER.
22
DAISHA LIFTED HER HAND TO KNOCK ON THE TRAILER DOOR.
23
AS THEY WALKED BACK TOWARD THE TUNNEL, BYRON TRIED TO…
24
IN A FEW HOURS, AMITY HAD TAUGHT REBEKKAH ABOUT MIXING…
25
FLIP THE SIGN, WOULD YOU?” PENELOPE CALLED OUT FROM THE…
26
LATE THAT NIGHT, HE SAT AT HIS PARENTS’ KITCHEN TABLE …
27
REBEKKAH HAD TRIED TO SLEEP BUT COULDN’T. AFTER A FEW…
28
REBEKKAH STOPPED. HER KNEES FELT WEAK. “YOU’RE NOT CRAZY, ARE…
29
BYRON?” REBEKKAH TRIED TO FOLLOW HIM, BUT WAS STOPPED BY…
30
BYRON FELT THE WALL VANISH AS HE FELL FORWARD ONTO…
31
DAISHA SAW THE MAN COMING TOWARD HER. HE STUMBLED AS…
32
PARTWAY INTO THE MULTICOURSE MEAL, REBEKKAH’S FRUSTRATION HAD reached uncontainable…
33
REBEKKAH?”
34
CHARLES WORRIED ABOUT ALL OF THEM, HIS NOT-ENTIRELY-DEAD-OR-ALIVE Graveminders. Such…
35
BYRON WAS GRATEFUL THAT REBEKKAH HAD BEEN SILENT AS THEY’D…
36
REBEKKAH WAS SPEECHLESS AS THEY WALKED UPSTAIRS AND INTO THE…
37
BYRON LISTENED TO THE WATER TURN ON UPSTAIRS AND DEBATED…
38
REBEKKAH SLIPPED OUT OF THE BED WHEN SHE AWOKE. IT…
39
BYRON AND REBEKKAH DROVE TOWARD THE SUNNY GLADES TRAILER Park.
40
REBEKKAH WATCHED THE SHERIFF LEAVE WITH A MIXTURE OF SYMPATHY…
41
ALICIA DIDN’T TAKE ANY OF THE BOYS WITH HER. BOYD…
42
A SHORT WHILE LATER, AS BYRON DROVE TO MONTGOMERY AND…
43
DAISHA RETURNED TO HER FORMER HOME. THE BODIES WERE GONE.
44
NICOLAS HAD BECOME MAYOR AFTER THE LAST GRAVEMINDER AND UNDERTAKER…
45
AFTER THEY LEFT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE, THEY DROVE IN SILENCE…
46
BYRON FOLLOWED REBEKKAH OUT OF THE ALLEY AND AROUND THE…
47
THE WALK TO THE FUNERAL HOME WAS AT A SLOWER…
48
BUT SHE HASN’T CALLED ME AT ALL THIS WEEK,” LIZ…
49
BYRON KILLED THE ENGINE OUTSIDE THE TRAILER, WALKED OVER, AND…
50
THE RIDE TO THE EDGE OF CLAYSVILLE WAS MOSTLY SILENT.
51
AT THE THRESHOLD, BYRON GLARED AT DAISHA. REBEKKAH STEPPED past…
52
DAISHA HEARD THE VEHICLE IN THE DISTANCE. WITH HIS LIVING…
53
BECKY.” CISSY STILL HAD HER HAND INSIDE HER HANDBAG, BUT…
54
IT ONLY TOOK A FEW MINUTES. AFTERWARD, DAISHA CALLED OUT,…
55
THE VOICES OF THE DEAD WHISPERED COMFORTING WORDS TO REBEKKAH…
56
FOR A BRIEF MOMENT, CHARLES THOUGHT THAT REBEKKAH HAD ACCEPTED…
57
REBEKKAH KNEW WITHOUT LOOKING BEHIND HER THAT BYRON HAD ENTERED…
Epilogue
REBEKKAH OPENED ANOTHER OF THE JOURNALS THAT SHE’D RECOVERED from…
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Melissa Marr
Copyright
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
MAYLENE PUT ONE HAND ATOP THE STONE FOR SUPPORT; PULLING HERSELF up from the soil got harder every year. Her knees had been problem enough, but of late the arthritis had started settling in her hips. She brushed the soil from her hands and from her skirt and pulled a small bottle from her pocket. Carefully avoiding the green shoots of the tulip bulbs she’d planted, Maylene tilted the bottle over the earth.
“Here you go, dear,” she whispered. “It’s not the shine we used to sip, but it’s what I have to share.”
She stroked the top of the stone. No grass clippings had collected there; no spider silk stretched from the top. She was careful of the smallest detail.
“Do you remember those days? Back porch, sunshine, and mason jars”—she paused at the remembered sweetness—“we were so foolish then … thinking there was a big ol’ world out there to conquer.”
Pete, for his part, wasn’t likely to reply: those who were properly buried and minded didn’t speak.
She made the rest of her rounds through Sweet Rest Cemetery, stopping to clean debris from stones, pour a bit of drink onto the ground, and say her words. Sweet Rest was the last of the cemeteries on the week’s schedule, but she didn’t shortchange the residents.
