On the Day I Died (21 page)

David
—Oh, those campy 1950s science fiction movies with their flying saucers on strings and their rubber-suited monsters! They were corny, the acting in them was terrible, and I adored them as a kid. Only later did I learn that these films were deeply influenced by the 1950s preoccupation with science,
space and the Communist threat. I drew on all these elements when writing this story. I also added a heaping helping of 1950s fads and fashions—rattan furniture, suburban barbecuing, pink kitchen counters and those wonderfully hokey novelty items kids bought from the backs of their comic books. Onion gum, anyone?

Evelyn
—The setting for this story, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition, must have been an astonishing event. Yes, there really was a chocolate Venus de Milo on display. Visitors really could attend a silkworm lecture at the Horticulture Building. And more than once, the moving walkway was shut down because of windy weather. As for the Palace of Fine Arts, while the secret fourth-floor gallery and the Contarini Looking Glass are figments of my imagination, the building did boast a gilded cupola, as well as thousands of world-famous paintings and sculptures by artists like Mary Cassatt and Daniel Chester French. Interestingly, the Palace of Fine Arts is the only building that still remains from the fair. Nowadays, it houses the city’s Museum of Science and Industry. If you go, be sure to look up at that magnificent cupola. But beware. According to local lore, the place is haunted.

Lily
—When I was a kid, my sister and I used to love staying up late on Friday nights to watch black-and-white reruns of
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
, a 1960s television series about murder, mystery and the macabre. More than once we clutched each other and screamed in terror, but by far the scariest episode was the one about the monkey’s paw. At the time, I didn’t realize that Hitchcock was actually retelling a story that had been written in 1902 by W. W. Jacobs. I simply knew that the story was a
spine-tingling mixture of maniacal Gypsy, magical object and mangled corpse rising from the grave. Scary, good fun! When my thoughts turned to writing ghost stories, I recalled this TV show, as well as the original story it was based upon, and decided to create my own version. But one thing bothered me. In neither of the earlier versions were we told what happened to the monkey’s paw. In my story, I imagined it found its way into a garage sale.

Rich
—When I was in high school, the
Chicago Tribune
ran a series of articles about supposed devil worship within the Cook County Forest Preserve. According to the newspaper, makeshift stone altars had been found, as well as bizarre symbols scratched into trees and rocks. Were teens experimenting with black magic, asked the newspaper? And if so, could their inexperienced dabbling actually summon uncontrollable and frightening phenomena? Readers responded with a resounding “Yes!” and “Yes!” Accounts of supernatural happenings poured in. Readers told of dolls and other inanimate objects suddenly possessed by evil; of getting caught in brimstone showers; of seeing hellhounds and huge black flies and other creatures that weren’t found on earth. They even claimed that Mount Baldy, the largest and loveliest sand dune on the Indiana National Lakeshore, was actually a portal to Hell. Why the sudden “Satan Scare”? No one knows for sure, but just as quickly as it sprang up, it died down. No more stone altars or portals to Hell. As for Mount Baldy and the Cook County Forest Preserve, they were once again considered safe, serene parks.

Edgar
—I first read Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic tale “Berenice” when I was in sixth grade, the same year I encountered Charlotte
Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Both stories scared the socks off me. Both stories stuck with me through the years. And both stories have strong echoes in this one. So, too, does Chicago of 1870, a grim, coal-dust-covered world of robber barons and railroads, grain houses and meat packing plants. The description of Cyrus McCormick found in this story, as well as details about idyllic Prairie Avenue and the grimy city beyond, are based on English author Anthony Trollope’s impressions of Chicago during his visit in 1862. As for Edgar’s treatment at the hands of his own parents, sadly, it is based on truth. Back then, modern-day psychiatry did not exist. There was no help for people with mental illnesses. Those without families were simply locked up in insane asylums, while those with families—like Edgar—were often hidden away in attics and cellars, left to exist in a dark, lonely world.

Tracy
—While the character of Aunt Viola is fictional, the story of her fiancé’s murder is based on the true account of Irish gangster Dion O’Banion, bootlegger and florist to the Mob, who was shot with his arms full of roses after he’d double-crossed Al Capone. Dubbed the Murder Among the Flowers by local newspapers, it was one of the most sensational gangland hits of its day. Details of O’Banion’s elaborate funeral, as reported by the
Chicago Tribune
, were so gaudily delightful I simply had to use them for Pete Winter’s imaginary one. As for Capone himself, all the descriptions of his Lexington Hotel headquarters—right down to his lavender-tiled bathtub, his secret tunnels and those basement vaults where he supposedly stashed his gold—come from reports of the day. It should be noted, however, that an angry girlfriend did not cause the scars on Capone’s face. These
were the result of his being attacked in a Brooklyn tavern after having insulted a customer’s sister. Scarface died in 1947 and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Every year, hundreds of visitors stream past his grave, leaving notes, cigars and, curiously, roses.

C
ANDACE
F
LEMING
believes that the spookiest stories begin with the truth. The setting of this book, White Cemetery, is a real graveyard near her home in Oak Park, Illinois, not far from Chicago.

Fleming is the prolific and highly acclaimed author of numerous books for kids, including the nonfiction titles
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary
, an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book and winner of the
Boston Globe–Horn Book
Award for Nonfiction;
The Great and Only Barnum: The Tremendous, Stupendous Life of Showman P. T. Barnum
, also an ALA-ALSC Notable Children’s Book, as well as an ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults; and
Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart
, which
Kirkus Reviews
called a “stunning look at an equally stunning lady.” In addition, Fleming is the author of the Aesop Elementary School books for middle-grade readers and the picture books
Clever Jack Takes the Cake
, a
School Library Journal
Best Book of the Year, and
Imogene’s Last Stand
, which was a Junior Library Guild selection. You can visit the author at
candacefleming.com
.