The Loveliest Dead by Ray Garton

rid of them, or even moving them. But after the silence that had fallen over her family finally lifted, she and David agreed they had to get rid of Josh’s things. To keep them would only worsen their pain. Every time they saw the tiny clothes Josh had worn and the toys he had played with, they would bleed inside. So they’d boxed everything up and taken it to the Salvation Army.  
    Josh had no toys left. There was nothing to play with in the house, nothing of his own. But somehow, he had discovered that teddy bear. Maybe through Josh’s eyes, the teddy bear looked brand-new. Perhaps through some interdimensional prism, he saw the bear as it had once been, and Jenna, in turn, saw a projection of that.  
    These are not my thoughts , Jenna thought as she stared, unseeing, at the label on the pickle jar. I can’t believe I’m thinking these things.
    At the same time, it all made a kind of gut-level sense that plucked at her soul. Even in the face of her own disbelief, she was asking herself questions that would have made her laugh coming from someone else. But she wanted answers, and she had none.  
    Jenna had been staring at the jar of dill pickles for a long time, oblivious of the supermarket employee who had spoken to her twice. When the woman touched her arm, Jenna was so startled, she cried out and dropped the pickle jar. It hit the floor with a flat crunch, and pickles, juice, and shards of glass went in all directions.  
    “Oh, shit,” the woman said, quickly stepping back. She put a hand over her chest and looked at Jenna. “I’m sorry. I mean ... oh, boy.” She smiled.  
    Her name tag read “Kimberly.” She was in her mid-thirties, plump and bosomy, with full, shiny black hair tied back in a ponytail. She wore the same uniform all the store’s female employees wore: white blouse, red vest, and black pants.  
    “Are you okay?” Kimberly asked. “You aren’t cut or anything, are you?”
    Jenna realized she was crying, and became terribly embarassed. She turned away from the woman and tried to make herself stop.
    Kimberly said, “C’mon, let’s get away from this mess.” She took Jenna’s elbow and steered her away from the spill. “You looked awfully interested in that pickle label, and you didn’t hear me the first couple times I spoke to you, so I... I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”  
    Jenna fought to stop her tears, but somehow that only made it worse.
    Kimberly leaned close and lowered her voice. “Are you on something, honey?”
    Jenna surprised herself by laughing. She shook her head as she got a tissue from her purse. “No, no . I’m sorry, my mind just wandered off and ...” She dabbed at her eyes, blew her nose, stuffed the tissue back in her purse. “I’ll pay for the pickles.”  
    “Don’t worry about the pickles. Sure you’re okay?”
    “No. I’m not. But I have to be. My husband and son and I, and my mother... we just moved here from Redding, so I don’t really have time to not be okay.”  
    “Oh? You’re gonna love it here. I’ve been to Redding in the summertime, and it’s like Indian summer in hell. It’s much nicer here, I think. You renting or buying?”  
    “We’re ... inheriting. From my father.”
    “Oh? That’s something you don’t hear every day. My husband’s in real estate. You inherited a whole house?”
    Jenna nodded vaguely—her mind was already drifting off again, back down to the basement, to that musical teddy bear.
    “Where is it?” Kimberly asked.
    “I’m sorry—what did you say?”
    “Where’s the house? If you don’t mind my asking.”
    “Off of Starfish Drive.”
    “Oh, it’s very pretty over there. How do you like it?”
    Tears welled up in Jenna’s eyes, and she reached for another tissue. “How do I like the house?”
    “Yeah. Are you all right?”
    Jenna laughed again as she dabbed at her tears. “Like I said, no.”
    “How long have you been here?”
    “We’ve been in the house a week,”