Corrida Faux Pas, Key West Can't Bury Their Dead — William Williamson

For Corky, somewhere at the end of the Overseas Highway in Key West, he's hoping his older brother, Henry, a local Matecumbe author will introduce him to a man he's never met, their father Jake, so he can connect the truth with the past he never knew. For Cat, a young woman Corky met the day before in Key Largo, she's hitching along hoping to find a life different from her past.

Key West. The small island that calls itself the southernmost city has invented itself many times over during its history. So have the people who have lived there calling it home. Pirates, wreckers, spongers, fishermen, sailors, Cubans, artists, writers, smugglers, hippies, gays, tourists, all have all brought their influences molding the town in the various decades when their prominence was felt and seen, as much as the sultry climate and tropical flora has always defined Key West. Perhaps, even more so than the Conchs born and raised in Key West, it's the visitors coming for paradise that's drastically shaped and changed the lifestyle of the island over the years into a chowder of different tastes, smells and textures.

After failing to find Jake down at the shrimp docks where he lives on a fishing trawler when he's not out on the water, nor at any of the bars on Duval Street he hangs out at, they venture to the top of the La Concha Hotel for a bird's eye view of Key West and smoke some weed. Henry has an epiphany for the novel he's struggling to write. He decides to visit the city cemetery where Corky can learn about his deceased relatives. Walking amongst the tombs of the departed, Corky and Cat discover, Key West can't bury their dead or the ghosts of the past.