DANTE

The first thing she did was sleep.

Not the careful managed sleep of the past months, the sleep of someone maintaining function under pressure. This was different. She was asleep before the lamp was out, before I'd finished pulling the curtains against the afternoon light, between one breath and the next, gone completely in the way she went when her body finally had permission.

I sat on the edge of the bed for a while and watched her and thought about nothing in particular, which was ...