A DEATH in the FAMILY

by Leigh Lundin

NASA STS-51-L

When at home, I make a practice of watching the space shuttle take off. From a distance, the shuttle looks like a pencil with a flaming eraser. Night launches can be spectacular and never look the same twice. When booster separation takes place, the fuel tank falls away and the flames turn from yellow to a white dot, a star in daylight, one that zeniths as it speeds eastward over the curvature of the planet.

Normally, I stop what I’m doing to watch the launch, but 22 years ago on 28 January, 1986, I happened to be on the phone with a business call. The moment I hung up, the phone rang. It was my girlfriend calling from a Main Street rooftop at Disney.

“Are you watching?” she said. “The Challenger, something’s happened to it.”

The one launch I hadn’t watched had gone horribly wrong. There in the sky hung the rocket trail, a ball of vapor, and off from that two extensions, the boosters continuing their heavenward flight. It seemed too eerie, as if not watching had superstitiously caused a disaster.

Like everyone else, I was stunned, but my grief wasn’t entirely for the astronauts. Their families, yes, but not so much the astronauts themselves. While demands were being made to either shut down the space program or place NASA firmly in the hands of the military, I found myself considering the positive:

The astronauts died living their dream. They died doing exactly what they wanted to do.

1001 Nights

Three thousand years ago, Scheherazade entertained her husband, the Persian king Shahryar, with tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, and a multitude of other tales now known around the world. These accounts weren’t the product of one creator, but many authors, perhaps hundreds.

We’ve had among us a modern-day Scheherazade, Ed Hoch. A month ago I wrote about Ed in the article, The Hoch Shop, noting that among mystery collections and anthologies, his name (and pseudonyms) are everywhere. For 35 years, his stories have appeared every month in Ellery Queen, every month. EQ’s assistant editors, Emily Giglierano, mentioned Ed worked well ahead, so Ellery Queen has an inventory of stories for the next few months. It may take a while to determine if his total is 1001, or 1000, or 998 stories, but it’s not merely an astonishing feat, it’s one that has entertained most of us since we’re old enough to remember.

These are the thoughts crossing my mind as I think about Ed Hoch. Like others, I strive to arrange the jumble of images surrounding the death of someone I’ve known through his stories and once, just once only, sat beside him at the MWA dinner, chatting with Ed and his wife of 50 years, Patricia, guests of Janet Hutchings and Ellery Queen’s Readers Choice Awards.

Those closest to him will miss his voice, his touch, his opinions. Most of us will miss his stories. Me, I picture his meteoric career, a star in daylight, now at its zenith encircling the world.

Links

• Ed Hoch’s Why the Short Story was our 18^th article in Criminal Brief.
• Ed Hoch’s interview can be found on Mystery*file.
• Our friend Bill Crider has a ‘ducky’ photo of Ed.
• Jiro Kimura has a photo too, a bit more sedate.
• Sarah Weinman’s blog has become the place where people collect to reminisce about Ed. A number of writers and even Ed’s goddaughter have stopped by and commented.