Make Something Up (33 page)

People still talk about that moment. Telling the story, the manager always hesitates here. So people can hear the faraway music. The same music now as all those holidays ago. A dead Bing Crosby wails about peace on earth and goodwill to men. Behind him, a choir sings like angels. The manager throws a look at the wall above the microwave, and all eyes follow. There, like a religious icon, the eyes too small and misaligned, the teeth like a mouthful of yellow maggots, it still hangs. All that's left of Miley Burke: that mosaic portrait.

After all these years, the associates still love this tale. The whole shaggy-dog saga. About the fudge and Miley Burke, Devon and the canned ham. It's important to remember every detail and to get them perfect, right up to the last moment.

Because that's the moment Deborah undid her diamond bracelet and handed it to Clara.

Chuck Palahniuk's fourteen bestselling novels—
Beautiful You,
Doomed, Damned, Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor,
and
Fight Club
—have sold more than five million copies in the United States. He is also the author of
Fugitives and Refugees,
published as part of the Crown Journey Series, and the nonfiction collection
Stranger Than Fiction.
He lives in the Pacific Northwest.