If Walls Could Talk
by Laurence Klavan

THE STORY: In IF WALLS COULD TALK, a husband and wife, Gilbert and Arlene, pay a reluctant visit to the bedside of the dying grandfather, a thoroughly pompous, tyrannical sort who has always managed to make his grandson feel inadequate while boring him with endless stories about his deprived youth in the old country and his subsequent great success in the new.

But as Gilbert ruminates about what “Grandgaggy” might really be like, a series of deceased family members and former friends miraculously materialize, one by one, and neatly demolish any myths which the dying man might have hoped to perpetuate.

In fact, he was, in turns out, a thoroughly unsavory character—and the others are hardly elated by the thought that the time has come for him to join them again—this time forever!