Chapter 23 - SIX YEARS LATER
On what would have been Sofia’s twelfth birthday, I bought a cake.
Small.
Chocolate.
No party.
Margaret came.
So did Lena Ortiz, surprisingly.
She had become a friend over years.
We ate.
I told one Sofia story.
She once put toothpaste inside Daniel’s shoe because he told her mint killed odors.
Margaret laughed until she cried.
For years, every memory had been contaminated by the last forty-eight hours.
Eventually childhood returned.
School drawings.
Lost tooth.
Daisies.
Hatred of peas.
Her terrible singing.
That was healing.
Not forgetting death.
Restoring proportions.
May you like
She had lived six years.
Not only died in thirty-seven hours.
