Short fiction: “Ladies and Gentlemen, David Koresh Has Finally Quit Smoking.”
River of Tears (as in the town) is situated on the northern shore of River of Tears Lake (as in the lake). The lake, naturally, is named after River of Tears, as in the river that feeds its namesake body of water from the north, and provides a drain to the south (as in the direction).
The town’s more affluent residents tend to live on waterfront estates ringing the lake. Moreover, these properties are highly valued due to the fact there has been no need for outdoor lighting for quite some time.
I looked out my hotel window to the north. The calm of the clear evening sky was occasionally broken by searchlights mounted on helicopters as the frantic search for Buried Girl continued. Somewhere in the darkness of the distant bushes, tactical units were tromping around on foot, just as the newspapers had described the scene 29 years ago.
I could see the outer rim of the faint glow of River of Tears Lake emanating from behind the Old Saloon Hotel from a few blocks to the south. If I looked as directly upwards as I could, I could see where the glow dissipated sharply before surrendering to the natural evening sky.
River of Tears Lake was ablaze before me with the shimmering glow of countless blinking fireflies just below the surface of the water.
