Appalachian Heritage

remarkable state of preservation. There was not a trace of offensive odor. When me mounds of soapsuds subsided, I knelt down and brushed die hair out of his eyes. The skin was a slight off-white color and slightly oily to the touch. Only the eyes seemed glaringly unnatural . They were wide open and the pupiliris was glazed over with the soap, no color showing at all. I was reminded of a marble statue. The eyebrows softened me statue effect somewhat as did die mouth and general facial expression. Oddly enough, his mouth was closed naturally, his lips neither drawn or puckered . None of his teeth were revealed. Objectively, I can not say diere was a smile on his face, but I certainly can say mat he now appeared serene and at peace. Perhaps die smile would have come through if there had been some color in his eyes. The body was dressed in regulation Navy skivvies and the lettering "Jessie Adlons CaM 1/c" was stenciled in regulation manner on both bottom and top pieces. Jessie had gained considerable weight over the years. AU his fatty tissues were now soap. In addition to the saponification process that had taken place, strong alkali had infiltrated and preserved all otiier tissues. In this case die process had been extremely diorough because of die moderately strong lye solution provided by wood ashes and water. In addition die head produced by die adjacent fireplace had hastened and facilitated die process. Apparently, Jessie had been planning this symbolic return to the Arizona for some time. Maybe he had planned it from the time he secluded himself on Joe's Branch. I was amazed at his skill in concealing the construction from me. He had to be driven by a desperate and all consuming desire. The overwhelming guilt of his tormented mind had forced this final bizarre course of action on him. He wanted to suffer as his dead shipmates had, a slow death from asphyxia . Perhaps, too, even in death, he desired to cleanse his soul of die awful black guilt that resisted all cleansing in life. The burning candles had robbed him of oxygen and as each had burned out, representing a dying shipmate, he, too, in the end was released from the inner agony that had been with him all diese years. I had Jessie buried in our family plot on the point at the mouth of Joe's Branch. His grave is on the back part of me cemetery under a grove of pawpaw trees. The Last Miracle The only miracle left in the universe is me moment me moon breaks free and levitates like a great copper ball inches above the Blue Ridge Mountains. The highway peels away and the car surges upward dirough space seconds before me mountains lurch back and the moon slams flat against the clouds like a round of construction paper pasted on die ceiling of night. -Beth George 40 ...