She gave him paper, colored pencils, and permission to draw whatever he wanted.

He drew a hospital bed, an enormous blue heart, and a boy holding a flashlight.

When Elena stepped aside, I noticed Kyle near the coffee station talking to a man I did not recognize.

The stranger had a leather briefcase and dark hair swept carefully to one side.

Kyle stopped speaking when he saw me watching.

He introduced the man as a representative of the family’s funeral insurance provider.

Yet Rachel had no funeral insurance policy beyond the modest prepaid plan I had purchased with my father years earlier.