To Die By Your Side Is Such a Heavenly Way To Die

[Elmer Macmillan]

August 7th, 1887

My Tragic November,

I always imagined that death would take the form of a field covered in fog. It would be twilight eternally, because that is the most beautiful time of day and night. It is when the night comes to kiss the day. We would wander, but we wouldn't be lost. Since we would already be death, we would have found our destination, anyway. I've always believed that a person's life is truly a hunt for their death. We all walk towards our demise. That is the purpose of our existance.

Would you really want for there to be many stories and songs and poems about our deaths? I would hate to become terribly famous post-mortem. We could write letters and ask our dearest friends to publish them so that people would know that we have found freedom and happiness at last. That could help people in return. They would realize that the solution to their problem was to follow us, in death.

Perhaps we could pick an age when we could die. I would like to die young, but still old enough to have experienced enough of life's tragedies. I would also like to die young enough so that my spirit would hold the memory of my best appearance. Lord Byron died when he was thirty-six. I believe that is an excellent age to die.

Yours,

Elmer Macmillan