I can’t listen to music anymore. Oh, I hear it, but I’ve trained myself to think of it as background noise, nothing to pay attention to.

It has to be this way, because I have been made aware of the sequence of notes that, if heard, recognized, and acknowledged, will bring something terrible into the world.

Of all the things I have lost in this life, it is music that I miss the most.

Ethel, God love her, has noticed that I don’t seem as “chipper” as I used to be. I smile, shrug, and tell her not to worry, that I’m fine, still seeing the doctor, still taking my medications.

“You need to stay cheerful, Sam,” she says. “It’s a sad world, and you got to fight it or else it’ll eat you alive.”

She has no idea.

She tells me that I ought to be like the Seven Dwarves when I work, that I should whistle a happy tune.

A happy tune.

But I can’t remember any.

Gary A. Braunbeck is the author of the acclaimed Cedar Hill Cycle of novels and stories, which includes In Silent Graves, Keepers, Coffin County, and the forthcoming A Cracked and Broken Path. He has published over 20 books, evenly split between novels and short-story collections, and his work has earned 7 Bram Stoker Awards, an International Horror Guild Award, 3 Shocker Awards, a Black Quill Award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination. He doesn't get out much, which everyone agrees is probably for the best. Find out more about his work on-line at garybraunbeck.com.