Chapter 6

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Dear Monstera,

The little village of Elmore is 15 miles from my house. In the old days, its sawmills supplied wood for the plank road going through the Great Black Swamp. Today, it looks like something from the movie Something Wicked This Way Comes, like Green Town, Illinois, where Will & Jim greet the arrival of Mr. Dark’s Pandemonium Carnival.

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Elmore still believes in Halloween & celebrates it in the most spectacular fashion. The grass in the yards is still green & the fallen leaves are so plentiful they spill out into the road. The decorations show that Halloween lives in the hearts of the people.

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This is the best time of the year, a time for rumination. There is a gothic element to this part of the world. It never lets you understand it completely. It’s the time to cultivate the inner life, to go there, even to greet Mr. Dark & all the fears lurking in our private spaces.

From Madonna in the Graveyard, by Edvard Munch, 1899.