Editor's note: This story was originally published (with additional photography) in the Spring 2016 edition of This Land.
"My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth / A bird that will revenge upon you all." —William Shakespeare
1. In a Lonely Place
A cold rain is falling in Enid, Oklahoma. Inside Garfield Furniture, customers bustle, their shoes squeaking on the burnished wood floor. I seem to be the only one waiting to see a historical oddity the locals call “the Death Room.” (They smirk when they say it.) When there’s a lull in the trade, the proprietor greets me and guides me up a narrow staircase.