In Laymon's Terms

Patricia Lee Macomber

NEVER MET Richard Laymon face-to-face. Time has a way of stealing important moments from you when you don’t pay attention. But I spoke to him on the phone several times. The first time he called was for HWA business. It was fairly late in the day and I’m sure he was at home and when I picked up the phone, he was laughing. It wasn’t just any laugh, but one of those deep, hearty laughs that are given only to people who are happy deep down inside, not the sort of people who are happy for an hour or a day, but genuinely happy. And he apologized for it. But his laughter had made me smile on a bad day and I remember thinking that something—someone—on the other end of that line was the cause of that laughter. No matter what Richard was talking about, he always had laughter in his voice. It’s rare to find someone who’s that profoundly happy. It’s even rarer to find someone who can bring that same kind of joy into your own life, just by talking to you on the phone. What a wonderful gift!