The Songs of Your Decay (A Short Story)

This story was originally published in Day One, a weekly literary journal dedicated to short fiction and poetry from emerging writers.Theirs was a very strange friendship. Laird had approached Aubrey two years earlier, looking for information about his mother’s mysterious death. After that, the nerdy loner had visited the forensic biologist nearly every day. They’d bonded over music; he was the only one who knew that she sang pop hits to her cadavers.Before Laird died, he’d made sure that his cancer-ridden body would be donated to her lab. Now, as she studies him, she also writes him letters, explaining in stark detail the manner of his decay. In doing so, she realizes how much her friend had filled a void in her life—and allowed her to ignore the symptoms of her dying marriage.Unexpectedly heartwarming, The Songs of Your Decay takes an unflinching look at the reality of death and the processes by which people—and relationships—deteriorate.