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At Raymond Carver's Grave / Words stay alive, in a little black box

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KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES

There is only one way to get to the grave of short-story writer and poet Raymond Carver, and that's through your own curiosity. You'll never get there if you believe the two signs along the way. One says you're going to a Port Angeles landfill and the other says "dead end." But go around a slight bend in the road and there it is: Ocean View Cemetery.

The grave is impossible to miss. It looks more like an architectural model; a burial complex in black stone, complete with a wind chime, a photograph of Carver and his wife — the poet Tess Gallagher — potted plants and a bench where one can sit facing the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

And then there's the black box.

Try to open it and you'll at first feel like a snoop. There's a latch for a padlock, but that's long gone. The weathered hinge doesn't permit a simple lifting of the cover, and as you start prying, frustration turns to fear. Is this an urn? A slot for letters signals that's unlikely.

Inside is a small notebook in a Ziploc bag with a pen. And this is where you can leave a message for Ray, or if you're brave, Tess.

That is what I did. I'm not alone. Others came before me. Many others, some from as far away as Japan. Birthday wishes on May 25, envious would-be writers, fans, fanatics, the just-curious. Pages and pages.

This is where Tess' final resting place will be, as well. Her whole name, Tess Gallagher Carver, and birthday are etched into the stone next to Ray's; space is reserved for a date of death and her final words. Stones and pine branches are placed neatly in between, and pretty flowering plants are changed regularly.

The elaborate grave, set among the traditional, is like reading one of Carver's short stories — a seemingly ordinary trip to the cemetery instead takes you someplace you didn't expect to go.