Contents
LUZ BONES
PART I: CAST ABOUT AS VAPOR
Martin Luther, Plagued in His Retirement by Sickness,
Appeals to His Wife
Lord Katie, Three Days Before Christmas
Kat Ashley, First Lady of the Bedchamber, Reveals
the Queen’s Condition in a Letter to Her Beloved
John Ashley, Master of the Queen’s Jewels,
in a Letter to His Still-Absent Wife
The Presbyterian Minister, Donald Cargill,
to His Dead Wife on the Eve of His Execution
The Rev. Donald Cargill’s Brother, James,
on Following a Merchant’s Path
The Anatomist, Dr. Antonio Maria Valsalva, Converses With His
Young Bride Over Supper
Elena, to Her Second Husband, Niccolo, on the Failings
of Her First Husband
Lucy Bakewell Announces Her Imminent Marriage to John
James Audubon in a Letter to Her Kinswoman, Miss Gifford
John James Audubon Describes His Childhood
to His Sons, Victor and Johnnie
Joseph Mason, Audubon’s Former Background Artist,
Speaks to Their Mutual Friends on Loyalty
Upon Taking Delivery of Audubon’s First Published Bird Prints,
Joseph Mason Sees, Then Shares With His Son, a Bitter Truth
Lucy Bakewell Audubon Takes Her Grandson
on a Late-Night Walk to Find Her Husband
John James Audubon’s Late Refrains
PART II: THE SIAMESE TWINS NARRATIVES
Nok Thai’s Lullaby
Nok Thai, in Mourning for Her Husband
Nok Thai, on the Thought of New Lives for Herself
and Her Children
Captain Abel Coffin on How He and His Partner, Robert Hunter,
Have Managed the Twins on Tour
I, Chang-Eng
Nancy Yates on Her Daughters’ Upcoming Double Nuptials
I, Chang-Eng
Aunt Grace Yates on the Brink of Change
Dr. James Calloway, to His Protégé, on His History
With the Bunker Brothers
Sally Bunker Looks Back on Her Marriage
Addie Bunker on Her Sister and Their Conjoined and Separate Lives
Robert Bunker Describes the Circumstances of His Father’s Death
PART III: AS PRESENT NOW AS EVER
Hans Christian Andersen Encloses His Miniature Likeness
in a Letter to Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind to Her Husband After He Discovers
Her Cache of Letters from Hans Christian Andersen
Riborg Voigt Bøving to Her Husband
on His Objections to Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen to a Confidant
In a Letter to His Cousin Banker Moritz Melchior Speaks of His Wife,
Dorothea, and Her Devotion to Hans Christian Andersen
Dorothea Melchior to Her Daughter on Andersen’s
Impact a Dozen Years After His Death
Mae West to Her Longtime Lover Two Hours Before
Her Attorney Arrives to Draft Her Will
Paul Novak to Attorney Melvin Belli Before the Reading
of Mae West’s Will
H. L. Describes His Recent Near-Death Experience
to the Newest Member of His Sex Addiction Therapy Group
H. L.’s Former Wife, Mary, on His Checkered History
Annie C., Former Security Guard at Walmart,
to Her Brother on Her Near-Death Experience
In Line at the Celestial Coffee & Dessert Buffet,
Annie’s Auntie Alice Chats Up Her Sister
The Last Known Words of Frederick Valentich
from a Disc Discovered in a Field of Alfalfa
A Farmer Reveals to His Best Mate
the Details of His Sighting
Guido Valentich, to a Persistent Junior Reporter
Alberta Valentich in Mourning for Her Son
After Decades of Avoiding the Press, Rhonda Rushton Breaks Her Silence
in a Televised Interview
Stephen Roby, Former Air Traffic Controller and the Last Person to Talk with Frederick
Valentich, Speaks on the Mystery of Valentich’s Disappearance
To My Parents in the Hereafter
