“Where do you think people go, when they die?” I asked her. “I mean, what do you think it's
like
?”
Pearl took a long drag at her cigarette, with one eye closed against the smoke. “It's just like being in the movies, that's what they tell me, except that you're in the movie instead of the audience. Don't you worry, you'll find out for yourself one day. We all do.”
She paused, and then she said, “You miss her, don't you?”
I nodded. I suddenly found myself very close to tears.
Pearl said, “Very strange thing, love. When you don't have it, it hurts. And when you do, it hurts like hell.”
I went back downstairs. Sitting outside my door, waiting patiently, was Malkin. She mewed when she saw me, and she followed me inside.
“You hungry?” I asked her, as she wound herself persuasively around my ankles. “Of course you're hungry. Stupid question.”
But it's so goddamned difficult to open a can of anchovies when you're crying.
Late the following afternoon, as it was beginning to grow dark outside, I sat down at my keyboard and I started to compose
Spirit Song
.
Spirit Song
is so familiar now, and so well-known, that I sometimes find it difficult to believe that there was a time when it didn't exist. But as I was scoring it, there was no doubt in my mind that it was one of the best melodies that I had ever written, or might ever write. It was all of my love for Kate, and everything that she had showed me about the real world and the world beyond, in music.
By 9:00
PM
that evening, I had almost finished it. I played it over, very slowly, while Malkin sat on one of the couches, watching me with slitted eyes.
“What do you think, puss?” I asked her.
“
I
think it's beautiful,” replied a very quiet voice, close behind me.
Before I could turn around, two cool hands covered my eyes.
“Guess who?” she said.
GRAHAM MASTERTON
is the author of more than 75 horror novels, historical sagas and thrillers. His first horror novel,
The Manitou
, was published in 1976 and filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith and Stella Stevens. Other notable horror novels have included
Charnel House
(awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America);
Tengu
(awarded a Silver Medal by the West Coast Review of Books);
Picture of Evil
(only non-French winner of the Prix Julia Verlanger);
The Chosen Child
(named Very Best Horror Novel of the Year by Science Fiction Chronicle); and
Trauma
, (nominated as Best Original Paperback by Mystery Writers of America.) Masterton's short stories have been collected into five volumes, including
Grease Monkey,
a limited edition of his iconoclastic stories of erotic horror. Three of them were featured in Tony Scott's TV series
The Hunger.
He was the editor of
Scare Care
, a horror anthology published for the benefit of abused children in the USA and Europe.
The Manitou
was the first Western horror novel to be published in Poland after the collapse of Communism, thanks to his Polish wife Wiescka, and he regularly tops the Polish bestseller lists. Wiescka died in April, 2011, and this book is dedicated to her memory.
Graham Masterton's official website is
www.grahammasterton.co.uk
, and it includes a full bibliography, message board and upto-date news.