Conga Line of the Dead

Authors Note or The Reason behind this story

And there you have it.

The accumulated work of many years of my life is sitting right in your hands. I hope you liked it, because I loved writing it. This has truly been a labor of love and I am sad to see it end.

First and foremost, i do not own any of the pop culture refrences, people and or song titles contained in this body of work. They Belong to their respective copyright holders. No copyright infringement intended. I just wanted to thank all these things by composing a love letter to the things that made me who i am today.

Second, I'd like to thank Tarah for sparking my long lost love of writing again and constantly hounding me to put my stories on this site. She ran across some lost stories of mine from a billion years ago just laying around and gained interest in my work, so if it wasn't for her you wouldn't be reading this right now. So thank you Tarah.

The idea for this story came from a series of unconnected dreams I had, which anyone who knows me will tell you I have a terrible memory, so the fact that I remembered one dream (much less multiple ones) is a miracle in itself.

The dream is literally the Prologue word for word. Why this image was burned into my mind so vividly was the question, the answer was that I needed to write it down, so I did. Then more dreams followed, those would become various other parts of this story and before I knew it I had the whole story ready to be written. And that's what I did.

Strangely, the Epilogue was the hardest part for me to get down, because I had many different ways for the story to end:

One had a flash to a few years later, when Peter and Ashley had a child of their own named Theodore. Peter notices the boy playing in a sand box talking to his imaginary friend and him offer that friend some Pez from a familiar dispenser. Thus; Theodore would continue on the Worthers 'gift' with Troy as his guide, so in theory giving you an ending but leaving enough room for the characters to come back. I guess that could still be the ending if you want it to be, its ok with me.

Another had Peter writing a book about his experiences and it being called 'Conga Line of the Dead', a fan wanting his autograph and asking how he thought up the story and title, Peter would reply "I had a little help from a friend". I think of this one as the goofy '80s tv sitcom' ending. I can hear the canned tv studio laughter as we speak.

Yet another ended with Artie watching as bulldozers tore down the last of the Truman Mansion. He would watch and vanish to his hereafter, seeing his unfinished business completed.

But I suppose that the ending I actually used is best; it brings things full circle and does justice to the characters. They deserve that after what I put them through.

Those who are close to me will notice lots of inside jokes thrown into this mix for good measure, I enjoy the fact that I related to Peter so closely that he at some points almost became a literary version of me, so it only seemed natural that I would include things from my life to make the story even more real. From Pez to St Louis to certain jokes, even Peter's name (Peter Worthers was a nickname I was given when I worked at Wal-Mart, oh so long ago that I have come to cherish and still use to this day) all have ties to me. So in theory this is a work of non-fiction fiction, you know what I mean?

Toke was fun to think up and I find his obsession with Barry Manilow the funniest part. Originally he was going to be obsessed with the Phantom of the Opera but I was listening to Copacabana on the radio one day and thought the idea of him being a Manilow fan (or 'FANilow' if you will) hilarious so it stuck. The Pez obsession, that is me too. I love the stuff, always have and I'm pretty sure I always will.

As another personal nod, those that I have encountered through my many misadventures in life will instantly recognize some of their names used as characters names throughout this story in one form or fashion. I hope you guys are happy with your book versions; I'd like to think that each one mimics its human counterpart nicely. Each name is someone important to me from Friends to family members to those I served with in my years in the Air Force, i wanted to include as many as I could so that you could live forever in the words of this story. It's my present to them for helping to inspire me.

The strange words you encounter that don't seem to make any sense, they don't, those are names spelt backwards. I love doing that, it's just funny to me so sorry. Even the numbers contained in here have a meaning (107 = My birth month and day)etc...A more suttle Easter egg; Chapter 11 was published on my 16th wedding anniversary. So yeah, there's a lot more of me in this story than you'd find in any other story you're likely to read.

Lastly, thanks to YOU for reading this.
All I ever really wanted to do was to tell a story entertain people and I finally got to do that. You came along for the ride and hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I have.

And for that I thank you more than you could ever know.

Duane Olds

Sept 12, 2017