If I Shut My Eyes, I Believed,

Do You Miss Susie?" Because It Was Dark, Because Ruth Was Facing Away From Her,because Ruth Was Almost A Stranger, Lindsey Said What She Felt. "more Than Anyone Will Ever Know.

I Forgive You," I Said. I Said What I Had To. I Would Die By Pieces To Save Myself From Real Death.

These Were The Lovely Bones That Had Grown Around My Absence: The Connections-sometimes Tenuous, Sometimes Made At Great Cost, But Often Magnificent-that Happened After I Was Gone. And I Began To See Things In A Way That Let Me Hold The World Without Me In It. The Events That My Death Wrought Were Merely The Bones Of A Body That Would Become Whole At Some Unpredictable Time In The Future. The Price Of What I Came To See As This Miraculous Body Had Been My Life.

But Also I Wanted Him To Go Away And Leave Me Be. I Was Granted One Weak Grace. Back In The Room Where The Green Chair Was Still Warm From His Body, I Blew That Lonely, Flickering Candle Out

I'm Just A Friendly Bystander Who They Occasionally Ask Questions Of. That's My Level Of Involvement.