Menasha Public Library (Elisha D. Smith)

Mortal remains, Mary Ann Fraser

eng

no index present

fiction

Mortal remains

1232187080

Mary Ann Fraser

Though her classmates call her Morticia and Ghoul Girl, Lily actually likes her work - the dead are good listeners, and they don't judge. Lily learns their stories, shares her worries with them as she makes up their faces, and embroiders pillows for their final rest. 'The way I figure it,' says Lily, 'a person's arrival into this world is about as unglamorous as it gets. The least I can do is dignify their departure.' Then, after a mysterious explosion burns down a neighbourhood house long the source of weird stories, Lily and her friends poke around in the debris and come across the hatch to an underground vault. Inside, they find an injured teenage boy who has been trapped there for days. He has little memory of his life before the explosion and speaks in an odd, stilted manner that suggests limited interaction with the outside world. Yet the boy, Adam, feels there is something familiar about Lily and Lily must admit that she feels a strange connection to him as well. Could Adam be the boy who, years ago, protected her from the bullying of a gang of neighbourhood kids? But when she finds out that boy died shortly after their encounter, she realizes Adam couldn't be him - could he? Where did Adam come from, anyway? And, most importantly, why was he kept prisoner by his own father? "Within days of the explosion, my night terrors returned with a vengeance. In them I was falling, always falling, until I heard the crack of bone and woke screaming, my hair plastered to my sweat-drenched cheeks. I knew I d only find peace when I d put the question of Adams fate to rest once and for all. It became my obsession. . . "Lily actually likes her work doing makeup for the dead at her family's funeral home. After a mysterious explosion levels a neighborhood house it dredges up memories of Adam, the boy who lived there and once saved her from bullies. Lily and her friends poke around in the debris and come across the hatch to an underground vault. Inside, they find an injured teenage boy who has been trapped there for days. He has little memory of his life before the explosion and speaks in an odd, stilted manner that suggests limited interaction with the outside world. He says his name is Adam, but he doesn't have any memory of Lily. As they delve into his past, Adam's unwillingness to be open leaves Lily troubled. -- adapted from jacket

adolescent